Out Of Hamas's Hands ... And Into Them

A friend remarked to me today, as the first welcome images of Gilad Shalit returning to Israeli soil came through on our television screens, that Israel's release of so many Palestinian prisoners will create goodwill for Israel in the eyes of the world.  More cynical, I thought immediately of Bibi Netanyahu's phrase "Better a bad press than a good epitaph," contained in his thunderously heroic speech at the United Nations last month. - and also of that same friend's unfulfilled prediction, as the earliest reports that Islamic terrorists had brought down the Twin Towers came into our living rooms, that "Now the world will realise what Israel has had to put up with for all these years."

No doubt the release of so many Palestinian prisoners will make some observers think more kindly of Israel - Al Beeb seemed to me, in the snatches I managed to get of its coverage of Gilad Shalit's homecoming, far more balanced than usual (it was, for instance, most gratifying to see Jonathan Sacerdoti and Mark Regev interviewed fairly and at length).  However, there's no pleasing Israel's hardcore detractors - plenty of them have been posting snide comments over the internet claiming that the ratio 1:1027 shows that Israelis value Jewish lives so much more highly than Arab ones.

What the ratio does show, as Isi Leibler points out in a characteristically superb article, is the underlying importance that Jewish tradition attaches to

"the mitzva of pidyon shvuim – the obligation we have to ransom captives – that was traditionally regarded by Jews as a priority. It reflects the reflects the humanity and concern for one another that has personified the Jewish people over years of persecution and isolation. No other country would conceivably act in this manner and it reveals the compassion Israelis share and the lengths they will go to not to forsake their sons on the battlefield."

Look at who Israel is freeing in order to have their young soldier home (compiled in the article "Murderers' Row" by the JTA ):

* Abd al-Hadi Ghanim: In July 1989, during the first Intifada, Gaza resident Abd al-Hadi Ghanim grabbed the steering wheel of a Tel Aviv-to-Jerusalem bus on Israel's main highway and steered it into a ravine. Sixteen people were killed.

* Yihia al-Sinwar: A founder of Hamas’ military wing, Yihia al-Sinwar was involved in the October 1994 kidnapping of Sgt. Nachshon Wachsman, an Israeli soldier who had American citizenship. Wachsman was killed by his captors during a rescue attempt several days later by Israeli commandos. Al-Sinwar's brother is believed to have been an organizer of Gilad Shalit’s abduction.

* Aziz Salha: In October 2000, Aziz Salha produced one of the most horrifying images of the second intifada. He was photographed proudly waving his bloodstained hands out of the window of a Ramallah police station after participating in a lynch mob that broke into the building and beat to death two Israeli reservists who had been taken into Palestinian custody there after making a wrong turn into the city. An Israeli court convicted him of the murder of Cpl. Vadim Norzich.

* Mona Awana: In January 2001, West Bank resident Mona Awana, pretending to be an American with a romantic interest in an Israeli high school student, used the Internet to lure 16-year-old Ofir Rahum to meet her in Jerusalem. They then drove Rahum to a prearranged location on Ramallah’s outskirts, where he was shot and killed by Palestinian gunmen.

* Fuad Amrin: In May 1992, Gaza resident Fuad Amrin stabbed to death 15-year-old Helena Rapp on her way to school in the Israeli city of Bat Yam.

* Husam Badran: As the leader of Hamas’ military wing in the northern West Bank, Husam Badran was the instigator of several of the deadliest suicide bombings of the second intifada, including the 2001 bombing attacks on a Sbarro pizzeria in Jerusalem (15 killed), the Dolphinarium discotheque bombing in Tel Aviv (21 killed), the 2002 suicide bombings of a Passover seder at the Park Hotel in Netanya (30 killed) and the bombing of the Matza restaurant in Haifa (15 killed). More than 100 people were killed in terrorist attacks directed by Badran.

* Tamimi Ahlam: In August 2001, Tamimi Ahlam, a female university student and journalist originally from Jordan, led a suicide bomber to the downtown Jerusalem Sbarro pizzeria where he detonated himself, killing 15 people, including seven children.

* Walid Anajas: Hamas operative Walid Anajas assisted with the 2002 suicide bombings at Jerusalem's Cafe Moment (11 killed) and a gaming club in Rishon LeZion (16 killed), and the remotely detonated bombing of a cafeteria at the Mount Scopus campus of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, which killed nine people, including four Americans.

