A security source does not like the well-publicized solidarity visits by Cabinet ministers with the family of Gilad Shalit at their protest tent in Jerusalem. He says they make it more difficult to reach an agreement for Shalit’s release from Hamas captivity.
The source told Arutz-7’s Hebrew news site that the ministers often time their visits to coincide with the nightly TV news. “They wish to influence the Prime Minister,” the source said, “but instead, they influence the kidnappers to toughen their stance and demands.”
“If Gilad’s friends and supporters would let up on their heavy pressure,” the source added, “the issue would be easier to solve. Their obsessive campaign via the media, and their large protest rallies simply make the negotiations harder.”
Those who are outspokenly supportive of Shalit’s release include Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer (Fuad), who has said that Israel should pay “any price” for his freedom. He has been sharply repudiated for this position by MK Yaakov Katz (Ketzaleh), who said, "I was a soldier under Fuad's command, and this is not the tough Fuad and reponsible leader that I knew. Can he possibly mean that we should pay 'any' price? Should we give into everything they demand? Do we need to release 1,000 murderers and cause more bereaved families? A government must behave responsibly towards the entire country."
Shas MKs Minister Eli Yishai and Yitzchak Cohen, and Labor’s Ehud Barak and Dalia Itzik, have also said the government must do more on behalf of Gilad.
Gilad Shalit was kidnapped in June 2006, nearly 1,000 days ago, by Hamas terrorists who tunneled into Israel underneath the Gaza-Israel border. Shalit was a soldier on guard duty at the time; two of his comrades were killed in the attack.