Noam Shalit
Photo: Mati Almaliach
Noam Shalit: Leaders prefer to deal with dead troops
'State which abandons is fated to be abandoned,' says father of kidnapped soldier on 1,640th day of son's captivity
The father of kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit, inveighed against state leaders Monday and said that they "prefer to deal with soldiers who come home in coffins, wrapped in Israeli flags, to the effort and risks required to bring them home alive".
Speaking at a Yad Labanim conference in Tel Aviv, Noam Shalit mentioned that he had lost his twin brother in the Yom Kippur War in 1973.
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"I stand before you as someone who served in the IDF and sent all of his children to serve the state, which is the proper thing to do though it is no longer a matter of course," he said.
"Gilad has been sitting in the cold darkness, alone in Gaza for 1,640 days, an eternity by any human standards," Shalit said.
"The State of Israel is abandoning my son, and there is no other way to put it. The State of Israel and the man at its head refuse to display the courage of admitting their inefficacy at releasing Gilad on the one hand, while on the other refuse to display the honesty required to pay the price demanded for a living IDF soldier today."
Shalit called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's inability to face the risks involved in releasing his son "proof of inadequacy" in light of the "tens of thousands of people" who have been arriving at the Shalit protest tent in Jerusalem to support their fight.
"In ceding the basic values of the state under which we have all been raised, we have in actuality ceded our strength against our enemies. The more we consider how we appear to them we cease to see how we appear to ourselves, and then we will really be like them," Shalit added.
"Our national strength lies in granting security to teens who are about to enlist and to those already serving in the army. Our secret weapons remain the values of solidarity, mutual security, and not to abandon. A state which abandons is fated to be abandoned."
Shalit concluded by calling on leaders to be brave. "Stand up to Hamas and say, 'One soldier of ours is worth thousands of yours, and this is where our strength lies.' And if, God forbid, they return to terror, we will be strong and know how to handle them," he said. "Don't let another winter go by."
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