Weekly Commentary: The Gilad Shalit reality check
Dr. Aaron Lerner Date: 15 March, 2007

A group of radical extremist Israelis snuck into the Gaza Strip and
kidnapped a Palestinian and are holding him hostage in an unknown location.
The group has issued a series of demands to the Palestinians. Israel
Government officials say that they support the demands of the group and
suggest that it would be best for the Palestinians to end the incident
quickly by conceding to the demands. The United States Government has
offered to help expedite negotiations between the hostage takers and the
Palestinians. While the Israeli Government is not officially involved in
the kidnapping, the prime minister and other senior members of his party
have participated in negotiations as the representatives of the kidnappers.

Certainly sounds absurd.

And it is.

Because it never happened.

And it never will.

Not on the Israeli side.

But the Arab side is a different story.

This is exactly what happened when Gilad Shalit was taken hostage.

Palestinian officials didn't insist on Shalit's unconditional release and
the punishment of his kidnappers - they called on Israel to meet the
kidnapper's demands.

Egypt didn't turn the screws on Hamas and the various groups directly
involved in the operation - it has instead made efforts to facilitate an
Israeli pay-off to the kidnappers.

And the list goes on.

We Israelis have become so jaundiced that we take this all for granted.

We have reached the point that its commonplace for Palestinians to be
labeled "moderate" if that say they will only try to murder us if they can't
get their way without resorting to violence.

This deterioration of standards doesn't promote peace and reconciliation.

Dr. Aaron Lerner, Director IMRA (Independent Media Review & Analysis)
(Mail POB 982 Kfar Sava)
Tel 972-9-7604719/Fax 972-3-7255730
INTERNET ADDRESS: imra@netvision.net.il
Website: http://www.imra.org.il