Gilad's father: Where's my son?

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By Stan Goodenough
June 19, 2008

The father of kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Schalit says Israel's government assured him that his son's release and return home would be an integral part of the ceasefire deal with the Hamas terrorist organization that went into effect Thursday morning.

Noam Schalit, who has had to live daily, and go to bed every night for two years with the knowledge that his precious boy is in the hands of one of the most vicious Muslim gangs in the world, is desperately looking for a way to force Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to insist Gilad be freed.

He warned Thursday he is even ready to petition Israel's High Court of Justice to stop the government from agreeing to the truce.

Olmert and his cabinet had pledged to include Galid's release in the terms of the truce, and by moving ahead without ensuring that this will happen increases, Schalit believes, the danger to his son's life.

In a letter drafted by his lawyers and reportedly sent to all the top members of Olmert's government as well as to the attorney-general, the distraught dad stated that the truce "agreement, as it is revealed by the media, puts Gilad's life in greater danger and reduces the chances of his being released, statistically. It also contradicts a whole series of commitments expressly made to [us] by the heads of the state. It is not only flawed and morally outrageous, it is also illegal."

Stung into action, the Prime Minister's Office announced Thursday afternoon it was sending an official to Egypt next week to discuss freeing Gilad.

"Palestinian sources" cited on Ynetnews said there was a chance that a deal could be struck sometime in July.

However, the shaky ceasefire is likely to collapse well before then, slamming the door shut on any such agreement and possibly resulting in Gilad's death.

Before a ceasefire was even being seriously discussed, Hamas was demanding a long list of terrorist prisoners be released from Israeli jails in exchange for the soldier.

The Ynetnews report indicates the Hamas received their truce "free of charge" and will still insist on all those prisoners being let out before it sends Gilad Schalit home.

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