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Sun, May 22, 2011 | By Jared M. Feldschreiber

In this image taken from a video released by Hamas Friday Oct, 2, 2009, shows Israeli soldier Sgt. Gilad Shalit held captive in the Gaza Strip. (AP Photo/Hamas Video, via APTN)

World Community: Don’t Forget Gilad

The lingering issue ignored by the world community, particularly in light of this new diplomatic impasse between the US and Israel is the kidnapping of Israeli Corporal Gilad Shalit. The subject of Israeli boundaries are of course paramount to the country’s security, but harsher criticism should be directed at the world’s silence to international law violations perpetrated by Hamas against Shalit. This terror group has broken all international norms to this prisoner of war, denying him access to meet with the Red Cross. This is both an abomination and a blight to the international community, which often prides itself on being humane, committed and compassionate to the world’s problems.

The bigger issue of whether or not to release thousands of potential terrorists seems to be a moot point now, as Israel has done it before in the past. Many Israelis are exasperated with its government, which obstinately refuses to comply with a swap (but as Golda Meir once articulated, it would be “blackmail of the worst kind.“) By the middle of next month, it will be five years since Shalit was kidnapped.

“Not a day goes past when we don’t hope for news that our son will be retuned to us and we as a family can begin rebuilding our lives together,” says his father Noam.

Amidst this new rift between Israel and United States over border disputes, the inhumanity of the kidnapping, and sheer indifference by the world community remains sickening. It is as if we have lost our values, cynically believing that this is merely a tactic by an asymmetrical enemy of Israel. No, this is a war crime.

Shalit, who will be 25 in August, was kidnapped by Hamas in June 2006, just prior to the Lebanon War. His capture and Hamas’s refusal to allow any independent humanitarian organization to visit him, is in strict defiance of the Geneva Conventions and to Red Cross policy. Even today, the IRC continues to send assistance to Hamas, and yet it cannot gain access to him. They have not been vocal enough about its inability to contact him and alerting the world. Shalit deserves to have his basic rights to meet with the IRC, and to enable communication with Gilad with his family. They still grieve for him, as do all Israelis; some continue to meet with other supporters, outside the Prime Minister’s residence in Jerusalem, demanding the government to ensure his release.

Hamas plays this cynical game, and the world community buys into it, believing it is at war with a morally equivalent adversary in Israel. Just recently, at the Yom Hatzmaot (Independence Day) ceremony in Jerusalem, Gilad’s brother interrupted it, holding a sign reading, “my father is a bereaved brother- I don’t want to be one too.”

This is all quite depressing, but reality here in Israel. Everything is not as celebratory like in the US, after a “victory,“ like scenes of euphoria on the streets of New York and D.C. following Osama Bin Laden’s death. Israel continues to battle its enemies through a series of “rounds,” as Ben Gurion once analyzed it would have to in order to survive. The Middle East is about survival and stability, and nothing more.

One should not be distracted by this current diplomatic division between Israel and US; it is a ruse, merely a sideshow to boost political points; it can be smoothed over. Corporal Shalit, who continues to rot in Gaza, remains inhumanely treated and forgotten by the world community, focusing on “settlements.” While the interim Egyptian government has allegedly put together a draft agreement for some kind of prisoner-exchange, nothing has yet been finalized, and the waiting game continues to persist.

One should never forget the cynical, and sickening games employed by terrorists like Hamas.

This article also appeared on http://mosheblake.blogspot.com/2011/05/dont-forget-gilad.html. Sent to us by the author and reprinted here. Jared Feldschreiber is a journalist and freelance writer with Fox News Jerusalem, American Thinker and Jewish Observer-LA. He currently lives in Israel.