No Misunderstanding; Olmert Ducked Out on the 3 Captives

Olmert: Remarks on IDF Captives Were Misunderstood, by Hana Levi Julian (Israel National News)

For context, click here.

31 July; Olmert on National TV: “We will stop the war when the threat is removed… our captured soldiers return home safely and you are able to live in safety and security.”

Early August; Tzipy Livni: Made a similar commitment; “Israel would not accept any ceasefire arrangement that did not include the release of all three soldiers.”

Excerpts;

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Tuesday his comments this week to students about the cabinet’s decision to agree to a ceasefire with Lebanon this summer were ‘misunderstood.’

The Prime Minister told a group of 11th graders at the Amal High School in Nahariya on Monday that he decided during the second Lebanon War this summer to agree to a ceasefire to avoid risking the lives of more soldiers.

The other option, rejecting the United Nations-brokered agreement and continuing the war, would not necessarily have secured the release of IDF reservists Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, he said.

“What Should We Have Done?”

At the bottom line, said the Prime Minister, the needs of the many outweighed the needs of the few.

“What should we have done?” he asked. “Keep fighting and maybe create dozens more bereaved families to accelerate the return of two people – and I hope they are still alive – for whom it was a question of spending a little more or a little less time in captivity, in the face of the possibility or certainty that many dozens more would be killed in the continued fighting?”

The Committee for Captured Soldiers was quick to issue a statement in response. “We ask that the Prime Minister say less and do much more to bring about the release of the captives from Lebanon,” said the statement.

The Committee also warned, “The Prime Minister should be very careful with his words so that they are not, Heaven forbid, misinterpreted.”

Olmert’s remarks came in response to a question about why he had agreed to the ceasefire even though Hizbullah refused to free the two hostages.

In the Beginning….

In a nationally-televised address in Tel Aviv on July 31, the Prime Minister declared, “We will stop the war when the threat is removed… our captured soldiers return home safely and you are able to live in safety and security.”

Foreign Minister Tzipy Livni made a similar commitment in early August in response to concerns expressed by families of the hostages, including IDF Cpl Gilad Shalit, who was kidnapped by Hamas terrorists in June.

The families told Livni they feared Israel would accept a ceasefire while their sons remained in the hands of their terrorist captors. Livni responded that Israel would not accept any ceasefire arrangement that did not include the release of all three soldiers.

Commentary;

Once again, as with a long succession of previous Israeli governments regarding the MIAs and regarding Jonathan Pollard, the credo of not abandoning soldiers on the battlefield which was a central precept in the formation of the Israel Defense Forces has been abandoned, long abandoned.

There is no credibility and no credible deterrence, particularly in the Middle East, when policies and commitments are not kept and maintained. MB