Stand for Israel

Mashaal: We'll keep kidnapping Israeli soldiers

Just days after the release of a video showing kidnapped Israeli solider Gilad Shalit, more evidence (as if it was needed) of Hamas' instransigence surfaces:

Hours after Israel released 19 female Palestinian prisoners - an additional prisoner will be released Sunday - in exchange for a video proving captive IDF soldier Gilad Schalit was alive, Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal on Friday night threatened to capture more Israeli soldiers in order to win the release of all Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli prisons.

Shalit video made public

 
See it here. (Scroll down to the middle of the column.)

He says:

"Hello, this is Gilad, son of Noam and Aviva Shalit, brother of Hadas and Yoel, who live in Mitzpe Hila. My ID number is 97027. Today is Monday, September 14, 2009. As you can see I am holding today's Falasteen newspaper of September 14, 2009, published in Gaza."

[He holds up the newspaper and the camera goes into a close-up on the newspaper and then pulls out again.]

"I read the newspaper in order to find information about myself, and in the hope of reading about information of my return home and my imminent release. I hope the current government headed by Benjamin Netanyahu doesn't waste this opportunity to reach an agreement and, as a result, let me fulfill my dream and be released.

"I wish to send regards to my family and say to them that I love and miss them and yearn for the day in which I would see them again.

"Dad, Yoel, and Hadas, do you remember the day when you visited my base on the Golan Heights on December 31, 2005, that, if I am not mistaken, was called Revaya B. We walked around the base and you took photos of me on the Merkava tank and on one of the old tanks at the entrance to the base. Afterwards, we went to a restaurant in one of the Druze villages and, on the way, we took photos on the side of the road with the snow-covered Mount Hermon in the background.

"I wish to say to you that I feel good, health-wise, and the Mujahadeen of the Izzadien al-Qassam Brigades are treating me very well. Thank you and goodbye."

Gilad Shalit appears healthy in video

Hours ahead of the start of the Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles) holiday, the nation of Israel was relieved that footage of captive soldier Gilad Shalit showed him healthy and lucid. 

A copy of the video, which was received today in exchange for the release of 20 female Palestinian prisoners, was flown immediately to the Shalit family, who live in the village of Mitzpe Hila, which is northwest of the Sea of Galilee. The family asked to view the video in private and notified the Prime Minister’s office that the video could be made public. (Shalit’s sister, Hadas, did not view the video with her family: She’s currently serving in the IDF and spent today at her base.)

Israeli media report that the footage is about two minutes long and shows a clean-shaven Shalit holding up a Palestinian newspaper dated Sept. 14. Not surprisingly, some world coverage focused on the prisoners being released rather than the fact that this is the credible first signs of life of the soldier received in 2 years.

Meanwhile, Israeli sources caution that the video exchange doesn’t represent a break-through in negotiations for Shalit’s release (he’s been held prisoner by Hamas for three and a half years now): The earliest anyone could expect a deal is mid-2010.

The video is the first time that his family has seen Shalit since he was kidnapped nearly 1,200 days ago. (An audiotape was released in 2007).

Lop-sided swaps reveal Israel's truest nature

 

 

The Israeli security cabinet approved swapping prisoners for information about Gilad Shalit’s fate on Wednesday. According to the deal, Israel will hand over 20 female prisoners on Friday and Hamas will hand over a videotape that offers evidence that the kidnapped soldier is still alive.

 

Insightful Israeli blogger The Muqata questions the worth of the videotape anyway, since the German mediator apparently already saw the video: “If he’s already seen it,” Muqata asks, “why do we need to release 20 Palestinian FemaleTerrorists?” (And goes on to lament that the world community appears to place a higher value on the lives of Palestinians being held for terrorist acts than on the lives of the Jews they murder.)

 

Israelis will be debating the wisdom of the swap (and of the proposed exchange of 1,400 prisoners for Shalit himself) – there’s no question that such exchanges provide direct incentives for terrorist groups to kidnap more soldiers, as well as Israeli civilians and even Jews who aren’t citizens of Israel. The wisdom of that is for the Israeli people to decide.

 

One thing the existence of the debate does provide clear evidence of, though, is the incontrovertibly paramount value that human life holds for the Jewish state and the Jewish people. Most of us around the world cannot imagine making such an un-even swap. But Jews live by a tradition that tells them that saving one life is the equivalent of saving the entire world.

 

And Jewish law teaches that pikuach nefesh, saving a life, takes priority over nearly every other act (a notable exception is desecrating the name of God).

 

It is precisely this value—the preciousness of life—that Israel’s tyrannical enemies exploit. And yet, we lovers of Israel know that, vulnerable though it may make us, it also is our greatest strength.

