Israel Matzav

NOW they remember Gilad Shalit

I don't know about the rest of you, but watching the 'negotiations' with the Egyptians and the French unfold last week, I had the sense that the morons in the foreign ministry forgot about Gilad Shalit until the very last possible minute. The deal was essentially a done deal, when they suddenly awoke to demonstrations outside the defense ministry offices in Tel Aviv, and decided "maybe we'd better ask to include Shalit as part of the cease fire deal." Well, duh!

Now, suddenly, with the cow out the door and the IDF back on the Israeli side of the border, our moronic 'leaders' remember Shalit and wake up to the reality that they squandered an opportunity to gain his release without trading 1000 'Palestinian' terrorists for him and they are trying to shut the barn door.

It's as if Olmert, Livni and Barak have a death wish to do another trade like the Goldwasser and Regev deal in which we traded live terrorists for two black boxes of molested body parts.

According to the Channel 2 report, the heavy blow inflicted on Hamas during Operation Cast Lead has convinced some ministers who had in the past opposed the release of hundreds of terrorists with blood on their hands for Schalit, to modify their positions. [I don't understand this. If anything, the 'heavy blow' inflicted on Hamas ought to convince people that it's possible to free Shalit by military force without releasing terrorists. CiJ]

Schalit is expected to be very high on the agenda of Defense Ministry official Amos Gilad's talks with Egyptian officials in Cairo on Thursday. [Why wasn't he 'high on the agenda' until now? Why wasn't he 'high on the agenda' when the IDF was laying siege to Gaza City and we had some leverage? CiJ]

Defense Minister Ehud Barak, meanwhile, told Channel 2 that he believes the military operation in Gaza, "in more ways than one, possibly moved forward the chance that we could make progress on Gilad Schalit." [Why didn't it bring about Shalit's release? Barak has a few questions to answer in this regard. Don't expect any answers. CiJ]

At the same time, Barak said Israel should not "delude ourselves," and there were still very "difficult decisions" on the matter to be made.

That's because the easy decisions were not made during Operation Cast Lead. Someone was asleep at the wheel. Three someones: Barak, Livni and Olmert. But wait, because there's an opposite side of this coin.

AFP, meanwhile, quoted Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit as saying neither Egypt nor Israel know whether Schalit is alive.

"Whether Schalit is alive or not alive, this is a question that needs investigation now," Gheit said. "I have no information and I believe the Israeli side has no information, either."

Israeli government officials said Israel believes that Schalit is alive.

And recall what Hamas had to say on the issue yesterday. And recall that only two cabinet ministers - Ronny BarOn and Eli Yishai voted against the 'cease fire.'

At this point, Shalit may or may not be alive. I believe he was kept in the bunker with Haniyeh and Zahar underneath Shifa Hospital during the war. But if he's dead, you can bet that - like Hezbullah - Hamas is not going to tell us about it. Like their 'cousins' in Lebanon, they will want several - even hundreds - of live terrorists even if all they have to trade is a dead body.

And if they get them, we have no one but the morons currently in power in Israel to blame.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 7:56 AM