The Israeli Media And Gilad Shalit

Ruthie Blum Leibowitz takes on the uneviable task of confronting the Israeli media in its campaign to push for the government to work for Gilad Shalit's release "at any cost". The problem is what that campaign is doing to the opposing view:

the media's campaign has been so comprehensive that all other voices are virtually drowned out. And when some do manage to make a dent, they are not silenced, but rather amplified as right-wing fanatical or - worse - unfeeling.

This puts any pundit or politician who disagrees on the defensive. Even those who try to point out that Hamas is also watching Israeli broadcasts, which only serve to strengthen its sense that it need not soften its bargaining position even one iota, have to preface their statements by assuring everybody that, of course, they, too, want to see Gilad home as soon as possible. Even those who attempt to suggest that releasing hundreds of the worst terrorists who are sure to strike again, both by slaughtering innocent Israelis and by kidnapping additional ones for future trades, are forced first to reiterate that they also would be acting as the Schalit family has been if it were their own child in captivity.

THE PURPOSE of this kind of emotional blackmail and manipulation on the part of the media is to award them a monopoly on goodness. As with the desire for "peace," they behave as though they have cornered the market on wanting to rescue Schalit - while the rest of us would prefer war and embrace heartlessness. This is as preposterous as it is dangerous - the former because everybody in this country wants both peace and Schalit's safe return, and the latter because it leads to confusion about who the real culprit is. When Prime Minister Ehud Olmert receives more criticism from the Hebrew press about Schalit's predicament than Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, it's time for it to undergo some serious scrutiny and sorely needed soul-searching.[emphasis added]

Read the whole thing.

Then again, Hamas in general is getting a free ride on the issue of Gilad Shalit as well--from bother the West in general and the media & humanitarian groups in particular.

[Hat tip: Jennifer Rubin]

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Gilad Shalit--At Any Price?

When I was first learning about life in Israel, over forty years ago, people talked about how one is expected to bargain. Never pay the first price offered. Pay as little as possible. Walk away from the shop, and they'll call you back with a better and yet better price. It was quite a switch from the very "proper" and inflexible America in the mid-1960's.

Israelis seem to have lost the knack. They're (we're) playing all these negotiations like total patsies, total fools.

We've given away our precious Land for nothing--Disengagement or a smile and Nobel Peace Prize--Menachem Begin's Camp David.

Instead of simply refusing all aid to our enemies and Red Cross visits to the terrorist/enemy Arabs we've captured until our soldiers are returned--alive or dead, we keep offering to free more and more terrorists.

Gilad Shalit's family are media darlings like the religious parents of our soldiers captured in Lebanon could never be.

Yes, Gilad Shalit must be freed, must be returned home to Israel, but what happened to the master Israeli bargainers of old? Maybe we should send one of the veteran stall owners from Machene Yehuda to negotiate. I'm sure he wouldn't do any worse than our politicians, diplomats and media have done.

Free: Gilad Shalit
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The Shalit manipulation

The Israeli MSM is currently engaged in a shameless campaign to free Gil'ad Shalit at any price.

Here's a courageous article from Yaron Dekel, Channel 1’s political commentator, where he takes the media to task. A snippet:

They forgot the victims, and the counter protest tent of those opposed to a deal was dismantled within 24 hours.

It’s also difficult to find reports about the ramifications of this deal. Reports that not only ask what the terrorists could do once they are be released, but also a wider discussion about the impact this deal will have on IDF operations in the future, on the combat doctrine and efforts to sacrifice lives rather than fall into captivity, and about the issue of capturing terrorists alive in order to try them in Israel, knowing that the verdict is temporary until the next abduction.

The media has chosen to serve the Shalit family and not the public interest. But good journalism is tested in difficult times, not easy times.

It’s tested in its ability to stimulate a debate, to protest, to fuel an argument, raise doubts and create cracks in a monolithic public opinion. The same goes for peace times as in times of war. Journalism has a decisive role to play in a democratic society. Its role is not to move hearts.

(Cross posted on Cosmic X in Jerusalem)

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Quote of the Day

With regards to releasing terrorists

With regards to releasing terrorists to obtain the release of Gilad Shalit:

Rami Igra, former head of the Mossad's captive and MIA department who also attended the meeting, spoke of past prisoner exchange deals Israel has agreed to: "We need to keep a moral view for the long run. We have to envision those who may be killed because of the release to terrorists and not just the person held in Gaza right now."

Cross posted here.

