The renewed pressure campaign on the government to “do whatever it can” to free Gilad Shalit is very dangerous, warns the Chairman of the Knesset’s Foreign Workers Committee, MK Yaakov Katz.
Katz made the remarks at the start of today’s Committee meeting, which dealt with government encouragement for Israelis, and especially young army veterans, to enter the construction field. He began, however, by saying some “unpopular things from a media point of view, regarding the orchestrated campaign entitled the ‘Struggle for the Release of Gilad Shalit.’”
“We are witness these days to systematic and well-timed pressure on the part of various media regarding this struggle,” Katz said, “in which the hidden but direct cost is to be the release of 1,000 terrorist murderers from this past decade from prison.”
"The motto of those organizing this campaign seems to be, ‘If you pressure, you will receive’ – reminiscent of Netanyahu’s own ‘If they [the PA leaders] give, they will receive [concessions]’... Everyone talks about how weak and susceptible to pressure the Prime Minister is, and they take full advantage of it.”
“This is not just an issue of taxing vegetables,” Katz said. “This is the crossing of red security lines that could bring about mass murders. Not one of the journalists or broadcasters leading this strategy would be willing to pay the price personally and sacrifice himself or his children in the bloodbath that can be foreseen after such a wholesale release.”
“I wish to be the mouthpiece for the clear majority of this nation who are not willing to face such a situation," said MK Katz, "but whose voice is not heard in the media. We must recognize the truth: There are very painful situations that simply don’t have a solution; an entire nation cannot sacrifice itself because of an individual case, as painful as it is.”
Tomorrow, Friday, will mark exactly four years since Shalit was captured by Hamas-affiliated terrorists in an underground raid across the Israel-Gaza border. The European Council called today for Hamas to allow the Red Cross to visit him – something that the terrorist organization has never allowed, and announced today it would not allow. World events in Shalit’s honor include the darkening of the lights at