ATC Joins Tweet4Shalit Campaign

On August 28, 2009, kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit will turn twenty three years old. Most likely, he will mark this occasion in captivity in Gaza.

Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Corporal Gilad Shalit has been in held hostage by Hamas ever since June 25, 2006, when Hamas terrorists snuck across the Kerem Shalom border crossing on the Israel – Gaza border, killed two IDF soldiers, wounded three others and captured him. In a failed rescue attempt and in retaliation, the IDF launched Operation Summer Rains – a major ground offensive into Gaza.

During the operation and in its aftermath, numerous attempts have been made to secure the release of Corporal Shalit. These attempts continue even today. Hamas has demanded that thousands of its members and other terrorists be released from Israeli prisons in exchange for Shalit. In one instance, it even demanded the release of all terrorist women and children being held in Israeli jails be released in exchange for just a video of Shalit.

Additionally, there have been rumors that Shalit was wounded by Hamas when it captured him and that a "Palestinian" doctor supposedly treated him for his injuries. However, to this day, Hamas has denied the Red Cross the right to visit him, despite its many requests to do so.

Meanwhile, Hamas, Hezbollah and other terrorist organizations have launched countless terrorist attacks against Israel (specifically against Israeli civilians), prompting self-defense Israeli military action. The vast majority of the world, Western media, Western educational institutions and the establishments of Western nations have strongly criticized Israel for the use of "excessive force", various violations of international law and "war crimes". Even a sizeable part of Israel’s establishment has criticized Israel for defending itself.

In fact, Israel has taken great care to gather intelligence on terrorist targets, in order to ensure that they – not civilian targets – be hit in the event of war. The Israel Air Force (IAF) has dropped extremely expensive precision bombs on these marked terrorist targets, in order to avoid hitting civilian targets. Likewise, Israeli ground troops have put themselves in great danger by undertaking various maneuvers to minimize the risk of harming civilians. And, as if that isn’t enough, Israel has gone to great lengths to ensure that terrorist POWs (who are not even part of foreign armies) be treated in accordance with international law – if not even under better terms. At the same time, terrorist inmates of Israeli prisons live under better conditions than Jewish inmates.

Above all, due to Israeli cautiousness over civilian targets, combined with international pressure, Israel was not only unable to complete the objectives of its operations, but it was also unable to do significant damage to the terrorists. In other words, time and time again, Israel has failed to defeat the terrorists due to its compassion for the civilians on the side of the enemy.

Yet, the world has stayed silent about the treatment of Gilad Shalit. Likewise, it was silent when Hezbollah members snuck across the Israel-Lebanon border (less than three weeks after Hamas had captured Gilad Shalit) and captured IDF soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev. Their fates were unknown for some time (later, it turned out that they had been killed in the initial attack). Their bodies were swapped for five terrorists, including Samir Kuntar (who himself had snuck into Israel from Lebanon and murdered Israeli civilians, including children, of which one was an infant). And then too, there was no outrage.

Time and time again, when anyone from a free and civilized nation that actually defends itself from Islamic terrorism in some way (especially in the case of Israel) is injured, killed and/or captured, the world is silent. Yet, when that nation (especially in the case of Israel) defends itself against cowardly, barbaric and savage acts of terrorism and those responsible for them, that country is criticized by much of the world and even from within like crazy and the suffering of its people is completely forgotten.

Corporal Gilad Shalit was just nineteen years old when he was captured by Hamas in a brutal raid that left two of his fellow IDF soldiers dead and three others wounded. Now, for the fourth time, he will mark his birthday in Gaza, where he is being held in brutal and inhumane conditions by savages that deliberately murder innocent civilians, including infants and children simply for being Jews! Where is the outrage?

Why is the world silent? Well, we know why: terrorist appeasement, anti-nationalism, globalism, cultural relativism, tolerance of intolerant savages and barbarians, greed and of course anti-Semitism.

We can forget about Western establishments lifting a finger for Shalit. We can even forget about the Israeli radical left – which is so preoccupied with "human rights", "tolerance" and "peace" (for terrorists) – doing anything for Shalit, either. In the end, it’s up to regular people like us to take action. It’s time to spread the word about this great injustice. It’s time to bring Gilad Shalit’s plight to the international attention. It’s time to put pressure on the Israeli government to do more – much more.

The Jewish Internet Defense Force (JIDF) is leading a campaign to raise awareness about the plight of Corporal Gilad Shalit. This campaign – "Tweet4Shalit" – is a 24 hour Twitter event in which thousands of supporters will sign onto Twitter to tweet the hashtag ‘#GiladShalit’ with the goal of making Gilad a top ten Twitter "Trending Topic" two days before his birth (recognizing that his actual birthday occurs on Shabbat – the Jewish Sabbath).

We invite everyone, everywhere to spread the word about ‘Tweet4Shalit’ and join us, the JIDF and many others on Twitter, all day (and all night) on August 26th, 2009, using the hashtag '#GiladShalit'.

For more on the Tweet4Shalit Campaign, click here.