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Commentary;
Below is Caroline Glick’s contrast between Colombia’s steadfast struggle against the terror and subversion of Chavez nor pro-Chavez forces and the “new Israel” of one-sided “cease-fires” and dishonorable, disrepectful deals freeing terrorists to kill and maim more Jews in exchange for a single captive and/or 2 other captive body-bags.
Glick notes succinctly;
It is a failure of will rather than a failure of capacity that has brought Israel to its current cowed and humiliated condition where its media… ignores completely the very notion that he [Shalit] can be rescued.
MB
A Tale of Two Hostages, by Caroline Glick (Jerusalem Post)
Excerpts;
Exalting at her liberation by the Colombian military last week, former hostage Ingrid Betancourt exclaimed, “This is a miracle, a miracle! We have an amazing military. I think only the Israelis can possibly pull off something like this.”
Betancourt’s statement made thousands of Israelis wince.
Held hostage in the Colombian jungles for six years by the narco-terror group known as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, Betancourt, a dual Colombian-French citizen who was a Colombian senator and presidential candidate at the time she was abducted, obviously had not heard the news about the “new Israel.”
Her statements were based on her memories of the “old Israel.” She didn’t know that the “new Israel” doesn’t fight terrorists. The “new Israel” views fighting terrorists as an exercise in futility. Its leaders and military chiefs alike repeat endlessly the mantra that there is no military victory to be had, only a political accommodation.
She didn’t know that the week before she was rescued, the “new Israel” made a deal with Hizbullah to release five senior Lebanese terrorists, an unknown number of Palestinian terrorists and hundreds of bodies of dead terrorists in exchange for the bodies of IDF reservists Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser, who were murdered by Hizbullah two years ago.
The “new Israel” is the Israel that maintains one-sided “cease-fires” with Hamas and is poised to make a deal with Hamas by which it will release up to a thousand Palestinian terrorists in exchange for IDF hostage Gilad Schalit.
No, Betancourt, was thinking of the “old Israel” – the Israel that electrified the world when it sent its commandos thousands of kilometers to free its hostages in Entebbe 32 years ago. It was that memory of Israeli heroism that doubtless gave hope to Betancourt and her fellow hostages as they languished in FARC captivity in the jungle, malnourished, ill-treated and terrorized. The Entebbe rescue allowed them to fantasize that one day, they too would be rescued and their tormentors would be brought to justice. And last week, their dreams came true.
Israel’s abdication of its struggle against its terrorist enemies was as swift and unmistakable as it was inexplicable. Rather than following up Israel’s military defeat of the Palestinian terror machine in Judea and Samaria in 2002 with a similar operation in Gaza or with a political offensive against the PLO that Defensive Shield exposed as the central engine behind the Palestinian terror war, Sharon opted to withdraw from the fight and return to the discredited policy of appeasement that Israeli voters had twice rejected.
“Far from obscuring the yawning gap between Colombia and Israel, these reports…. how clearly that Israel’s decision to capitulate has nothing to do with an inability to fight to victory.”
In contrast, the Uribe government in Colombia has never veered from its single-minded goal of defeating FARC both militarily and politically. With US assistance, Uribe has rebuilt Colombia’s military into a highly competent counterinsurgency force. His counterinsurgency has brought both defeat and demoralization to FARC’s doorstep. FARC’s guerrilla force, which numbered 18,000 just a few years ago, has been reduced by an estimated 50 percent. Busy with their own survival, FARC’s remaining forces have been unable to conduct any sustained operations against the Uribe government or rank and file Colombians in recent years. Restored security has brought economic growth and prosperity. And both have stabilized the Uribe government.
THE ISRAELI media’s response to the Colombia rescue mission has been to inflate the “Israeli role” in the mission. Numerous reports have been published in the local press about the fact that the Colombians hired retired IDF generals Yisrael Ziv and Yossi Kupperwasser to help them build up their counterterror capabilities.
Far from obscuring the yawning gap between Colombia and Israel, these reports bring Israel’s abandonment of the fight into sharp relief. They show clearly that Israel’s decision to capitulate has nothing to do with an inability to fight to victory. It is a failure of will rather than a failure of capacity that has brought Israel to its current cowed and humiliated condition where its media argues over how many terrorists should be exchanged for Schalit and ignores completely the very notion that he can be rescued.
Speaking of her experience and of her rescue in Paris this week, Betancourt, who over the years tried to escape five times, was clear that she preferred freedom to slavery, even if it came only in death. As French philosopher Andre Glucksmann wrote in City Journal, it was freedom, not life, that she held most sacred. And while she understood her family’s actions, she clearly did not embrace their pacifism as she praised Uribe for rescuing her despite the risk that the mission would fail and she and her fellow hostages would be killed.
It is hard to imagine that as a soldier, Schalit feels any differently. Why should we assume that he prefers to live as a slave rather than to die in a quest for freedom?
It is a travesty that in their inexplicable abandonment of honorable struggle against murderous foes in favor of dangerous appeasement, Olmert and his colleagues have denied Schalit the respect due a warrior and have denied the IDF the right to fight for Israel’s freedom.
Excerpt;
Authorities have ordered Abdelatif to leave Italy within 15 days. Abdelatif was given a 25-year sentence for being a member of the four-man team that took over the Italian cruise ship off the Egyptian coast. [Lawyer Francesco] Romeo said his client’s sentence was reduced for good behavior.
[Bandwagon Syndrome] Poll: Majority of Israelis Support Prisoner Release, by Dr. Aaron Lerner ( IMRA)
Prime Minister’s Media Adviser Statement Regarding the Abducted Soldiers Deal