There is an apparent push by the IDF Chief Rabbi to declare the soldiers missing in action and dead. Why this comes up right now seems to be a mystery as there has been plenty of time to do so beforehand. My guess? Israel didn’t want to prejudice the negotiations with Hizbullah and set the bar too low in terms of what Nasrallah would ask as his price for their return. At least if they gave Nasrallah hope, Israel might have hope to regain their stolen sons.

But, in the entire time since the kidnapping and the war, there has been ZERO sign of life from Regev or Goldwasser. Not a peep. No letters. No videotapes. No Red Cross visits. Nothing. Unless everyone is keeping their lips glued for the sake of this ‘deal’, there is no reason to believe they are alive. They were mortally injured upon their capture, so there is no reason to assume they got medical care immediately. Hamas may be similar scum, but at least they occasionally pass some signs of life regarding Shalit so there is reason to think about giving them what they want. This latest musing about declaring them dead is a pressure tactic to get Hizbullah to show something of value or get less in return. Why give Kuntar back for a box of bones?

With all due respect to the Goldwasser and Regev family, soldiers get lost in war. War is never fair and never without pain. But the asking price for their likely dead sons is too high and Israel should not pay such steep prices so as to encourage further kidnappings. There is a law of diminishing returns here and Israel has to look out for the rest of it’s soldiers and citizens who haven’t been kidnapped and not make deals that encourage future snatchings. Not leaving a solider on the field is a noble sentiment, but in practice it’s unrealistic. All soldiers go into battle knowing they may not come back alive. Some don’t come back at all. It’s just the way of things. Maybe someday when there is actual peace (in the year 9000) everyone can trade back everyones remains. Today isn’t that day.

If the soldiers are alive, I will be among those celebrating their return, even for a scumbag like Kuntar. But whoever is pulling this tactic to pressure Hizullah is smart. Nasrallah needs Kuntar back for PR reasons, so Israel twisting his arm a little bit is smart. Get him to pony up live soldiers or risk having the deal fail and Kuntar still rotting in jail. I’m OK with that.

“Israel offers full peace talks with Lebanon” (rejected) With Syria. A cease-fire with Hamas (we’ll see how long it lasts). Talks with Abbas to return the ‘West Bank’ to ‘Palestinian’ rule, whenever that was (hint: never). With all these overtures to loose itself of territory obtained through defensive wars, you’d think Olmert thought the country was on fire and he was just trying to put it out.

The media pushed this down everyones throat as the ONLY solution to piece…I mean peace. This article, by Yair Lapid, is particularly annoying, representative of the defeatist sentiment that seems to pervade the “peace-seeking” reporters in Israel. ‘Israel wants everything but doesn’t want to give up anything.’ ‘Our enemies are right, we are wrong.’ He basically accuses anyone who disagrees with him of “magical thinking”, and the only way to remedy this is to basically give up. THEN there will be peace.

Why bring this up? I just wanted to post a quote from a commentator on YNET from Israel who always answers articles like this with intelligence, debunking this type of surrender thinking.

“The Wishful-Thinkers Brigade of unrealistic, delusional, utopians who think that just by wanting peace, it will happen. Of course, they are willing to make any concession, cede any territory, damage our security – pay any price, in effect, while continuing to forget all the many failures of the past, while ignoring the very nature of our adversaries, while living in denial that our country could cease to exist because of their unrealistic beliefs. Talk about child-like thinking ….

And on the subject of paying a price, why are we the only ones asked to pay a price? In case no one remembers, WE won the various wars after being attacked. We are not the ones to pay any price – in the real world, defeated enemies pay the price. We must be the only country in the world who wins wars but acts as if we lost.

And I’ll offer a further comment – much of the seeming confusion in the polls is caused by the relentless propaganda in the left-oriented media, by the idiotic speeches of many of our politicians, by the poor quality of education, & by the apathy & complacency of an Israeli public rapidly finding the superficial joys of consumerism.

You’ll pardon my lack of political correctness, but logic tells me that we must make our enemies pay a price, over & over, if necessary & that this is the only realistic strategy for achieving an eventual better future.”

Terry , Eilat, Israel (06.20.08)

Nuff said. Your thoughts?

Syria: We wont speak with you unless you hand over or commit to hand over he entire Golan first. THEN we can discuss peace.

Lebanon: Forgetting of course the fake government up there that represents mostly Hizbullah, the refrain is the same. Vacate the territory first (Shebaa Farms)and THEN we can discuss peace.

Gaza: Well, no surrender demands here, though Hamas is trying to make sure that Israel wont stop if from smuggling in more weapons. In fact Israel is actually acceding in part to their demands for a ceasefire.

Do you see a pattern here? I don’t know about you, but possession being 9/10th’s of the law, I’d hang onto the territory until the ‘terms’ lighten up. You hear a lot about how it doesn’t hurt to talk to any of these countries, but in their minds, if Israel is talking, Israel is weak and can be pushed into surrendering to the will of the Ummah. I don’t think there will be much movement on the Syrian or Lebanese track although I wonder if Israel will negotiate a Gaza ceasefire in order to reclaim Gilad Shalit.

Anyone’s thoughts?