Corporal Gilad Shalit was abducted by Hamas more than half-a-decade ago. Not taken in battle, not a prisoner of war of a foreign country. Kidnapped by a band of thugs. Since then, he languishes in a Hamas cell, isolated from the world, with not even the Red Cross to visit him he's denied even the most basic rights accorded to prisoners everywhere. And that is because he's not a POW, he's a hostage and his kidnappers are not soldiers, they are thugs. But I've said that about them before haven't I, that they are thugs? What else can I call them?
To return Gilad, Hamas demands that hundreds of Palestinian terrorists are let go. The numbers change, names are added and erased from the list but that's the core of it. These terrorists are currently in Israeli jails and are given food, shelter, medical treatment, access to communications and the Red Cross and other international organizations monitor their conditions. Many here feel that it's more than they deserve but that's beside the point.
But what Hamas wants most is not their murderers back, most of all they want to establish a sort of equivalency. To make an Israeli soldier kidnapped at gunpoint seem the same as a Hamas terrorist, caught and tried and jailed after killing civilians in a terrorist attack.
There's no equivalency, but you can see why the thought would appeal to the leadership.
That's what they want. We just want our kid back. We want to make good on Israel's promise to its soldiers that none of them will be left behind.
Six birthdays in captivity for no crime, just for being a conscripted soldier in the Israeli army doing his duty. There is no hell, but in this case I wish there was one so that the cowards that did this and are still doing it could have a place where they could rot forever.
Well said!
ReplyDelete