As Leibler also says, this state of affairs plays right into Hamas's hands:

"The exchange of 1,027 terrorists, including the most cruel and barbaric mass-murderers and masterminds of major terrorist attacks plus six Israeli Arab terrorists, in return for one Israeli soldier, is not merely a stunning victory for Hamas and global terrorism. It also conveys a number of other disconcerting messages that will undoubtedly return to haunt us.

First, Hamas can now show conclusively that murder and terror are infinitely more effective than negotiation. The exchange will embolden terrorists throughout the world and encourage them to intensify their efforts. Indeed, former Mossad chief Meir Dagan has repeatedly stated that past precedents demonstrate that the release of these killers will have deadly future consequences and undoubtedly facilitate the murder of many other Israelis. In fact, Hamas chief Khaled Mashaal explicitly boasted that “those released will return to armed struggle. It is a great national achievement.”

The full impact will only become apparent to us in the weeks to come, when the world is subjected to Hamas-sponsored victory celebrations in which the murderers will be paraded in the streets as heroes.

Second, by exposing the “soft” side or “Achilles’ heel” of an otherwise tough Israeli adversary, Hamas (and Fatah) share a clear incentive to exert every effort and make every sacrifice to kidnap additional Israeli hostages in order to impose new demands.

Third, it will be much easier to recruit terrorists who believe that no matter how many Israelis they kill, if apprehended there is every likelihood that they will be released.

Fourth, Hamas has undoubtedly displaced the PA and demonstrated that it was able to force Israel and other states to negotiate and thus provide itself with legitimacy. Indeed, Hamas, which remains adamantly committed to terrorism and the total destruction of Israel, has now emerged as the dominant face of a future Palestinian state.

Fifth, this is also a victory for the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas’s parent organization, which is emerging as the principal power broker in Egypt. The new Egyptian government will therefore impose far greater pressure on Israel in relation to Hamas than was the case during the Mubarak era. Israel must also factor in Turkey, which in addition to Iran has now emerged as a vociferous supporter of Hamas."  Read the entire article here

"How Can They Sleep At Night, Knowing The Peril They Have Brought Onto Their People?": A Bereaved Mother On The Israeli Cabinet's Prisoner Release Swap

There has been much written already on the deal that will see the kidnapped young soldier Gilad Shalit freed by Hamas  in exchange for the release by Israel of over 1000 Palestinian prisoners.

Melanie Phillips has written a characteristically incisive piece here on the subject.  So, too, has Elder of Ziyon here.

Among the prisoners to be released is the person who took the life of Malki (pictured), the teenage daughter of Arnold and Frimet Roth, of Melbourne and Jerusalem.  They blog here, and The Malki Foundation commemorates the daughter they lost so tragically.

Observes Frimet Roth today:

'Along with the entire nation, I am relieved and happy that Gilad Shalit will be returning home imminently. But I am shocked and deeply pained that this is being achieved by the mass release of cold-blooded murderers.

One of them is Ahlam Tamimi, a proud terrorist and the unrepentant murderer of my fifteen year old daughter, Malki. Tamimi transported the 10 kg. bomb, handed it to her accomplice and then led him on foot to the door of the target she had selected, Jerusalem's crowded Sbarro restaurant. Seven men and women and eight children perished. 130 people were injured. She was sentenced to sixteen terms of life in prison.

Tamimi declared that she does not regret what she did. She actually smiled when told the number of children whose lives she took. 

With today’s decision to free the terrorists, prime minister Netanyahu, a savvy politician to the core, conveys to us his disdain for the lives of ordinary citizens like my Malki; his disrespect for Israel's justice system; and his lack of regard for the soldiers who faced death in order to apprehend the terrorists about to be freed.

 Which rational soldier or police officer is going risk his life in the future to defend us from the monsters like Tamimi, sworn to murder still more Jews?

The prime minister is quoted this morning saying that his "heart goes out" to Israel’s many terror victims. His actions and those of his cabinet suggest otherwise. How can they sleep at night, knowing the peril they have brought onto their people?'

