28-10-2011

On June 25, 2006, Hamas terrorists infiltrated into Israeli territory near the Gaza Strip and kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Shalit. Since the abduction, Shalit had been held captive in Gaza, with no access to the Red Cross or other humanitarian organizations, and only twice did Hamas release signs to verify his life. The kidnapping of an Israeli soldier presents Israel's leaders with terrible ethical, moral, legal, political, religious and strategic dilemmas. There are historic precedents of which a leader must be aware, official protocols that must be followed and many factors to consider.


After years of unsuccessful negotiations, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on October 11, 2011, that an agreement had been signed in which Israel agreed to release more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the freedom of Shalit. However there are grave doubts about the legality of PM to do so as the Israeli laws in fact prohibited such a realise by exchange. So let us look at the facts; The Jewish law commands that ransom can be paid for a captive. The Talmud clearly stipulates that "to save one Jewish life is as if you saved an entire world." However, although this sounds straight forwards it is not so straight forwards as may be thought. There are Halachic edicts that say redeeming captives should not be done for a price that may endanger the community as a whole.



Here now we have the question; is the realise of Shalit done by an act of paying a ransom as no ransom is paid. It is hardly to see the release of 1000 prisoners as a ransom; it is more a simple swap. However, by doing so the PM takes the risk that the enemies of Israel, and that being 2/3 of the world population, encouraging Israel's enemies to take more captives. Is it worth the risk of more soldiers being kidnapped to pay a ransom for the release of one? In short No it is not, it is caving in. Shalit was a soldier and soldiers know that the high risk of their fact of being a soldier is that the change is great to be killed in action or as a captive by rogue enemies.



If the enemies of Israel know that even if they are captured or even when their leaders are captured they can get their realise later by capturing more Israeli soldiers either during an Israeli raid on their property as so many times unfortunately does happen or simple kidnap one at his home so that they can eventually win their release by kidnapping even more soldiers, won't they be more motivated to attack Israelis, they would, would they?



On the other hand man can say and such sayings are made mainly via commutations who do not have experience in the army; if no effort is made to redeem a soldier, how will other soldiers react when called upon to fight for their country? Will they fight if they believe their leaders will abandon them if they are captured? This is a question, however, a question that a soldier never ask themselves as the chance is remote and even with the remoteness of this is a risk a soldier takes by joining the army, the writer himself an former army officer with one war and several actions behind him, has never been asked that question and to be honest never have though about it till now. As such that question should not been on a soldiers mind, if it is he should leave the army ad its earliest opportunity.



That the family of the captive and their supporters protesting and demanding that you bring their child home is either here nor there. If they cannot stand the heat then they should have persuade their child not to join the army and/or put the question in front of their CO. The media's always out to make money out of someone else problems to sell air space or newspapers will publicise the capture plight, of which they do not have a clue as in this case most certainly they did not know where was or what he was doing. They will highlight the suffering of the family and let the story run and run to get the maximum out of their publications. They will tell the family that the government and the army don't do anything to release the captive and are not willing to pay a ransom.



The families of victims of the terrorists who are now in jail are sympathetic to the soldier's plight, but ask why one soldier's life is more valuable than those of their loved ones who died during the fighting a fighting that nine out of ten always is started by Israel. Take the explosions Eilat allocated to Hamas of Gaza, while it turned out to be done by rebels from the Gebel El Tih area in the Sinai in revenge of dislocation of and the destruction of their villages, still Israel took revenge on Gaza.



The many more deaths by the people of Palestine, the people Gaza, for no other reason because they are people of Gaza. Arrested for unknown reasons, slung in jail to rot for no reason tens of thousands of them in Israeli jails where about in many cases unknown and in many cases unknown of they are still being alive. Hence the Israeli could release 1000 of them against one soldier, those thousands or thousands others will be shortly taken over their places left in Israeli jails for just stepping on the wrong stone, walking to close to a Jew, having the wrong cloths on they wearing etc. etc. The Israeli will come out with a statement that those wrong doers are arrested for hideous crimes unspecified and that a military court will jail them.



The Israeli cabinet approved the agreement by a vote of 26-3 in the Cabinet on October 11, 2011. The heads of the Mossad (Tamir Pardo), Internal Security Services (Yoram Cohen) and the IDF (Benny Gantz) all voiced their support for the plan. The three dissenting votes were cast by Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman (Yisrael Beiteinu), Vice Prime Minister Moshe Ya'alon (Likud) and National Infrastructure Minister Uzi Landau (Yisrael Beiteinu). The deal stipulated that Israel would release 1,027 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Shalit. On October 15, 2011, the Israel Prison Services released the names of the 477 prisoners who would be released in the first stage of the deal to take place on October 18, 2011. Two months later, sometime near the end of 2011, Israel will release another 550 Palestinian prisoners of its choosing. They will use the two months to round up 550 innocent people and then realise them by the end of December. Most of the Palestinians will be allowed to return to their homes in the West Bank or Gaza, but some will be deported the question where to and how can that be checked.



