The Prime Minister has given in to media pressure and gone against his common sense and painful knowledge of history agreeing to release one thousand (1,000) very deadly, unrepentant Arab terrorists. The verb, "to pay the price" is the crucial term here:
"The State of Israel has always been prepared to pay a heavy price for the release of its hostages."
"The German mediator's proposal that we decided to accept requires the release of 1,000 terrorists. This is a price that I am prepared to pay in order to bring Gilad home."
"However, there are prices that I am not prepared to pay that are not included in the proposed deal."
"The call to pay any price is a natural cry from the heart of any father, mother, grandfather, sister or brother."
"The State of Israel is prepared to pay a heavy price for the release of Gilad Shalit but is unable to say "at any price"."
I have no doubt that Netanyahu thought hard over every word and nuance when writing this statement. I don't like the decision. I think it's a mistake. Remember that the terrorists haven't agreed to it. They've, rather expectedly, raised their demands.
Last night on the TV news here in Israel, someone (whose name I didn't catch) criticized the government's offer saying he's "willing to pay any price" to get Gilad Shalit back home. There are other Israeli Leftists saying the same. I heartily suggest that they contact the Arab terrorists and offer them their names, addresses etc and of their spouse, children, family and close friends and tell them that they shouldn't bother attacking others, like my family and friends who aren't willing to "pay the price."
Fair is fair, nu? They're the ones who have been pushing the deal. They should pay for it!
7 comments:
You say, "The Prime Minister has given in to media pressure and gone against his common sense ... ".
You give the man to much credit. You hung too much hope on this guy. He's a leftist. Occasionally he comes through with a good punch, but he was a loser the moment he stepped into the ring.
He's a lefty at heart trying, like his American counterparts, to assuage the fears of the right, but he does it connivingly. He promised to stop the "freeze" in 10 months. I'll bet he cowers to the muslim-in-chief and again buckles on this issue, as he buckled when he put the construction freeze on - unfortunately.
edge, I don't trust him and never did.
Thanks for the input.
"The State of Israel has always been prepared to pay a heavy price for the release of its hostages."
"The German mediator's proposal that we decided to accept requires the release of 1,000 terrorists. This is a price that I am prepared to pay in order to bring Gilad home."
I agree with you that the phrase "pay the price" is critical.
It sounds like Bibi is offering Israelis as human sacrifices. Maybe that's a bit of an overstatement but that's the impression I get from all of these "pay the price" comments.
Yes, he's kowtowing to our enemies.
What's most wrong with this is not seeing that Hamas has no intention of releasing Gilad Shalit anyway. It's is high policy from Syria never to release anyone who was tortured. If Hamas anticipated releasing him, they would let him get a few visitors he could talk to, and send out mail. They don't do anything except for prepared videos. That is not to put more pressure on Israel to negotiate. That is because they don't want it to be incontrovertibly established that they are cruel.
The reason Hamas negotiates at all, is not because they anticipate reaching an agreement, but because:
1) They don't want Israel to attempt a rescue mission.
2) In the event that one day they may want to release him - say Israel's captures the head of Hamas - 95% will be negotiated before.
The only reason he is still alive is because:
1) They don't want Israel to assassinate more members of Hamas, either people arrested or leaders in Gaza. But for that very reason they would never want to free him.
2) They are afraid of getting killed themselves if any one of them has any involvement in the killing of Gilad Shalit. The recent assassination in Dubai of a member of Hamas who killed a soldier 30 years ago, even if that wasn't the reason, has probably helped Gilad Shalit.
3) The moment when they could have killed him unnoticed has passed. he's been confirmed to be a prisoner. And the trial balloon of saying he might be killed by Israeli bombing didn't fly. Israel would never accept that explanation unless it was true and even then they might blame his captors.
Hamas would really love to have another prisoner so they would have less reason to keep him alive.
But what's really bad about all this from Netanyahu, is that, if for some reason Hamas will decide to free Shalit, they could, with no wait or effort now get a whole bunch of other people with him and Netanyahu might even think he was a successful negotiator because he gave them less than what they asked for.
The best hope for Shalit is:
1) Letting Hamas know that we know and believe he has been tortured, and until they release him we will argue this to as many people as we can. The argument is almost uncontrovertable. Let them prove the opposite. This will leave Hamas with less to lose if they free him (although they still get the restraint on Israel)
2) Making sure everybody in Hamas knows that if anything happens to him they will be held accountable, as long as the state of Israel exists.
3) Freeing people from Syrian prisons and doing other things that Syria really doesn't like that are ethical.
4) Toppling or threatening to topple the government of Syria. this is safer than going after Hamas in Gaza acually.
What's most wrong with this is not seeing that Hamas has no intention of releasing Gilad Shalit anyway. It's is high policy from Syria never to release anyone who was tortured. If Hamas anticipated releasing him, they would let him get a few visitors he could talk to, and send out mail. They don't do anything except for prepared videos. That is not to put more pressure on Israel to negotiate. That is because they don't want it to be incontrovertibly established that they are cruel.
The reason Hamas negotiates at all, is not because they anticipate reaching an agreement, but because:
1) They don't want Israel to attempt a rescue mission.
2) In the event that one day they may want to release him - say Israel's captures the head of Hamas - 95% will be negotiated before.
The only reason he is still alive is because:
1) They don't want Israel to assassinate more members of Hamas, either people arrested or leaders in Gaza. But for that very reason they would never want to free him.
2) They are afraid of getting killed themselves if any one of them has any involvement in the killing of Gilad Shalit. The recent assassination in Dubai of a member of Hamas who killed a soldier 30 years ago, even if that wasn't the reason, has probably helped Gilad Shalit.
3) The moment when they could have killed him unnoticed has passed. he's been confirmed to be a prisoner. And the trial balloon of saying he might be killed by Israeli bombing didn't fly. Israel would never accept that explanation unless it was true and even then they might blame his captors.
Hamas would really love to have another prisoner so they would have less reason to keep him alive.
But what's really bad about all this from Netanyahu, is that, if for some reason Hamas will decide to free Shalit, they could, with no wait or effort now get a whole bunch of other people with him and Netanyahu might even think he was a successful negotiator because he gave them less than what they asked for.
Sammy, thanks for the comments, good points
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