Israel Matzav

Three long years

Three years ago today, Hamas terrorists tunneled underneath the Kerem Shalom crossing point into the Gaza Strip, murdered two IDF soldiers, and grabbed then-19-year old Gilad Shalit and took him hostage. Shalit has been held almost incommunicado in the Gaza Strip ever since. As JPost pointed out in an editorial on Wednesday:

Hamas has held Schalit incommunicado. Violating international law and human decency, and although Hamas prisoners in Israel are permitted visitors, Gaza's rulers have refused to allow even the Red Cross to see their Israeli hostage.

Of course, the Red Cross didn't even ask until last week. Whether that's because they figured the answer would be 'no' anyway or because they have a visceral hatred for Israel, that's inexcusable. But so is Hamas' conduct.

The Post called for an IDF inquiry into why there was no rescue operation for Shalit. I believe the answer to that question is obvious (the powers that be at the time - Ehud K. Olmert, defenseless Defense Minister Amir "Comrade" Peretz and IDF Chief of Staff Dan Halutz - lacked the you-know-what to launch one). An inquiry would be appropriate, but it probably ought to wait for a resolution of the Shalit affair one way or the other, as the Post points out. The last thing the family needs to hear right now is what they probably already suspect - that Shalit probably could have been rescued.

The Post also notes that the government is in the process of formulating guidelines for hostage negotiations to avoid the kind of exaggerated demands that Hamas is making.

Schalit's parents have not known a day of tranquility in three years and Israel must strive to bring him safely home - but not at any cost: Hamas has been insisting on the release of 1,000 prisoners in exchange for their Israeli hostage.

This newspaper raises no objection to freeing a modest number of prisoners, provided their release won't jeopardize more Israeli lives - though we regret the release yesterday of West Bank Hamas politician Aziz Dweik, while Schalit remains a prisoner.

However, we remain adamantly opposed to trading Schalit for mass-murderers such as Abdullah Barghouti, who has the blood of 66 Israelis on his hands (Sbarro, etc.); Ibrahim Hamed, who murdered 36 (Moment café, etc); Abbas Sayad (Netanya massacre, Pessah 2006).

It is not surprising that just as talk of an imminent deal on Schalit is circulating, so too is news of a blue-ribbon Defense Ministry panel shortly submitting its proposed guidelines governing future prisoner exchanges. These would constrain decision-makers in making obscenely lopsided exchanges: There would reportedly be no more releases of vast numbers of enemy prisoners for one or two Israeli soldiers, and only terrorist corpses - not live prisoners - could be traded for fallen Israelis.

These guidelines are eminently reasonable, and should - but won't - be applied to the Schalit case.

The guidelines are sensible, but formalizing them won't make Israel - or the terror organizations - adhere to them. What will happen the first time Hamas demands more than what's permitted by law? Will we say, "sorry that's illegal"? Will someone run and appeal to the High Court of Justice asking that the law be enforced or waived? Any of those scenarios would be farcical.

What Israel ought to do is to just say no to any negotiations. Once upon a time we used to do that, and we used to back it up by launching rescue operations. While this may never be a salve on a micro level, on a macro level the country cannot allow itself to be continuously held up by kidnappings and demands for lopsided exchanges. Unfortunately, deterrence once lost is almost impossible to re-establish, but rather than making pronouncements, it would behoove Israel's politicians to refuse negotiations the next time and to do something that will make the terrorists reconsider whether kidnapping is worthwhile.

Finally, for those of you who Twitter, please use the #Gilad signal to remind the world today about Gilad Shalit's fate. I've never used a hash signal on Twitter before, but I'm about to try it with this post.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 7:16 AM