Ehud Olmert is standing his ground on Gilad Shalit. Israel will not open the border crossings into Gaza without the return of her kidnapped soldier.
Israel will not agree to open crossings into Gaza without the return of kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit, the Prime Minister’s Office reported Saturday. Meanwhile, a Hamas official reported that talks had hit a snag because Israel was pressing for a longer-term ceasefire.
[…] “We will not open the crossings without Shalit’s release. Anything other statements are irrelevant. This is Israel’s clear stance to Egypt,” Ehud Olmert’s office said.
“Israel has a clear stance. They will open the crossings completely only after Shalit is released,” the Egyptian sources said.
“Either way, the crossings will not be open without Shalit’s release. This is a commitment that the prime minister has made and he intends to act accordingly,” read the statement from Olmert’s office.
Hamas thinks that Israel will back down this time. (I admit, I did too.) Perhaps Olmert has finally realized that he’s holding the upper hand. Or perhaps Tzipi Livni and Benjamin Netanyahu called him and informed him that one of them is going to be in charge in a few weeks, and he doesn’t get to call the shots anymore. No matter what, I’m extremely glad to see that Israel is showing Hamas who won the Gaza war.
Enfin!
One thing I must have missed – the phrase, “alive and healthy” – opening the crossings in return for a dead body still makes Israel the loser. Just in case it’s too late for that, I’d want to add – “if Shalit is dead, we’ll take Ismail Haniyeh in any condition, as long as his body is identifiable…”
Good Lord, who gave Olmert a spine implant at last?
Russ makes a good point. Personally I suspect poor Shalit has been dead for some time, perhaps a year or more. The Hamas swine will never hand over anybody, but in such a case Israel ought to take out some Hamas Higher-ups, just to make them realize that Israel can play by their rules. “They put one of ours in the morgue, we put six of theirs.”
But as long as Israel is willing to trade hundreds of terrorist prisoners for a couple of Jewish corpses outfits like Hamas will expect to get whatever they want in return for such corpses. They have no incentive to keep their prisoners alive for return. A dead one will do just as well.
Russ, you won’t see that phrase. But I think that once Shalit—or his body—is returned, you will witness the untying of Israel’s hands. There will be no further pressure not to do something that might harm the prisoner. Especially if Bibi becomes PM.
Meryl,
“But I think that once Shalit—or his body—is returned, you will witness the untying of Israel’s hands. There will be no further pressure not to do something that might harm the prisoner.”
In a war you cannot pull your punches for fear of what an enemy will do to your captured soldiers. That makes the captived soldiers hostages. That gives your enemy veto power over your strategy and tactics. Captured soldiers just have to take their chances. If Israel was allowing its hands to be tied for fear of Hamas doing something to harm Shalit it was putting peripheral considerations ahead of vital ones.
That may sound harsh and callous, even cruel, but that is the nature of war. And when a babarous enemy attacks Israel, as she has been continuously attacked for so long, Israel must defend herself with a ferocity that will put the fear of the Lord of Hosts into her enemies. Israel has no choice but to wage war when attacked, no matter what her dim-witted and pig-ignorant critics may say. The alternative is “The Return of the Shoah,” coming soon to a continent near you.