Tuesday June 27, 2006

Column:

Armies take captives. Terrorists kidnap.

Palestinian terrorists killed two Israeli Defense Force soldiers and kidnapped a third, Gilad Shalit. The Palestinian attack on an Israeli military outpost was well planned and executed. Better planned and executed than the myriad other attacks that Palestinian forces regularly attempt and that the Israeli army regularly thwarts.

Israel is calling for Hamas, the terrorist force behind the kidnapping, to return their soldier alive and unharmed. Israel is saying that unless their soldier is returned they will temporarily re-invade Gaza, home base for the terrorists, and destroy Hamas the organization and Hamas the ruling government.

If Israel does enter Gaza they will, I believe, hit hard and furious. The IDF will conduct surgical strikes, targeting terrorist leaders and operatives. They will also conduct non-discriminatory strikes in order to stimulate all Palestinians to feel the fear of reprisal. If Israel re-enters Gaza there will be massive damage and many casualties.

For Israel the trade-off is Gilad Shalit or the elimination of Hamas in Gaza.

For the Palestinians the trade-off is an Israeli invasion into Gaza for the unity of their people.

Hamas, for their part, is actually looking forward to, even welcoming an Israeli strike. They see it as the perfect opportunity to unify a divided Palestinian people against the common enemy. They see it as a way to bring gun-toting, warring, Fatah and Hamas and Islamic Jihad members together under the umbrella of Hatred Of The Israeli.

Responsibility for the bold attack has been claimed by three Hamas groups: Hamas proper, The Popular Resistance Committees, and a little known Hamas organization called The Army of Islam. The groups have issued a joint statement. They have two demands. The soldier will be returned to Israel in exchange for all female Palestinian prisoners and all Palestinian minors imprisoned in Israel.

Within the Palestinian Authority there has been a call to try to find the Israeli soldier and free him. Some voices within the Hamas-led government have spoken out against the kidnapping. Mahmoud Abbas the president of the Palestinian Authority has begged the kidnappers to let no harm come to the soldier. But this official PA condemnation of the terrorist attack is, I believe, nothing more than a diplomatic ploy taken out of the Yasser Arafat Handbook Of Damage Control Following A Successful Mission Against Israel. Arafat, the mastermind of many attacks would, immediately following the attacks, express outrage, cry out for the culprits and say generally anything he thought would stave off Israeli reprisal.

Despite the few public requests, it seems quite clear that Hamas leadership certainly in Damascus knew about the attack and that they are responsible for the attack. Hamas operates under the principle that military targets are fair game and they claim this attack - rightfully - as a great military victory. They also claim to have disabled the tank, the powerful Israeli war machine with nothing more than good planning and the aid of Allah.

Outside of Gaza there is criticism and condemnation of the kidnapping of Gilad Sharit. Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, France, the United States and the United Nations have been trying, through diplomatic maneuverings, to make headway with Hamas and with the specific Hamas groups responsible for the kidnapping. A personal call was placed to the prime minister of the Palestinian Authority expressing the hope that the entire matter would end peacefully. The prime minister, a Hamas member, a Muslim Fundamentalist, accepted that personal call - from the Pope.

Inside Gaza there is dancing and celebration. As I monitor the Palestinian press I know that the Palestinian people - leaders, thinkers, family members of the attackers, mothers of Palestinians in Israeli prisons and men and women on the street - take pride in the actions of the kidnappers. The Palestinians are heaping congratulations upon the terrorists who conducted a daring raid that immobilized an Israeli tank and that killed two soldiers and wounded and kidnapped Gilad Shalit. I would not be surprised if there were more kidnappings to come.

Palestinians are saying that they must make certain that at least ten Palestinian prisoners are exchanged for the one Israeli. One mother asks why her three children sitting in Israeli prisons are less valuable than the one soldier. I'll tell her why.
Her children were not kidnapped, they are in a prison.
Her children receive three proper meals a day, food that is good, plentiful and nutritious, probably better than the rest of her family eats.
Her children have fresh air, medical treatment, heat in the winter even air conditioning in the summer.
Her children's lives are not at risk and they may even get out of prison in time.

Most of all, the lives of her children and of the children of all Palestinian mothers have been decreed less important, less valuable, less worthy not by the Israelis, but by the Palestinian people themselves.