 

How sweet it would be for Gilad Shalit to sit in the Sukkah, reunited with his family and all of the nation of Israel, during the next week’s Feast of Tabernacles.

 

May Israel’s leaders receive wisdom and guidance, and may the Source of Comfort—and Salvation—lower His protective cloak over Gilad Shalit and his family:  “He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners.” (Isaiah 61:1)

 

To listen to audiotape (with subtitles) of Shalit from 2007, click here.

Squabbling Palestinian factions agree: Kidnapping Israelis gets results

The incomparable Palestinian Media Watch reports that Hamas and the Palestinian Authority--whose frequent disagreements have flared into gun battles on more than one occasion--have found something to agree upon: Kidnapping Israeli soldiers works!

Since Israel changed its decades-old policy of not negotiating with terrorists, "militants" have been able to get huge concessions from the Jewish state--releasing thousands of Palestinian prisoners, including outright murderers--for the release of a few soldiers, the bodies of a few more, and one civilian captive.

The cartoon below refers to Hamas' confidence that they'll be able to get Israel to release up to 1,400 prisoners (yes, that's one thousand four hundred separate people)  in exchange for Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier kidnapped just before the start of the 2006 Lebanon War.

The cartoon ran in Al Quds newspaper (Aug. 28, 2009) and shows Shalit as a key. The text on the lock reads "prisoners."

PMW also points to a cartoon (a cartoon?) mocking Shalit, promising "You [Israelis] will all be Gilads. We'll capture you." Another ridicules Shalit's fate, depicting him calling for his mother while a child laughs at him, saying, "You've been rotting here for 3 years, and no one cares."

Find more about Shalit here and watch SFI for how you can help him.

Gilad Shalit: 23 years of life, 3 years of captivity

Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit, held captive by Hamas terrorists for over three years, will turn 23 years old this Friday, August 28. There is no indication that he will be released soon, and his captors refuse to release any information on his physical condition. The Jewish Agency for Israel is circulating an online petition calling on the International Red Cross to pressure Hamas to grant Shalit the rights due him under international law -- rights that Shalit thus far has been denied. Take a moment to sign the petition, then head to our Stand for Israel website to send a message of solidarity and support to his family.

The Negotiator

From Haaretz:

The Prime Minister's Bureau on Tuesday defended its choice of a former top intelligence operative to head negotiations for the release of abducted Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, despite rumors linking him to a corruption scandal.

Former Mossad agent Haggai Hadas was recently named to take over negotiations in a prisoner swap deal for Shalit, who has been in Palestinian captivity since he was abducted in a 2006 cross-border raid from the Gaza Strip.

Read more...

Gilad's father pleas to UN

Ahiya Raved, Ynet News, covers the current story on Gilad Shalit:

Noam Shalit, father of kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit, testified before a UN committee in Geneva Monday. He told Ynet he thought the message he had been trying to get across to the committee had been absorbed by its members.

"We wanted to stress that for three years our son's basic and international rights have been trampled by Hamas in Gaza. We received the impression that the committee members understood our pain and grief," he said.

Shalit said Richard Goldstone, who heads the committee, asked him about reports in the Arab media saying a prisoner swap deal was imminent. "I told him we have been hearing these rumors for three years," he said.

Hina Jilani, the UN's special representative on human rights defenders, said she identified with the Shalits and that anyone who uses human suffering to promote a political agenda was wrong.

Israel has boycotted the committee's hearings on the IDF operation in Gaza, claiming it was biased. On this subject Shalit said he would continue "to appear before any relevant international agent".

Later Shalit met the Red Cross's Middle East representative, Beatrice Megevand Roggo, but she had no news for him on efforts to examine his son.

"Hamas is still refusing to allow Red Cross representatives to see Gilad," he said. "I repeated our demand to receive a sign of life on some level, from a letter or a note to a family meeting with Gilad, as is done in Israel when Palestinian families come in from the West Bank to visit their relatives who are incarcerated here."

Gilad, we have not forgotten you!

Gilad Schalit was kidnapped by Palestinian militants back in June, 2006. On the 25th of this month, it will be exactly three years since his abduction. While there is no set date for his release, Israel sent a message to Hamas, through former President Jimmy Carter, agreeing to exchange most of the prisoners that Hamas is asking for. 

"Israel is awaiting the letter of reply from Gilad Schalit to the letter transferred to him by his parents, Noam and Aviva, in order to verify that he is still alive," Palestinian sources said. "Afterwards Israel will agree to advance the negotiations for Schalit's release and end the affair."

The sources claimed that the Israeli government was eager to see Schalit return and had therefore agreed to release many of the prisoners on the list, including senior Hamas members.

Read more...