Tuesday, October 18, 2011 - Gilad Shalit is Released

In the culmination of an extraordinarily dramatic week, Gilad Shait was released today by the Hamas terrorist murderers who kidnapped him and held him incommunicado for 1,942 days - over 5 entire years. While the world pretty much said and did - nothing.


As I followed this story, my primary emotion was raw and open pain - pain for the Shalit family, pain for the many families of the innocent victims of the terrorists being released as part of the exchange agreement, and pain for the State of Israel that it, almost certainly uniquely among the nations of the world, is subject to this type of national nightmare.

I have never served in the IDF or any other military, nor, perhaps more importantly, have I ever had to send my children to do so. My thoughts are just those of a very ardent supporter of Israel and the IDF - and it is awfully easy to express one's opinions from the comfort and safety of Canada.

That said, for what it is worth, my personal view is that the next time an Israeli is kidnapped, Israel should either immediately (a) impose a total blockade of all food, water and electricity entering Gaza until the hostage is released unharmed or (b) start eliminating Hamas leaders and their underlings (whether behind human shields or not) one by one (or by the dozen) until the hostage is released.

By the way, Hamas has now set the price - an Israeli is worth 1,027 Palestinian terrorists - so the next time anyone screams abut a disproportionate response, they should bear that in mind. The world has lost any credibility on this issue - so their predictable outcry should just be ignored.

Hamas has shown its true terrorist colors, and for all the flaws of the deal, Israel has shown that it stands for life, not death.

I wish Gilad Shalit peace and tranquility, as prompt a return to normalcy as possible (if possible), and a long and healthy life. I wish the families of the terror victims the ability to cope with the agony they must be experiencing over the release of the terrorists who deliberately murdered their loved ones. And I wish the State of Israel the ability and wisdom to overcome this latest crisis and to emerge stronger than ever.

In any event, here are a number of links on this story from a variety of perspectives - and then everyone has to make up their own minds - but think hard - what would you do if you were one of the Israeli dramatis personae in this terrible saga?


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2 comments:

  1. ChannaOctober 19, 2011 at 2:23 PM

    What I do not understand is why so many murderers have been allowed to regroup in Israeli prisons? Why were they not executed? This is not a discussion about revenge, this is about justice. Eichmann was hung because he engineered the massacres of Jewish civilians. The preponderance of Palestinans jailed are guilty of no less. What this exchange has done has emboldened the enemy and has firmed up their resolve that capturing and torturing Israeli's is both a profitable business as well as an excellent propoganda tool. AS much as I would like to believe that the world actually takes notice that Jews value life and are morally superior to their neighbours, I don't think that they do. Take the head of the UN for instance, he compared Gilad Shalit's release as a fair exchange for those Palestinians who were imprisoned. He did not differentiate between a soldier who was doing his job to those psychopaths who deliberately planned the deaths of innocent civilians who were doing ordinary things like eating pizza, teens dancing in a discotheque,the elderly celebrating a seder, or those families who were brutally murdered in their sleep. In his mind this was an exchange of equals?!!! The fact that these morally depraved cancerous growths were kept alive, fed, educated,and saw the light of day boggles the mind. To what end, to be used as leverage for further captives?

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  2. Pro-Israel BlogOctober 19, 2011 at 8:00 PM

    I certainly understand your perspective - meanwhile - check this out - http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=242418

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