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May 27, 2007
tit for tat
I recently wrote what was considered a fairly radical suggestion. In that piece I suggested that the residents of Sderot and the other communities bordering with Gaza should begin shooting their own "homemade" rockets or Kassams into Gaza. I think the government should finance it, but if they don't I am sure it would not be difficult to raise the money privately. Maybe even Gaydamak would be forthcoming...
Anyway, today I have another radical opinion. Over the past few days Hamas has been threatening and warning Israel. They say if we assassinate their leaders Gilad Shalit will be killed. They have said they are going to try to kidnap more Israelis. They said they will restart their suicide bomber program again.
I think it is time Israel fight fire with fire.
If Gilad Shalit is worth 4000 Arabs, as they must think so as that is what they requested in exchange for him, I think we should kidnap 4000 Arabs from Gaza.
I do not care what specifically we do with them, other than stick them in solitary confinement with no access to Red Cross reps. Other than that they can be put anywhere. In jails with horrible conditions, in 5-star hotels (with no telephone or internet access of course) or anything in between. Just kidnap a boatload of them.
In addition, I would cancel any access current prisoners have to the outside world. No red Cross connections. No visitors. No lawyers. Nothing. The other side is not giving any of that to Shalit. They have not even given us basic proof of whether or not he is alive.
Tit for Tat. Give us information as to Shalit's condition and we will give information of the condition of PA prisoners in Israel. Kidnap tens, or hundreds or thousands of PA Arabs and they can be traded for Shalit. Give Shalit contact with the outside world and we give PA prisoners in Israel contact with the outside world.
Nothing we have done has worked and it is time to play on the same court. Until now we have been playing a completely different game than the one being played by Hamas-led PA (not that Fatah with Abbas was any better, but they put a nicer face on it). It is time to play the same game.
Anyway, today I have another radical opinion. Over the past few days Hamas has been threatening and warning Israel. They say if we assassinate their leaders Gilad Shalit will be killed. They have said they are going to try to kidnap more Israelis. They said they will restart their suicide bomber program again.
I think it is time Israel fight fire with fire.
If Gilad Shalit is worth 4000 Arabs, as they must think so as that is what they requested in exchange for him, I think we should kidnap 4000 Arabs from Gaza.
I do not care what specifically we do with them, other than stick them in solitary confinement with no access to Red Cross reps. Other than that they can be put anywhere. In jails with horrible conditions, in 5-star hotels (with no telephone or internet access of course) or anything in between. Just kidnap a boatload of them.
In addition, I would cancel any access current prisoners have to the outside world. No red Cross connections. No visitors. No lawyers. Nothing. The other side is not giving any of that to Shalit. They have not even given us basic proof of whether or not he is alive.
Tit for Tat. Give us information as to Shalit's condition and we will give information of the condition of PA prisoners in Israel. Kidnap tens, or hundreds or thousands of PA Arabs and they can be traded for Shalit. Give Shalit contact with the outside world and we give PA prisoners in Israel contact with the outside world.
Nothing we have done has worked and it is time to play on the same court. Until now we have been playing a completely different game than the one being played by Hamas-led PA (not that Fatah with Abbas was any better, but they put a nicer face on it). It is time to play the same game.
Labels:
Gaza,
Gilad Shalit,
Hamas,
Israel,
politics
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Good suggestion.
ReplyDeleteThat would require backbone, though, perhaps some guts, or a bit of chutzpah, no? Hard to come by where it counts these days.
yeah - easy for me to talk, isn't it.... but if I was PM.....
ReplyDeleteYou Should run, Rafi. (Please.)
ReplyDelete(By the way, it's "If I were ...")
I can only imagine the headlines this would generate. Hmmm, come to think of it, they could hardly be worse than they are now. Carry on!
ReplyDeletenothing else has yet worked, and we get the bad press no matter what we do so....
ReplyDeleteanon - thanks for the vote of confidence. now I know that if I do run, I will at least get one vote.. :-)
You're a disgusting person.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure why you think that it's proper to imitate terrorists, but your sense of morality needs an awakening...
I am a disgusting person? Come on, you can do better than that. I have been called much worse!
ReplyDeleteTo your comment, as you can see here today two government ministers proposed exactly what I proposed two weeks ago. They will soon catch up and propose my second proposal as well.. :-)
Aside from that, maybe you are forgetting the famous Unit 101 of Ariel Sharon that wiped out villages in the 50s and 60s after every terrorist attack. I do not know where you live, but your morals have more mercy on Arabs than on Jews. I am tired of that. I am sitting here watching Jews get murdered daily and other jews living in terror as they spend more time in their bomb shelters than in theri homes, schools and businesses. While you think we should be "moral" and not hurt the poor Arabs by using similar tactics, I prefer to be merciful to our people and let the other side go to Hell. I have had enough. Nothing we do works, the government will not do more, and that being so, I believe this is the best solution.
Who is more moral, me or you? I guess it is a matter of perspective...
I'm sorry, but the question of who is a more moral person is not a matter of perspective. Your ideas are as immoral as those of the terrorists.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that you have MKs who are proposing similar ideas (though it's unclear exaclty what their plan would entail) does not legitimate them one bit. Don't forget, this is the same Knesset that had ideas proposed by Meir Kahane, Baruch Merzel, and for your sake, Azmi Bashara.
It is hard to understand that an intelligent person (which you might be) would look at the current situation and say that the solution is to turn ourselves into terrorists, killing women and children indiscriminately. [the fact that your idea was greeted with such enthusiasm by commentors only depresses me further.]
Before you decide to open your own jihad training bases, why not try to actually stop the kassam rockets (or rescue Gilad Shalit) through a normal military offensive, something which, if I need to remind you, has not yet been undertaken by the government. Not only will a planned out attack by Tzahal on the terrorist and rocket infrastructure in Gaza be more effective at fighting the attacks, but it also has the added plus of being the method of a democratic and moral society that I know and am a part of.
The fact that such an offensive hasn't even been attempted, and you are advocated the intentional murder and kidnap of innocent people (which to me (and Israeli law and society) would not be acceptable even if a military offensive was tried and failed) makes me [and probably most of the non-combatants in Gaza] a more moral person than you.
I can't believe you are a decendent of Abraham.
jerry - there is no such thing as universal morals. What one person believes is moral, another believes is a heinous crime. I agree, this is not a (completely)moral suggestion. I said it is pretty radical. I suggested it based on the fact that the government refuses to let the army go in and do what is necessary to protect the people.
ReplyDeleteIt has come to a point where we are caught in a stranglehold and if the government does not let us out of it, we will be lost. When getting to that point, I have no problem loosening morals. I do nto knwo where you live, but I live in Israel in the Middle East. Israel generally tries to live by Western morals. But when fighting with Arab nations, Western morals hardly ever overcomes those people. The Arab nations in the Middle East do not respect those morals and look at Israel as weak.
In a normal situation, I would say, like you, that we have to be moral and act better than them. But this situation has gotten desperate, and it is time to play the way the opposition understands the game.
You don't like my opinion, too bad. That's the great thing about the world. Everybody can have their own opinion. You do nto really have anything to worry about. Nobody is going to be following my advice too soon.
And I wonder what you think about how Israel survived through the 50s and 60s with all the terorist attacks and Ariel Sharon's Unit 101 that would wipe out a village after every attack. Would you consider Israel to have been fighting with no morals? In a fight for your existence you do what you have to. What do you think about it?