Slandering the strong

The pressure in the political and media pressure cooker that is the campaign for Gilad Shalit has reached boiling point, and it is time for an interim balance sheet:

• Hamas leadership responded with a certain degree of shock to Benjamin Netanyahu's announcement that the party is over for Hamas prisoners in Israeli jails. Heads of the terrorist organization initiated a one-day hunger strike. Go ahead. If in the future they should decide to extend the hunger strike for an unlimited length of time - they should bear in mind Margaret Thatcher's response to similar strikes in England's prisons: "If those people continue with their hunger strike, it will have no effect whatsoever. It will just take their own lives." She is a role model.

• The Shalit family is conducting itself nobly and is worthy of admiration. Others in their shoes would have long since threatened violence, shut down government offices and slandered those who bear the burden of securing Gilad's release. The generation of the grandchildren of Likud must sense that their founding father Ze'ev Jabotinsky spoke of a family like this one when he wrote the lines, "Though a slave or a tramp, you were created the son of a king."

• The virtual solitary confinement seen on Israeli TV is distasteful to many. Yet, if the Shalit family is interested in a display of celebrities sitting out their one hour in a narrow cell, no one will stand in their way.

• In its future decisions, Israel's government should bear in mind that in the five years since the abduction, it has not applied sufficient pressure on Hamas. The call to end security prisoners' fringe benefits came too late. Targeted killing is not a taboo in our region. Nor is the harassment of Palestinian leaders in whatever country they happen to be roaming.

• Mahmoud Abbas and his leadership are a target. Not, God forbid, a target killing, but rather for diplomatic harassment in the West. Especially after he signed a national unity agreement with Hamas.

• The Red Cross, which refrains from applying pressure on Arab states and terrorist organizations, should be criticized and protested. Not for their failure to set up visiting regulations for Gilad but for simply overlooking the matter. The Red Cross still has, for the time being, influence in Damascus, which is home to Hamas offices.

• We need creative thinking to get the media involved. Rather than ban foreign journalists on board the Gaza flotilla from entering Israel, banners should fly on helicopters encircling, explaining that they have set sail for a terrorist cause - a cause that consistently breaches the most basic rules of conduct towards captives.

• The text message campaign initiated on Sunday by the Shalit family is unnecessary. Most of the public has already been blinded by the media's pressure and is ready to pay almost any price for a deal. The populist belief currently demands that we seize the day, but will denounce the agreement as soon as it is carried out, as happened with the unilateral disengagement from the Gaza Strip and with the release of Elhanan Tannenbaum.

• In many ways, the government is now facing a test of leadership. The government may be very forthcoming in its efforts to bring back Gilad, but at the same time must act as though it is not under pressure from the public or its political rivals. The government is currently slandered for its steadfast stance, but in a few years it will strengthen Israel's image in the world and also in the eyes of those same populists who presently won't leave it alone.

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