SEARCHING FOR CORPORAL SHALIT

The kidnapping of Corporal Gilad Shalit by Palestinian terrorists who attacked Israeli sovereign territory on Sunday has left an entire country holding its collective breath regarding the safety of one of its soldiers.

Palestinians argue that there are 9,000 Palestinian security detainees in Israeli detention and that they too seek the release of their loved ones. There is however one fundamental difference between an Israeli hostage and the 9,000 Palestinian detainees. None of the Palestinian detainees nor the families need fear for the lives of the detainees in the way that Gilad Shalit's family now does. They are entitled to legal representation in court and family visits. Young mothers can even rear their children in prison. An Israeli hostage and his family undergo the utmost of anxieties and tribulations regarding the very life of the hostage. This extreme uncertainty exemplifies the difference between Israeli democratic society where the rule of law applies and Palestinian terror based society where a human life can be taken at such a whim.

An outside observer may wonder why Israel makes such a large hue and cry over the well being of one soldier. Knesset Member,Yisrael Hason best summed up the reason why Israel takes its such matters so to heart - our system of counting unlike other nations commences at six million. The collective memory of losing half of its people in the Holocaust makes the Jewish people in general and Israelis in particular treat each casualty or hostage as if he or she were a close relation. Israel will go to almost any lengths to free its people. Palestinian and Lebanese prisoners have been freed in return for scraps of information about Israeli soldiers missing in action.The Palestinian terrorists are fully aware of this apparent Israeli Achilles heel.But in weakness there is strength.Every Israeli soldier knows that he will not be abandoned by his people - no forlorn tapping on a trapped submarine door for Israeli soldiers as was the case of Russian navy personnel several years ago who were left to suffocate to death whilst their government put international public image above the lives of its soldiers. The quiet and dogged manner in which the kidnapped soldier's family have spoken to the press aptly demonstrates the supreme dedication that Israelis have with regard to protecting their homeland - no shrieking, no fanfare just firmness and concern for the well being of their son. Typical of combat soldiers Gilad comes from a line of fighters - his uncle fell in the Yom Kippur War.Israel has waited before for its brave sons to return home and will regretfully probably have to wait again but as long as it has such brave sons as Gilad Shalit and his family there will be an Israel around to wait.