March for Shalit
March for ShalitIsrael news photo: Flash 90

A major player in Israel's mainstream electronic media refused to take part in the public campaign to pressure the government into meeting Hamas's terms for freeing abducted IDF soldier First Sgt. Gilad Shalit. The move by Channel 1 government-run television has some nationalist Israelis breathing a sigh of relief, after years in which the media appeared to be under the complete control of forces that advocated surrender to Hamas's demands at any cost.

The campaign for Shalit is centering on a mass march from the Galilee to Jerusalem, which started Sunday morning and is being carried live by many mainstream channels on television and internet.  

As the Shalit family made final preparations for the march, however, Channel 1 opened its weekend edition with grim statistics regarding the results of previous deals with terror groups, in which murderous terrorists were freed from Israeli jails.   

In 2004, anchorwoman and reporter Ayala Hasson told viewers, the government of Ariel Sharon released 400 terrorists in the Tenenbaum deal with Hizbullah. More than 200 of these went back to terrorist activity after their release. In August of 2004, 16 Israelis were murdered in a terror attack in central Be'er Sheva. The terrorist who coordinated the attack from Hevron was Assab a-Shlamon, who had been released in the Tenebaum deal several months earlier. In early 2005, ten Israelis were killed in two attacks in central Israel, carried out under the leadership of Luai Saado of Samaria, who had also been released in the Tenenbaum deal.  

All in all, 27 Israelis were murdered by terrorists freed in the deal, which secured the release of Elchanan Tenenbaum, who had been abducted in Lebanon while conducting a drug-related transaction.

The Israeli government is refusing to release terrorist murderers to Judea and Samaria. Instead, it has offered to release them to Gaza or other countries. In addition, it refuses to release 30 of the most murderous and notorious terrorists.

Non-mainstream website News1 has accused the two leading newspapers, Yediot Acharonot and Maariv, of supporting the campaign as part of their effort to topple the Netanyahu government. The wish to get rid of Netanyahu, News1 writers hinted, could be connected to the newspapers' anger at a relatively new competitor, freebie newspaper Yisrael Hayom, which is perceived as being pro-Netanyahu.   

The Almagor terror victims' group has also accusedYediot and Maariv of colluding to destabilize the government. Conspiracy theorists say that the newspapers are trying to force Netanyahu into making a disastrous deal, and that they intend to turn on him and accuse him of weakness immediately after he does so.

Almagor and numerous security experts have claimed for years that releasing terrorists involves an unacceptable security risk and a loss of deterrent power for Israel. However, Israeli media, except for Arutz Sheva, have usually ignored these claims.