My Daughter's Murderer in Exchange for Schalit
Date Posted: 2011-07-20 
Israel must lucidly and coolly make clear that only one terrorist will be exchanged for Gilad Schalit. I am ready for this to be the criminal who planned my daughter's murder.
-Ron Kehrmann
Saturday June 25th marked the painful fifth anniversary of the abduction of Gilad Schalit. Former senior security officials joined the Shalit Task Force to demand that the "current price" demanded by Hamas be paid in exchanged for Shalit. As if distributing sedatives, they claimed that the IDF knows how to deal with released terrorists. Yet these former officials are no longer insiders. They do not know what the "current price" is, and they will not bear the consequences of these actions. They act on their feelings, and lack a long-term planning horizon.
The shortsighted Shalit Task Force claims that the social fabric of Israeli society is being damaged, warning of a decline in volunteers for the elite units of the IDF. But this is the opposite of reality: the actual numbers of these volunteers have shot up the last five years. We also learned of a new SMS campaign (really just an advertising stunt) and have been made to watch with embarrassment as celebrities jailed themselves in a "dungeon" simulating the conditions of Gilad's imprisonment, thus giving their imaginations some exercise and attracting media attention.
Is Hamas' heart melting over this show? Is it advancing the cause of freeing Shalit? Do these people not understand that surrender and the release of hundreds of terrorists will exact a price in blood just as in the past?
Noam Shalit has announced that "the prime minister has no mandate to sentence Gilad to death." As far as I remember, the prime minister does have a mandate to preserve the lives of the citizens of Israel. He is required to see to our future security. Will he buckle under the pressure of the advertising offices running the campaign to release terrorists? What will he tell the mother whose children are murdered by a terrorist released in the Shalit Deal? We all know that many of those released will return to terrorism.
I remember the days when I was sure it wouldn't happen to me.... After all, we live in the Carmel neighborhood of Haifa, and there are no terror attacks in Haifa.... I remember Tal's face in the coffin on 6 March 2003, moments before she was buried. I remember standing at her grave. Evening came and there was a drizzle. I remember well the gaze of Minister Zandberg, the government's representative at the funeral, but I don't remember what he said that awful day I saw Tal for the last time. I assume he also talked about the long arm of the IDF, the fabric of Israeli society, and the obligation of the state to meet out justice to those who dispatched the murderer.
These days I don't worry about Tal. Even terrorism cannot hurt my Tal now. But what about my surviving children and family? Will they be safe when hundreds of experienced, motivated murderers are released from behind bars? I will never forget an interview on British television with the planner of the attack, in which the imprisoned terrorist brags that he will not serve his entire sentence, but will be released before its end...
Five years on, there is no argument that has not been made for or against a deal that would endanger the lives of the citizens of Israel. The facts are known. The security forces, which have failed to locate or free Shalit, do not give us reason to be confident in them.
Israel must lucidly and coolly make the enemy free Shalit, without surrendering to its outrageous demands. Israel must make clear that only one terrorist will be exchanged for Shalit. I am ready for this to be the criminal who planned the murder of my daughter and bragged that he would be released early. Release of just one terrorist, instead of surrender, will prevent further bloodshed and abductions and save the lives of many Israelis--and the preservation of the lives of all Israelis and every Israeli is the single overarching duty of the government and the prime minister.
I hope that Gilad Shalit will be free very soon, without an Israeli surrender. This would mark a turning point in how our enemies view the State of Israel.
Ron Kehrmann is the father of Tal, who was murdered in a terror attack on bus 37 in Haifa in March 2003.
As long as one is remembered, she is still alive
PLEASE visit: www.Tal-Smile.com
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