5 Comments / 5 Comments

1. A lot of people all around the world are glad you are home Shalit. You made the front page of the Melbourne Age today.

   I just wish I didn’t have this sense of foreboding.

2. ArnoldHarris says:
   October 18, 2011 at 2:28 pm

   And my second instinct would have been to shoot you dead, under assumption that freeing you of the kidnapping would set the stage for release from prison of more than 1000 Arab terrorist murderers of Jews, and that their release just to bring you home would set yet another stage from future kidnapping of many more Gilad Shalits, with the same ultimate result.

   So very wrong. It is not Gilad’s fault. Look further up the political, military, judicial and intelligence ranks – way up there.

   However, there is indeed a concept of shooting the hostage. However, that’s to wound him or her – not to kill. See the early part of the 1994 movie Speed for an excellent example.

3. I don’t understand why Shalit didn’t shoot the arab kidnappers dead before they took him. I don’t know how the situation went down. Who knows what rules of engagement prevented IDF soldiers from acting accordingly. I say the soldiers should screw the rules of engagement and protect themselves and their own. The same goes for American troops.

   The fact that the vast majority of Israelis support this deal shows how soft the Israeli public has become and will pay a heavy price.

4. I’m relieved he is safe and sound. I am not happy that Israel’s Stupid Jews will keep their word to the most evil people on the planet now that he is home.

5. Yes indeed. Welcome home, Gilad.

   But brutal honesty compels me to inform you that had I been serving in your IDF unit, and if I had been close to the scene and armed, my first instinct would have been to shoot dead your Arab kidnappers.

   And my second instinct would have been to shoot you dead, under assumption that freeing you of the kidnapping would set the stage for release from prison of more than 1000 Arab terrorist murderers of Jews, and that their release just to bring you home would set yet another stage from future kidnapping of many more Gilad Shalits, with the same ultimate result.

   However, Gilad, few Jews share my temperament, which is that in time of war, which for Israel never ends and never will end, I judge all governmental actions from the standpoint of their overall cost to and effect upon the society as a whole, and never from the standpoint of the life of a single soldier of Israel. Some would describe me as cold-blooded. I can live and die with that, but I would describe myself as ruthlessly logical.

   In any case, if there are too many more IDF soldiers who proved as clueless as you did leaving yourself defenseless against kidnapping, then the country that brought you back home to your family will be dead in the long run. Because without being based upon ruthless application of logic in all matters, no commonwealth survives the attacks of its mortal enemies.

   Arnold Harris
   Mount Horeb WI