Gilad Shalit. Still in captivity
Reproduction photo
Officers: How will we lead troops to battle?
In letter to Netanyahu and Barak, 58 IDF reserve officers urge PM and defense minister 'to reach a crucial decision and free Gilad Shalit
It’s time to reach a crucial decision and release kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit,
58 senior reserve officers said in a letter sent Monday to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
and Defense Minister Ehud Barak.
"The State is blatantly violating its moral duty towards its fighters in general and Gilad Shalit in particular," the letter stated. "The feeling that you as the heads of the State are not doing enough to bring Gilad home is causing us to question the key values of comradeship, mutual responsibility and not abandoning fighters in the battlefield.
The letter was signed by three colonels, 35 lieutenant colonels and 20 majors.
Captive Soldier
Relatives of Palestinians imprisoned in Israel demonstrate in Rafah, step on large Israeli flag
"How will we lead troops to battle," the officers asked. "The State's helplessness is dissolving the basic values that the ethical validity of the 'follow me' call is based on – the same call which makes fighters sacrifice their lives for us and for the State.
"It's time to reach crucial decisions and release Gilad. His suffering is our suffering, and abandoning him is abandoning all of us."
Lieutenant Colonel Benny Hefetz, a deputy brigade commander in the Artillery Corps, told Ynet that the letter was written and sent on the backdrop of the ongoing stalemate in the talks aimed at security Shalit's release, and the fact that the public and media awareness for the captive's condition has died down.
"We felt that enough time has passed and nothing is happening," explained Hefetz, an environmental chemistry professor at the Hebrew University.
Asked about the price Israel would be required to pay as part of a future prisoner exchange agreement, Hefetz said, "I believe part of the problem is the use of the word 'kidnapped.' Gilad is a soldier being held by Hamas. In the Yom Kippur War we released more than 8,000 Egyptian hostages, who were responsible for the death of many Israeli soldiers. This is undoubtedly a heavy price, but no one undermined the need to pay it."
'State doesn't share our commitment'
One of the letter's initiators, Lieutenant Colonel Mike Biton, explained that "the soldiers we command feel we are completely committed to do anything to defend them and take care of them if someone is injured or taken hostage.
"But the feeling is that when it comes to higher ranks, the State doesn't share this commitment and won't do its part. That's when we have a real problem on the ground."
According to Biton, "Gilad is a radical example of their problem, which is created when our commitment to the troops is undermined. I'm not pretending to know what considerations stand before the eyes of the defense minister or prime minister, but I see that the Americans don’t negotiate with kidnappers and yet American soldiers are constantly abducted.
"Gilad has been in captivity for four years and there is still a lot of motivation among the terror organizations to kidnap additional soldiers."
He added that he understood the feelings of those opposing a prisoner exchange deal, "but at the end of the day it comes to the other side's motivation to carry out attacks, and their ability to carry out attacks will not increase if we free more or fewer people. It doesn't depend on the release of more terrorists."
Boaz Fyler contributed to this report
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