Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Schalit and the Gaza conflict

Finally a serious strategy by an Israeli Govt. to release Gilad Schalit after he has been in captivity for 2 years in Gaza, without any visit even by the Red Cross. What is it that Hamas wants most, the opening of the crossings between Israel and Gaza and Egypt and Gaza, in order not only to bring in food and other humanitarian supplies, but also to smuggle in arms. The Israeli Govt. still under PM Olmert until the changeover to the newly elected coalition, has now stated publicly that it will not agree to the opening of the crossings until Gilad Schalit is released.
Over time the "price" demanded for Schalit by Hamas has risen. First, according to reports, it was 400 Palestinian prisoners, then it was several Palestinian leaders, including Marwan Barghouti, leader of the "young" Fatah, then it was 1,000 prisoners, then after the Gaza War it was 1,400 prisoners, including the leaders. With time their demands get more unrealistic, yet the Israeli Govt, is prepared to deal, except until now they didn't even try to exercise real pressure on Hamas. Meanwhile Hamas has said that they will not connect the case of Schalit with the ceasefire deal after the Gaza war. There are still some unknowns in that deal, which is being negotiated with Egypt as intermediary. First, will the ceasefire be 1 year, 1.5 year or open-ended; second, will the crossings be 'open' or will they still be controlled by Israel with some EU, Turkish or other international forces. These details have not been announced, so at this point noone knows if a deal is in the offing or not.
The question is why did it take so long, until the end of the Olmert-Kadima Govt. for there to be a real attemtp to put pressure on Hamas to release Schalit. One reason might be that if Netanyahu of Likud becomes next PM he intends to make Schalit's release a definite priority, for example by stopping providing food and humanitarian supplies to our enemies in Gaza. Also, we supply them with 75% of their electricity and nearly all of their drinking water. Can any one give me an example in history when it was expected that a country being bombarded every day by rockets is supposed to keep its enemies alive! Certainly there are other ways to resolve such situations with civilized peoples, but so far the holders of Schalit have not even allowed a single visit by any international humanitarian agency. They don't deserve to be treated as if they are decent civilized people. Yes, it will be tough on the ordinary people of Gaza, but that's life, that's the result of voting in a repressive, murderous, terrorist regime like Hamas. So maybe that's why Olmert after 2 years of inaction is now taking action, he doesn't want to see his successor do what he should have done a long time ago.

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