In the early afternoon on October 18, 2011, Gilad Shalit officially crossed from Gaza, through the Egyptian border, into Israel. He immediately underwent both physical and psychological exams to test his health and strength and was then transported to meet his family and Israeli leaders at an IDF base near Tel Aviv. He was to be found healthy in physical and psychological terms. This means that the Media stories high lightening the problems of Shalit were a pure fabrication to sell air space and newspapers. Palestinians throughout the disputed territories celebrated as the prisoners released by Israel returned to Gaza and the West Bank.


Israel must do everything it can to redeem its captive soldiers like Shalit because if it does not, IDF soldiers may retreat in battle rather than risk capture. The Israeli, the Jewish have a Jewish obligation, known as pidyon shvuyim, which has been cited in order to save Jewish lives for centuries.
Drafting its young citizens into the military seals Israel into a social contract with those new soldiers - they will dedicate and sacrifice for the country but they must know that the country will do the same for them and the country as any other country except the UK would do. However they can do such only when it is safe to do so, it has no use to risk the life’s of others who can be killed or captured to save one.



Though more than 1,000 terrorists are being released as part of the deal, the majority of those with "blood on their hands" will be exiled from the country. The question here is which country, they are in Israel and Palestinian West Bank and Gaza are different countries, even as Israel and the US/UK sees them as part of Israel they are not. So to which country one may ask? The others who will return to Gaza and the West Bank will be subject to constant monitoring from the Israeli security services. This means they are as we call it under licence and can be picked up anytime the Israel wants to. That is not a release and as such no ransom is paid as they are still under Israeli control, even if not behind bars.



The highest "value" Palestinian terrorists, including Marwan and Abdallah Barghouti, will not be released. Those released are mostly foot soldiers or those who helped transport terrorists, not those who necessarily planned large-scale attacks. In fact only those who are suspected of being Palestinian with the urge for freedom will be released. The Shalit family has suffered for more than five years without their son, not even knowing his physical or mental conditions. It is beyond time to return Gilad to his loving family and a country that has mobilized in his support as it is to the thousand released Palestinians who are held under primitive Israeli jail conditions, under conditions that must be effecting their physical and mental condition, even more so for the many children Israel has jailed via the army courts, image what it will do for their way of thinking. Image what the mothers and the families of those must be going through, the suffering the impossibility of the not having your child with you.



The Israeli government has an obligation not to redeem captives at any price. If terrorists know that they will likely be freed in the future if their compatriots are able to strike a deal, Israel loses all of its deterrence power in the fight against terrorism. Look at the Netherlands they never have given in to any terrorist group regardless of they came from the Malaccan (Indonesia) or from Palestine. They never negotiated and never gave in hence no terrorist attacks there. The mistake the PM of Israel has made is the allow this farce to go on, exchanging hundreds of Palestinians for one Israeli soldier could encourages future captures and kidnappings of Israel soldiers by Hamas or any other Palestinian group. Though these groups have constantly engaged in such defending attacks against Israel who has broken all agreements and taken and still are taken their country, their property, their land for that reason they will now be even more motivated.



Many of the thousands of released in past exchanges have returned to terror Israel they say without supplying any proof of this, while Israel as we know have in the last couple of years broken International Laws ignored UN resolution, killed innocent people by high sea piracy and we may expect that released soldiers will take up where they left off as that is their job kill and conquer. Many of the so-called terrorist Israel put for life in jail have turned out to be just elders with a grudge against the robber and thief of their land and property, Israel. That is the sole reason they are jailed for life, they protested. Is that terror or is that simple defending your house and home against invaders, it was wrong to put them in jail to start with as now they are permanent enemies of Israel, while before negotiation would have solved a problem. It is the Israeli arrogance that is in the way of a humanly approach by Israel.



Hamas has had dramatically waning prominence amongst the Palestinian people since its election of Gaza in 2007 and, more recently, because of its opposition to the Palestinian Authority Unilateral Independence plan. Giving them such a victory like this will certainly boost their stature and importance.



