Let Shalit Go

Almost a thousand days have passed since the abduction of Corporal Gilad Shalit, an Israeli tank gunner, by three Palestinian militant groups. At the time Shalit was 19. He would have been at home in Mitzpe Hila this week had the negotiations between Israel and Hamas not faltered. His parents have been sitting in a tent across the street from the prime minister's residence in Jerusalem, where volunteers have succeeded in a well-organized effort to attract hordes of journalists. Activists wearing blue-and-white Gilad Shalit T-shirts stood outside the tent to encourage passersby to sign a petition urging the government "not to turn Gilad Shalit into another Ron Arad," the missing Israeli airman whose fate remains unknown more than two decades after his capture.

The story of Shalit has not only captured the Israeli public's attention but has also garnered worldwide media coverage. I first wrote about Shalit shortly after his capture. Israel had then launched an operation euphemistically dubbed "Summer Rains" in retaliation for his capture. Today, no one remembers the daily Israeli incursions into Gaza preceding his capture and the death and destruction they left behind. Everyone has forgotten the IDF's killing of a Palestinian family of seven who were enjoying a picnic on the Gaza beach just two weeks before Gilad's capture, and the saga that followed with Israel trying to convince the world that their deaths had resulted from a mine planted by Hamas. But this is history...just like the recent deaths of more than 1,300 Palestinians.

998 days after Gilad Schalit was captured by Hamas and two days after Prime Minister Ehud Olmert all but admitted that the government failed in its efforts to secure his release, the soldier's mother, Aviva, decided to write a letter to her son. She began:

I sit here in a tent on a street corner in Jerusalem. Almost a thousand days have passed without you by my side. For almost a thousand nights I have neither seen the light in your room, nor in my life.

For almost a thousand mornings I haven't seen your smile, the smile of a boy waking up to a new day. The smile of a boy who loves life. Someone who is a part of me.

Her letter is very moving. I want her to be re-united with her son just like I want to see the thousands of Palestinian mothers united with their children. 10,756 Palestinians are currently imprisoned by Israel. There are approximately 380 Palestinian children in Israeli custody, many of whom are awaiting trial or sentencing, and others who are serving lengthy periods of imprisonment for such minor offenses as stone throwing.

Shortly after Aviva Shalit finished writing her letter, reports surfaced in the Israeli media suggesting that Israeli forces killed Palestinian civilians under what may have been lax rules of engagement during the Gaza offensive. Quoting Israeli soldiers who fought in the offensive, the Haaretz newspaper reported on Thursday that soldiers had also ransacked and destroyed civilian property.

The soldiers' testimonies, made during a course at Oranim Academic College in Tivon, runs counter to the Israeli army's claims that troops observed a high level of moral behavior during the operation.

The testimonies include an infantry squad leader's description of an incident where an Israeli sharpshooter shot a Palestinian mother and her two children.

Meanwhile, I watched an interview on the Israeli Broadcast Authority (IBA) television with a representative of a group who stood few feet away from the Shalits' tent. While sympathizing with the parents of Gilad, the man said "freeing terrorists is too high a price to pay, even in exchange for a living soldier." This reminds me of what Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had to say a week after Gilad Shalit was abducted at a cabinet meeting, "I want to say something about the soldier's release: We shall not negotiate with Hamas on releasing prisoners, directly or indirectly."

Well: Israel has been negotiating with Hamas, almost a thousand days have passed, more than a thousand lives have been lost, and more than a hundred thousand lives have been ruined. Let the prisoners and Shalit go home.

Jamal Dajani produces the Mosaic Intelligence Report on Link TV.

Comments

[zaz33]

Anyone getting their news from the West has been lead to believe that history began the day that Shalit was captured/kidnaped. Actually there was an incursion into Gaza the day before and two Palistinian brothers were captured/kidnaped by Israeli forces. I haven't heard of their status but it's probable that they're still being held and likely without being charged for any crime.

From what I've been reading in Haaretz the Egyptian negotiator (probably no friend of Hamas) has been more critical of Israel. He has indicated that Israel keeps changing the terms.

Israel is now tightening the screws on Hamas and Hamas has threatening to respond by it's treatment of Shalit. Israel, having the upper hand still believe it can break the will of Hamas.
I hold the view that Hamas/Gazans have reached the point that they have nothing to lose.

Even though there are off/on reports every day on an exchange there sems to be little real progress. Even the Haaretz articles about Shalit seem to have fewer comments.

Hopefully an exchange will be made soon and Shalit and innocent Palistinians (stone throwing children) will be released.

I have different feelings about people that have killed innocent civilians on BOTH sides.

This is the latest from Haaretz. -
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1073083.html

[leonardox1]

I recommend watching the show the writer produces: Mosaic. It provides news reports from a variety of sources from the Middle East. I watch it online from a link the Huffington Post provides on the World page.

[cohen238765]

WBMD- Let's not be in denial, the incident on the beach in Gaza was detrmined by European independent experts that the family was killed due to Israeli shelling. I believe that Israel later on apologized for the "accident." Also, we are talking now about war crimes committed by IDF as admitted by their soldiers in the Haaretz article. Let's not complicate things with the blame game. I'd like to see Shalit freed.