The Sound Of Silence

The late Russian Nobel Laureate Andrei Sakharov's Jewish widow, Elena Bonner, who died recently, remarked in a speech in Oslo a couple of years ago:

"[A]nother question that has been a thorn for me for a long time. It’s a question for my human rights colleagues. Why doesn’t the fate of the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit trouble you ...?

[D]uring the ... years Shalit has been held by terrorists, the world human rights community has done nothing for his release. Why? He is a wounded soldier, and fully falls under the protection of the Geneva Conventions. The Conventions say clearly that hostage-taking is prohibited, that representatives of the Red Cross must be allowed to see prisoners of war, especially wounded prisoners, and there is much else written in the Geneva Conventions about Shalit’s rights.... Do human rights activists also fail to recall the fundamental international rights documents? ....

Returning to my question of why human rights activists are silent, I can find no answer except that Shalit is an Israeli soldier, Shalit is a Jew. So again, it is conscious or unconscious antisemitism. Again, it is fascism."  (Hat tip: Ruth King)

For the Hostage of Hamas, another Unhappy Birthday

28 August 2010 marks kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit’s 24th birthday – he was 19 when he was kidnapped and taken across the border into Gaza, so this is his fifth birthday in captivity, where he has spent 1500 days. What a sizeable fraction of his young life that is – five years out of 24. It is almost unbearable to contemplate.


And, of course, what aggravates the anguish is the fact that nobody knows precisely where or in what conditions this poor young man is being held. In contravention of the Geneva Convention, the unpitying hard men of Hamas have allowed him no Red Cross visits, no contact with the outside world of any kind. Even the avowed humanitarians of the flotilla-bound Free Gaza Movement spurned a request from his father to take a letter and parcel to Gilad.

It seems some western pro-Palestinian activists are ill-informed regarding the circumstances in which Gilad Shalit was captured, and what he has had to endure, and that some treat it as a sort of joke. This description of a meeting hosted by a Palestinian Solidarity Campaign group in Wales (hat tip: Yvetta on the JC.Com Blogs) gives some indication of the ignorance, indifference and inhumanity that can be encountered. The meeting described revolved around Rod Cox’s exhibition of children’s paintings from Gaza, about which I blogged when that exhibition reached Manchester Cathedral. Writes Yvetta:

‘Cox spoke of “resistance fighters”, never of “terrorists”, and ... I asked him politely what outcome he would like to see. Perhaps sensing a trap by one of those “Zionist bastards” (to use a phrase on his website), he demurred.... “One State?” I prodded. “Or Two?” He still demurred. “I’ve heard the phrase ‘Palestine must be Free from the River to the Sea’”, I persisted, asking whether that was the view of the group. The speaker, his affability vanished in a flash, told me I was impertinent. A nuggety old guy in the front row fixed me with a wild-eyed stare and shouted at me to “Shut up!” “Some of us want one state, some want two!” cried somebody else. Turning round in her seat to eyeball me, the head of the local PSC – who according to one of her frequent anti-Israel letters to the local press would appear to be halachically Jewish – made an emotional denunciation of the Balfour Declaration and declared that injustice towards “Palestine” had been ignored for 100 years. A posh-voiced man told me that before any political solution could be worked out Israel would have to stop all its “human rights abuses” and obey the UN and the Geneva Convention.’

Yvetta continues:

‘It was then that I pointed out that in defiance of the Geneva Convention Hamas has held Gilad Shalit for four years with no Red Cross visits. “Who’s Gilad Shalit?” somebody demanded. I explained, reminding them what an eternity four years is when you are his age. “Why do you use the word ‘kidnapped’?” asked the speaker [Cox] irritably. Again, I explained. There were rumbles of laughter among my fellow-audience members. “He’s a soldier!” scoffed the PSC head. “A PoW!” added the speaker, grinning. “A PoW who has been treated like no PoW under the Geneva Convention” I continued, pointing out that the Free Gaza Movement had reportedly refused to deliver a letter and package from his family. The audience broke out into peals of prolonged mirth. At that point I swept up my belongings and regained the fresh air, with Cox snarling at me that they'd been more tolerant with me that "the Zionists" would be with them.’