IDF soldiers who have risked life and limb to capture these 1,000 terrorists over the past few decades, a risk they should have taken as a soldier, but those “foreign” citizens captured, should not have been jailed. Israel should remember his history. They have been on this road of arrogance many times before in the last three thousand years. As a result they were time after time destroyed to live world-wide without a country. Stalin did give them a country, larger and richer and economic more vial able then Israel is now but they rejected it, as the neighbour was to strong for them to over run. Tens, if not hundreds, of soldiers have been killed in these illegal operations and to just let them some of them free is like turning your back on the soldiers and saying we did wrong.



Thousands of Israelis lost loved ones in attacks committed by these Palestinians after they the Israeli’s attacked Gaza or the West Bank or tried to invade Syria or Lebanon. Allowing those Palestinians now to be released will harm these civilians in immeasurable ways - they may suffer emotional trauma, even PTSD, and will lose the closure they received when their family's murderers were imprisoned. But at least they should learn that attacking other countries taking their people prisoner if they object allocating all kind of crimes against them without delivering any upstanding proof does not solve the problems of Israel’s land grabbing stealing and murder.



After wars with its neighbors, Israel has exchanged prisoners of war for Israeli soldiers and civilians. Though Israel has been reluctant to negotiate with them. However under pressure it has agreed to exchange prisoners held in its jails for Israelis captured in the past.



IDF commanders know that one of the best "prizes" for a terrorist organization is the kidnapping of a soldier to hold as ransom for the release of imprisoned terrorists. In response, the IDF established its "Hannibal Protocol," which is ingrained in IDF doctrine and taught to every IDF soldier. The "Hannibal Protocol" stipulates that if a soldier sees another soldier being kidnapped on the battlefield, or is being kidnapped himself; he must do everything in his power to assure that the kidnappers do not escape with their captive. In short he has to kill the soldier and/or his captures. The killing of those Israeli soldiers is then pinpointed to the enemy as a ruthless killing of the single soldier by an overpowering might. Sounds like rubbish? Well it is!



For example, before the ground invasion of Gaza in Operation Cast Lead in 2008, IDF commanders warned their troops that Hamas would try to kidnap soldiers. It was stressed that the soldiers must be ready to kill their friends, or themselves, to prevent capture. One officer in the Golani Brigade went so far as saying that a soldier should detonate grenades to blow himself up in the case that all other options failed to stop a kidnapping. The IDF stands by this protocol, despite its grim orders, because of the belief that a captured soldier could be tortured and that they do believe as it is that what they do to their prisoners, and that their eventual release would likely involve a costly rescue operation, greed is always a sore point in Israel, or a prisoner exchange and that these options are worse than death to be added; as it cost money and time, and time is money and spending money on a soldiers release is therefore a waste and as such he should kill himself instead being captured. Barbaric, well yes but then again this is Israel. Non-western States, the IDF is translated in Israeli Death Force.



The capture and ransoming of Jews is not a new phenomenon as the Jewish history shows they always attacked their neighbours. Throughout history, Jews have been threatened their neighbours who they always did see as enemies and Jewish communities sometimes went to extraordinary lengths to redeem captives. Indeed, the Talmud considers pidyon shvuyim a commandment and says that captivity is worse than starvation and death. Maimonides rules that he who ignores ransoming a captive is guilty of transgressing commandments such as “you shall not harden your heart”; “you shall not stand idly by the blood of your brother”; and “you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Additionally, one who delays in ransoming a captive is considered like a murderer. Indeed, Maimonides himself wrote letters exhorting his fellow Jews to redeem captives and collect money for pidyon shvuyim; the Cairo Genizah even contains receipts to Jews who donated funds for that purpose. And paying a ransom is not the wrong way; the enemy has something you want so an exchange can be made. However an exchange of prisoners is not the same as paying a ransom.



According to the Mishnah, there is one major exception to pidyon shvuyim:
One does not ransom captives for more than their value because of Tikkun Olam (precaution for the general good) and one does not help captives escape because of Tikkun Olam…This Mishnah was codified by the standard codes of Jewish law. The Babylonian Talmud gives two different explanations for this edict:
A) Do not ransom captives because it will eventually cause a great financial burden on the community;
B) Redeeming captives will give incentive to the kidnappers to seize more captives
The Talmud, however, does not decide which explanation is correct and contemporary scholars have debated the issue for generations.



The main reason what is left is to question as why now, why thousand when 500 would have done the same trick. Obvious there was something that urged the Israeli PM to get a move on and get it done. Was it the suspected attack on Syria or actions inside Iran and the fear that Hamas would take revenge by killing Shalit? Or was there another reason that forced the PM's hand.

Only time will tell.