According to a JTA Breaking News item (Published: 5 September 2008):

Hamas’ leader in Damascus promised to deliver a letter to captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit from Shalit’s father.

The letter to Shalit … went from Shalit’s father to French President Nicolas Sarkozy to Syrian President Bashar Assad to the emir of Qatar to Khaled Meshaal … Meshaal said he would forward it to Hamas’ leadership in the Gaza Strip, who could deliver the letter to Shalit.

Now I suppose we should all fall over ourselves with gratitude for this magnanimous, humanitarian gesture on the part of the Hamas leader?  How is it that the leader of a gang of murderous kidnappers manages to look the part of the compassionate statesman, granting favours to an anguished father and his grovelling countrymen?

This reinforces once again the need for Israel to follow a rigid protocol when dealing with kidnap victims, MIAs and POWs.  Even when confronting a terrorist organisation or illegal combatants, the protocol should follow as closely as possible that adopted when dealing with another sovereign nation.  With regard to the letter, for instance, I imagine that it should have forwarded through the offices of the ICRC.  The pressure and focus should then be on the ICRC to not only ensure delivery of the letter, but also to carry out its obligations to ensure Shalit’s well being.

Israel cannot ever again allow family members, the media and the public to hijack the process of attempting to secure the release of hostages.  We have already seen what happens:  Israel ends up with coffins, and the murderers go home to their victory parades.  To my mind, there is little doubt that our “dead or alive” approach towards getting the 2006 MIAs back resulted in the first option becoming the reality.

I know that in the same situation, I would be doing the same as Gilad Shalit’s father.  It is up to the organs of state, however, to ensure that they are in the driver’s seat.

It’s more than just a letter.

(p.s.  On a completely unrelated subject, why doesn’t the JTA allow for comments on these Breaking News items?  Hopefully this is one of the shortcomings that will be addressed with the revamp of their website in September/October.)

Breaking News - JTA, Jewish & Israel News