[zaz33]

As I rember it, their happened to be a NGO or UN weapons expert in Gaza at the time of the shelling. He reported immediatly after the event that it was a shell.

i don't believe Israel has ever entered Gaza by sea. It seems unlikely that land mines would be planted on a public beach.

[WBMD]

Check out Wikipedia. There is no credible evidence that an Israeli shell caused any deaths on the beach that day in 2005.

[WBMD]

Mr. Dajani's piece again reveals his skewed view of history. He chooses to mention repeated Israeli incursions into Gaza, without reminding readers of the constant rocketing of Israeli civilians that provoked those incursions. He chooses to accept Hamas' version of the tragedy on the Gaza beach, and reject Israel's version, without any supportive evidence. He then introduces the recent claims of isolated criminal acts by Israel soldiers in Gaza, which are being investigated. What does this have to do with Shalit? Mr. Dajani simply echoes Hamas' line: "Let hundreds of our murderers out of your jails, so that they can kill again. Then we will return your soldier, or his body, claim that our violence achieved victory." This is Israel's terrible dilema.

[fbr79]

You just figured that out about this poster? This is propaganda coming straight from the source.

[CorkExaminer]

Wonderful report. Speachless.

[jad114]

The fact of the matter is Hamas has used Gilad Shalit as a "lever" to bludgeon Israel into weakening itself. Israel was just about ready to walk into that trap. Thankfully, it found the price too high and balked at the last minute.

[joz22]

This cold...What if you had a son or daughter held prisoner or hostage?

[newsjunkie5]

YEAH, thankfully!

[justice2008]

Shalit is only on soldier. What about all the Palestinian prisoners? What about the 1,400 civilians killed in the recent Israeli war on Gaza?

[joz22]

I agree but if the release of Shalit can bring back Palestinian prisoners and ends the killings then Hamas should set him free. No need to prolong the ordeal for everyone.

[newsjunkie5]

Do you really think this would happen joz22?

[newsjunkie5]

Death is awful no matter who is killed...but what really upsets me...actually no...enrages me is when one or two Israeli soldiers die (on the job I might add) or are kidnapped and Israel's response is to go on a capturing and killing spree where hundreds of Palestinian CIVILIANS (I might add) are captured or even killed.

Is this really a fair or just revenge...why are Palestinian civilians paying for what their government or even extremist groups do?

And more importantly, WHY does the international community stand by and watch silently at these injustices with no interference???

Is a human life not worth more than this?

[WBMD]

It is unfortunate that you are enraged. But the fact is that Israeli soldiers who are killed in battle are mourned, but no specific retaliatory actions are taken. In the case where the Israeli soldier (on the job of protecting Israeli civilians) is attacked in a cross-border raid, within Israel proper, this is an act of war that cannot go without response. The overwhelming majority of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails are there because they were captured in the act of trying to kill Israelis, or had succeeded in doing so. Even so, they are allowed access to the Red Cross, their families, conjugal visits, they receive an education; even such despicable murderers as Samir. Palestinian prisoners that have been released in the past have been unrepentant, and usually returned to murder again. This is Israel's dilemma: weighing the potential of multiple future deaths at the hands of released terrorists against achieving freedom for a boy that every Israeli considers their son.

The Hamas government, freely elected on a platform of the extermination of Israel, and its "extremist groups," could not exist without the support and the protective shield of the Palestinian civilians. A mass protest action on their part, calling for an end to the violence could stop it all.

[moflard]

"The Hamas government, freely elected on a platform of the extermination of Israel, and its "extremist groups," could not exist without the support and the protective shield of the Palestinian civilians. A mass protest action on their part, calling for an end to the violence could stop it all."

You could as easily say that the repeated election of land-grabbing Israeli governments, all expanding the settlements and hence a de-facto denial of a viable Palestinian state, could not exist without the complicity of the Israeli populace. Remember how many founding Israeli politicians were terrorists - hell Sharon was implicated in a massacre of defenceless civilians and the Israeli's rewarded him with their top job!

Does that mean Israeli citizens are fair game, as you imply of the Palestinians?

[newsjunkie5]

Amen to that brother!

Let the prisoners and Shalit go...Let the prisoners and Shalit go...Let the prisoners and Shalit go!!!

Enough already...these ridiculous politicians and governements use human life as bargaining chips and pawns in THEIR war. Let these prisoners go...I wonder how any of these politicians would be reacting if one of these prisoners was a family member or a friend...?

Treat people the way you would want to be treated...

[cohen238765]

Olmert used Shalit as a pawn for his misadventures. This could have been done with a long time ago before Olmert stated that he did not want to negotiate with Hamas. Israel had previously negotiated with Hezbollah so why not Hamas?

[leonardox1]

Hamas is not motivated to release Shalit while Israel has been arresting its members in the West Bank. Olmert has not learned a lesson from his wars on Lebanon and Gaza that he will accomplish nothing by using force.