The army unit comrades of Gilad Shalit are completing their 3-year compulsory army service with a march to the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv on his behalf. Shalit has been held in captivity by Hamas-affiliated terrorists in Gaza for over two years.
Shalit's comrades completed their service and signed out of the army, as is customary, at the Bakum - Recruitment Center - in Tel HaShomer this morning (Tuesday), and from there, plan to proceed - at 2 PM - on a two-hour march to the Defense Ministry headquarters in southern Tel Aviv. A major rally will be held this evening in Tel Aviv's Rabin Square, in which thousands of people are expected to call for Shalit's release.
Negotiations Appear to be Stalled
Though Israel's recent release of five Lebanese terrorists, including child-murderer Samir Kuntar, in exchange for the bodies of two abducted soldiers was expected to give a jump-start to negotiations for Shalit's release, this does not appear to have happened. Neither has the temporary ceasefire with Hamas seem to have had any effect. "The calm has been in place for a month and a half already, and there is still no progress on his release," Gilad's father Noam said last night.
Both Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Hamas, however, have declared their intention to keep the negotiations secret.
Soldiers to Barak: Where is Gilad?
The marchers plan to read aloud from a letter they wrote to Prime Minister Olmert and Defense Minister Barak, the bottom line of which is, "We are out; when will Gilad be out as well?"
Of the 11 soldiers who joined the army together with Shalit three years ago, two of them are signing up for an additional term of service. Gilad, too, will be officially listed on the IDF computers as a "career serviceman," until his release from captivity.
The 11 will meet with Barak today. Maariv-NRG quoted a "source close to the soldiers" as saying, "They will tell Minister Barak that they are willing to do anything that will help return Gilad home from captivity."
Price Expected to Rise
It is widely expected that the recent deal with Hizbullah will raise the price Israel will be expected to pay for Shalit. The five live terrorists and nearly 200 bodies that Israel paid for two corpses means, to Hamas at least, that a live soldier is worth many times that amount.
Hamas Not Clear on its Demands
Hamas has been demanding close to 1,000 terrorists - though it cannot seem to agree on exactly which ones. The various factions connected with the abduction have been able to compile a list of only 320 agreed-upon names, of which Israel has agreed to free only 71. Israel has agreed in principle, however, to release nearly 300 other prisoners in exchange for Shalit.
Against Paying a High Price
Many voices have been raised against paying a high price for Shalit's freedom, though these do not usually receive much air time in the Israeli media. A prominent spokesman for this approach is IDF Col. (ret.) Meir Indor of the Almagor Terror Victims Association. He has long warned that at least 30% of released terrorists return to terrorist activity, "thus creating another cycle of terror and bloodshed."
Indor also notes the harmful effects of the widely-publicized pressure by the families on the government: "Our enemies monitor our newspapers and media very carefully, and they view as weakness the tearful appeals of families for their missing sons. This causes them to raise their price. An example of this is the infamous 1985 Jibril Deal; [PFLP head Ahmed] Jibril himself later said that after he heard the cries of the mothers of the abducted soldiers and understood the extent of their pressure on the Israeli government, he raised his price from 200 to 2,000 prisoners, ultimately 'compromising' on 1,160."
"The more that families campaign for their abducted sons, the more pressure they put on the government - the more they play into the hands of Hizbollah and Hamas," Indor said. "That is sad but true."