This week, in the London Daily Telegraph ( 25 August), Bran Keenan, seized in 1986 by Islamic Jihad in Lebanon and held for not so long as Gilad Shalit has been held by Hamas, recalled his ordeal:

‘I was blindfolded and kept in the dark for a large period of my four and a half years’ incarceration in Beirut. I would wake up not knowing whether it was day or night. The darkness was palpable. You could touch it with your fingers. I wondered in that blackness: how do they know I’m alive. How do I know? .... Your self-awareness is swallowed up in the black incubus all around you. You may hear moaning or screaming or swearing, but you are gone. You question your own existence. You have no point of reference without being able to see another’s face.’

Furthermore:

'I had no contact with the outside world.  The only sound I heard was the call to prayer.  If someone is communicating with you, the confinement seems less.  At least for a while.  Once the reality hits - that liberation might not come - strange things happen inside the body, brain, and mind.  When you are trapped, or in captivity, "mind time" is totally different from ordinary time.  It is out of time.  It has no structure.  That is the struggle.  Strategies to "kill time", which I often tried, are absurd and don't work.'

Is that the situation in which young Gilad Shalit finds himself? Does he realise it’s his birthday? Does he know how old he is? Wishing him “Happy Birthday” seems trite and futile. But for pity’s sake, may he be liberated soon.

Blame Barbarism, not Bibi!

The agony and anger of Gilad Shalit's family is understandable; all normal hearts must bleed for them.  But blaming Bibi Netanyahu for their son's continued detention is unfair.  He has declared his government's willingness "to release 1000 Hamas prisoners, but not the most dangerous ones, and not to Judea and Samaria", from where they can attack Israelis again.  This is prudent; indeed, perhaps not prudent enough. 

Many Israelis would caution against any deal with terrorists, recalling, for example, that the exchange in January 2004 of 400 Hezbollah prisoners for Elhanan Tannenbaum, kidnapped in Dubai in 2000 and taken to Lebanon, and for the bodies of three soldiers ambushed on the Israeli-Lebanese border, resulted in the subsequent deaths of around 30 Israelis at the hands of some of the beneficiaries of the deal.

 Since the start of this century freed prisoners have murdered almost 180 Israelis, and have wounded and permanently incapacitated many more.  Hamas, responding to Netanyahu's offer, is insisting that before any deal can be done regarding Sergeant Shalit Israel must hand over 450 hard-core terrorists currently held; this is someting that the Israeli prime minister has declined to do, avowing that there is a price that Israel will not pay.  However painful this appears, it seems the correct course.  Bibi is not to blame for the impasse; a brutal and barbaric organisation with a mindset that would thrust us all back into the Dark Ages is. 

Tie a Yellow Ribbon for Gilad!

Come this Friday, 25 June, the abducted Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, now 23, will have been held in captivity by Hamas somewhere in Gaza for four years.  During that time his captors have allowed no international aid agency, including the Red Cross, access to this unfortunate young man.  Blindfolded, bound, and barefoot, he appeared on a Hamas propaganda poster; a cruel animated 3D film under Hamas's auspices mocked his father's attempts to have him released, and depicted Gilad in a coffin as his distraught father looked on; Gilad appeared, looking thin, in a video which his captors made available in exchange for the release by Israel of a number of Palestinian women prisoners.

There have been reports that the Free Gaza Movement, which took part in the recent "humanitarian" flotilla, refused to grant the Shalit family's request that the movement's representatives urge Hamas to allow Gilad regular visits from the Red Cross and letters and food packages from home.  In view of Benjamin Netanyahu's easing of the Gaza blockade with nothing in return from Hamas regarding the fate of Gilad Shalit, it is not surprising that his family are now accusing the Israeli government of effectively forsaking him. 

Yet Gilad is not forsaken: across the world, there have been gestures of support for him ranging from the conferral of honorary citizenship by Paris and other metropolises to rallies and marches.  The Knesset has announced a new initiative to ensure that he is not forgotten, and the Jerusalem Post has opened a petition calling for his release.  Irrespective of our own personal views on the Israel/Palestinian question, it would surely be a noble gesture if on Friday we all wore yellow ribbons to show that we are thinking of this young man, and to write to our lawmakers reminding them of his plight, as well as joining in any demonstrations that may be arranged in our areas to express solidarity with him and demand his immediate release and return to his country and his family.  If the unthinkable has occurred, and Hamas has put Gilad to death, then by that action we shall know them.