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Gilad Shalit--Going On 900 Days

HonestReporting's blog Backspin Media notes:

The day after the world celebrated the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights with pomp and hot air, Israelis mark Gilad Shalit's 900th day in captivity.

At least the Red Cross noticed.

The Red Cross site explains what the Red Cross has done so far and is trying to do--which basically boils down to trying to see Gilad Shalit and speak to him in private:

We are pursuing dialogue with all those concerned, as we believe that is essential for achieving progress. We have to talk to those who hold a person's fate in their hands in order to be able to help that person.

The Red Cross is sincere, but still--I thought this was a bit jarring:

There are limits to what we can do and to what international humanitarian law entitles us to do when it comes to visiting people in detention or to finding out what happened to people who go missing in an armed conflict. [emphasis added]

Neither of these 2 descriptions fit the current circumstances. Shalit is neither in detention nor did he go missing. He was kidnapped by terrorists. Despite the Red Cross's best motives, their efforts thus far seem to have done nothing more than to legitimize Hamas and what they have done by equating their actions with those of a party to an armed conflict. 

If indeed the situation was one of armed conflict, why is Israel put under constant pressure to act as if there was no such conflict and open up its borders and indiscriminately allow unfettered access to Palestinian Arabs?

Not surprisingly, the Red Cross refuses to call Hamas by what they are and is reduced to 
"pursuing dialogue."

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Debate Over Gilad Shalit Continues

Shmuel Rosner has a post on Contentions about the ongoing debate in Israel about Gilad Shalit--about what the Israeli public itself can do:

Simply put: there are those who believe that Israelis should have demonstrations and rallies demanding the release of Schalit, captured by a Hamas faction in Gaza three years ago. And there are those saying that a public outcry makes it more difficult for the government to deal successfully with this delicate topic.

Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai and Ehud Barak have come out saying that public rallies will only encourage Hamas to raise their demands in exchange for Shalit's release. On the other hand, former Shin-Bet head Ami Ayalon spoke at one of those rallies, emphasizing the importance of telling the government what they think and that the same government that sent Shalit into battle must also bring him own.

In the aftermath of the Samir Kuntar deal, the situation is even more delicate.

Rosner concludes:

Strategic considerations aside, the public is sick and tired of hearing excuses as to why Shalit is still in Gaza. Since it has no way of demonstrating effectively against Hamas, it goes after the Israeli government. Problematic–but also encouraging, because means that Israelis still care for the soldiers they send to battle, that there’s still a sense of responsibility for their fate.

The question now is how to act responsibly.

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A poem for Gilad Shalit

Here is a poem I wrote for Gilad:

Gilad, please don't cry tonight

The heart of a forlorn nation

beats inside your chest

I wait with you to see the light

while brothers are laid to rest



I just want to see your face again

I only dream to see you smile

What I'd give to enter that lion's den

and just hold your hand a while

Thanks,

Anat Sivan, Tel Aviv

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IDF Warns of Increased Alerts of Plans to Abduct Soldiers

Via JPost:

Security forces are warning of increased alerts on terrorist groups’ plans to kidnap soldiers, Channel 2 reported Thursday.

IDF military police have established a special team that carries out mock abductions, and in the past week alone arrested 25 soldiers caught hitchhiking, in violation of military orders.

Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi has said in internal meetings that he would rather explain to the soldiers’ parents why their children were in jail than explain why they had fallen captive.

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Crossposted on Smooth Stone

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Fake recording of Gilad Schalit

The Jerusalem post has published an article Fake Schalit tape circulated, which is a mock recording of Gilad Schalit talking.
When you consider the content of the tape reported by JPost it apparently states;

"I am the kidnapped soldier Gilad, son of Aviva and Noam Schalit. You are invited to celebrate with me the third anniversary of my captivity by Hamas, in the last place where I was still a free man."

It soon becomes clear the tape is not authentic.
The Jerusalem Post article in full is here:
Fake Schalit tape circulated

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Gilad Shalit’s Book Now on YouTube

From the IsRealli blog:

Gilad Shalit’s book, When the Shark and the Fish First Met, now appears on YouTube to mark two years since he was kidnapped.

The Consulate General of Israel filmed five fifth-grade students from New York [Bronx Middle School] reading the story that Shalit wrote when he, too, was eleven years old. “Gilad was a boy our age when he wrote this story; if only we could write something so significant at this age. Today, no one knows where he is and he probably misses his parents,” said one of the students. “If the shark and fish can make peace, why can’t people?”

Click here to download (PDF) information about Shalit and the book.

You can also download the story in Hebrew and in translation here.

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