Nahum Barnea, one of Israel’s most prominent journalists, wrote in the Yediot Acharonot Hebrew-language newspaper Tuesday on the negotiations for freeing kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Shalit, “In any case, we will lose.” He did not present any solution to the dilemma of Shalit’s captivity and Hamas’s demands for his release.

"The gap between the two sides is too big, and the time left to Olmert's government is too short. Of all the obligations which Olmert's government is leaving to Netanyahu's, the freeing of Shalit is the most heart-wrenching,” he concluded

Yisrael HaYom (Israel Today) published an article by Dr. Martin Sherman, who said he wrote as a former soldier, “Gilad Shalit is a soldier, not a child. The objective of his induction into the army, as in the case of every other combat soldier, is to protect the country and its citizens, even if that means forfeiting one's life. It is natural and clear that every individual citizen would be willing to make concessions in order to release a loved one, but leaders carry the burden of public responsibility."