The Sad Story of Gilad Schalit

The Jerusalem Post has just published a two part feature story translated from the original Hebrew about Gilad Schalit, the IDF soldier who had been captured by the Arab terrorists, held for five years and then was released in exchange for a thousand jailed terrorists after an unrelenting campaign by his father.  Here are parts one and two.

It's not a pleasant story.  It's like finding out your favorite uncle cheated you or your father's a philanderer.

Schalit knew that he had effectively given himself up on June 25, 2006, been taken captive without firing even one bullet, despite the fact that he could have prevented the entire situation with relative ease. He was very concerned indeed over his meeting with the military investigators.

It must be difficult for Schalit to live with that truth.  I'm the mother of IDF soldiers who are now reservists.  My husband also served in the IDF.  Here in Shiloh we raise our children to do everything to defend themselves, to survive.  The message is:

"Defend yourself at all cost.  Shoot first.  If necessary we can get a lawyer later."

The biggest surprise is that the terrorists didn't shoot Schalit on the spot.  He's very lucky.  He could have easily have been just another dead soldier.

I didn't agree with Schalit's father's campaign.  I did not agree with his premise that the Israeli Government was responsible for finding a way to free him. And I didn't like the price we are paying for Gilad's freedom by having more Arab terrorists free to murder.

As I had blogged many times, I think that the emphasis of the campaign should have been on all of the international organizations, like the Red Cross, the United Nations and sundry human rights groups, even like Betzelem.

I firmly believe that a well run campaign targeting those groups could have gotten Gilad Schalit freed, and it wouldn't have endangered us.  It would have, could have been a great hasbara information success for Israel.