Intelligence Minister Dan Meridor rejected on Saturday night Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s offer to become special emissary in the effort to free Gilad Shalit, as the kidnapped Israeli soldier approaches three years in Hamas captivity.
Meridor offered a one-line explanation for his refusal to take the high profile post, claiming it is “a task that does not go together with my post as minister in the government.”
The Intelligence Minister is the fifth candidate to turn down the position since Ofer Dekel resigned as special emissary on behalf of Shalit over a month ago. The prime minister is expected to meet Sunday with Opposition MK Yoel Hasson in an effort to convince him to take the position.
“That fact that no one has been appointed in Ofer Dekel’s stead is scandalous and represents a failure of the nation’s leadership,” the Movement for the Freedom of Gilad Shalit responded to Meridor’s decision. “Every moment the government waits is a moment lost in the effort to obtain Shalit’s freedom.”
Shalit supporters say they ended the public campaign on his behalf at the start of the Netanyahu administration, hoping their silence would translate into increased action on behalf of Shalit. But they claimed Sunday that little has been done, and said it was likely they would end their silence in the near future.
“It appears that the silence that Shalit’s family held from the time the new government took office ended up legitimizing inaction,” the Movement explained.
Tzvi Shalit, Gilad’s grandfather, expressed his anger with Netanyahu but said he did not blame Meridor for turning the position down. “I assume that if Meridor didn’t receive the necessary authority to bring Shalit home there was no point in him taking the position. He needed the authority to meet Hamas’ demand to free prisoners,” he said.
Shalit’s parents, Noam and Aviva, left Saturday night for New York to attend the annual Salute to Israel Day Parade after event organizers invited the two as guests of honor to lead the march. Noam plans to call on the American government to put Shalit on the agenda of Israeli-Arab peace negotiations.
Last week, approximately 1,000 Jewish youths demonstrated outside the offices of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Manhattan, calling on the humanitarian group to visit Shalit in captivity. The group protested the fact that Red Cross representatives regularly visit Arab terrorists in Israeli prisons, but the organization has not made an effort to reach Shalit, whose current status is unknown.