Free Gilad Shalit: Gilad Shalit

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Friday, January 21, 2011

French Minister Attacked by Gaza Mob

French Foreign Minister Michele Alliot-Marie was attacked by a mob in Gaza on Friday morning. Her attackers were enraged over statements she had allegedly made the day before supporting human rights for kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

Alliot-Marie was mobbed as she entered Gaza, with a crowd surrounding her car, pounding on its windows, and throwing shoes at the vehicle. One person jumped on the car. Two children were pushed in front of the first car in Alliot-Marie's convoy, forcing the convoy to a stop while the attack continued.

One sign at the rally had a picture of Alliot-Marie with a red cross over her face. Others called on the foreign minister to leave Gaza.

Hamas police eventually stopped the furious protest and allowed the convoy to continue. Hamas leaders expressed sympathy with the rioters, saying Alliot-Marie's comments regarding Shalit reflected a “total bias toward Israel.”

Alliot-Marie was not hurt in the attack.

She had met Thursday with the parents of Gilad Shalit. The kidnapped soldier, who Hamas claims to have in custody, holds French citizenship. Alliot-Marie assured his parents that “France has not forgotten Shalit,” and said she would insist that the European Union ask Hamas to allow Red Cross representatives to visit Shalit, as required by international law.

According to AFP, trying to 'justify' the incident, the Gaza mob may have mistakenly believed that Alliot-Marie termed Shalit's captivity a “war crime.”

Shalit's father Noam had called on France to push the EU to condemn the kidnapping as a war crime, and his statement was wrongly attributed to Alliot-Marie on Israel Radio's Arabic-language website, an AFP reporter said. This has not been corroborated.

[source]

Sunday, December 23, 2007

take advantage of the situation

The politicians and the IDF have finally done some serious, fairly proactive, attacks to neutralize the Qassam rocket attacks on Sderot and the area. It has met with considerable success. Mainly because the leaders in Gaza are scared for their lives.

This was not a ground op (which is probably necessary anyway) which puts Israeli soldiers at risk. This was targeted attacks on the leadership who are giving the ok to shoot the rockets. As soon as a couple of their leaders were knocked off, the rest ran like scared bunnies and started calling for ceasefires. The call itself is funny, as we only targeted their people because of the Qassam attacks. In other words, stop shooting Qassams, and we stop, automatically, picking off your leaders.

But they were scared, so they called for a ceasefire.

Yet at the same time they call for a ceasefire, they have still been shooting Qassam rockets into Israel. It kind of makes their call for a ceasefire meaningless. They should have stopped shooting and then call for a ceasefire. Then they could say we have stopped, let us now negotiate a ceasefire and if an agreement is not reached, then they should start up again. As it is, their call for a ceasefire is meaningless.

Israel, wisely I think, is refusing to talk to Hamas until Hamas recognizes Israel (though we all know they do talk, as they claim to have been negotiating for Shalit's release). It should keep them scared.

At the same time, I think, Israel should continue going after their leadership and knocking them off, until such an agreement is in place. Keep them scared.

What Israel should really do now, I think, is negotiate a ceasefire with Hamas. but not on Hamas' terms. Not an agreement that says Hamas stops shooting Qassam rockets and Israel stops killing terrorists.
The agreements negotiated should be that Hamas stops shooting Qassam rockets and returns Gilad Shalit to Israel, and Israel stops killing terrorists.

Now that Israel finally has some semblance of an upper-hand on the Gaza situation, we should take advantage of it. They are scared for their lives. Tell them that if they want us to stop shooting at their leaders, they should stop shooting at us and give us back Shalit.

We finally have an advantage. Let's use it.

(cross posted at the Life in Israel blog)

Free: Gilad Shalit
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Friday, December 14, 2007

(cross posted at Life in Israel )

With all this talk of a possible offensive entry by the army into Gaza due to the recent wave of Qassam rocket attacks, I consider the fate of Gilad Shalit.
All indications point to the fact that he is still alive. Going into Gaza now on an offensive will likely create a situation in which Hamas will execute, God forbid, Shalit.

Remember Nachshon Wachsman? The soldier kidnapped by Palestinians. He was held in a rigged building and while Israeli forces broke in to try to free him, the terrorists killed him in full view.

Is that what we want to happen now? Could we not have released Shalit earlier, before it came to necessity of an armed offensive in Gaza? Does the army not think that this will be Shalit's fate?

The price demanded for Shalit was very high. I was against trading so many terrorist for Shalit, and the government was as well. It is horrible to have a soldier in captivity, but when one pays too high a price for his freedom, it encourages more kidnappings.

But since then, we have released about a thousand terrorists anyway. Just as a sign of goodwill. To strengthen Abu Mazen. For free. With nothing in return.

If we were going to release a thousand terrorists, couldn't we have done it to obtain Shalit's release? Especially knowing that there would be a good chance we would need to go into Gaza on the offensive at some point?

Let's hope this scenario does not play out and Shalit comes home safely, but it is very worrying..