It's obvious that the Israeli government hasn't a clue about how to negotiate. Every time our hapless government gives in and agrees to a terrorist demand, a new demand pops up like poisonous mushrooms after a long rain.
Paula Stern who blogs the very popular A Soldier's Mother wrote a rather confusing post about Gilad Shalit and what she sees as a major dilemma, what to give the terrorists in exchange for him. Here's my comment:
As I write this my two sons are in milu'im (reserves.)The doubt she shows is dangerous and weakening. We have to be pragmatic and recognize the fact that all of our niceness, gestures etc have only brought us more trouble.
Gilad Shalit would probably have been home now if we hadn't been nice to the Arab terrorists in our jails, if we had told the RC that they don't see those prisoners until they see Gilad and arrange his return home. He's not the equivalent of a terrorist, and it's dangerous for us and our kids for that formula to be accepted.
If we hadn't kept offering more and more, he'd probably be home in Israel already.
If we'd acted strong and sovereign rather than weak, desperate and pathetic, he'd probably be home already.
IMHO
When we close our eyes to reality, the pressures spin us around like in a game of "pin the tail on the donkey." We could end up walking out the door, going miles, blindfolded, searching for that tail-less donkey. We must resist the pressures to play the games that the world keeps pushing us into. We must pull off the blindfold and take a good look at reality.
Only our determination to do what's best for us and us only will free Gilad Shalit. We've lost the deterrence weapon a long time ago. The Arabs know very well that we're a paper tiger. The time has come for us to change gears and play by different rules, our rules, Jewish rules, Torah Laws.
8 comments:
It is time that terrorists don't survive to be traded
And I left out that murderers should be executed, and that includes terrorists involved in murder.
Lock up the Supreme Court in administrative detention, take out convicted terrorist murderers and shoot them and pound Gaza into the ground until Gilad is returned. If he is not returned, continue until Gaza is a parking lot. Then rebuild it, annex it and fill it with Jews forever. Any surviving Arab kids should have lessons in Jewish power given in their schools by Israelis with guns speaking Arabic. And throw the UN out.
Ahhh, goyish...
That works for me.
If it's so popular, why don't the politicians support it?
I don't believe that Hamas is at all serious about releasing Gilad Shalit. He could tell too many bad things about Hamas and he also would reveal what intelligence information Hamas was interested in. And I believe anyway Syria has a general policy (which applies to Hamas as well) against releasing any prisoners alive.
Hamas is negotiating like this for one or two or three reasons:
1) To stop Israel from planning a rescue mission.
2) To stop Israel from doing anything militarily against hamsas to interfere with their military buildup.
3) To get something 95% or 99% negotiated - and then when Israel has somebody they really want, or there is something they really want Israel to do, add that last demand to the list and get it all.
Still, Israel did not do so bad by NEGOTIATING, as long as that is all Israel does, negotiate. although that too has its drawbacks. What terrorist believes in life imprisonment? It's only till the next major agreement, which could be a few years maybe, but certainly not decades.
At least Israel got Hamas to acknowledge he is still alive and in Gaza and was not killed in the last war. And this might not have happened had Israel not played along at least a little. But the government really went too far.
Hamas has a problem. They really would rather kill Gilad Shalit, but it is hard for them to have a plausible excuse for him being dead. Besides there might be someday something they want to trade for him. The Nazis kept quite a number of prominent people alive in concentration camps whom at that point they had no realistic prospect of trading. But a live person is worth something.
Of course Israel paid not so long ago as much for dead prisoners as they would have for live ones, but nobody can really count on that happening again.
Gilad Shalit is most likely to be released by Hamas when and if there is some political change there or in Syria.
You're right about Hamas not wanting to release Shallit, but if the Israeli protests were anti-Hamas instead of anti-Israeli Government, he'd be out already.
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