OTHER VIEWS

Time To Release Gilad Shalit

T

wo and a half years
ago, in June 2006,
a Palestinian ter-
rorist group crossed from
Gaza into Israel through an
illegal tunnel near the Kerem
Shalom border terminal.
They attacked an Israeli army
facility that was within the
sovereign territory of Israel. A
missile they fired hit the rear
of a tank, causing the death
of its commander and of an
additional soldier.
Another soldier was
wounded. Gilad Shalit, the
fourth soldier in the tank, was wounded
in the shoulder, abducted and taken by
the terrorists back to the Gaza Strip.
Since then, Gilad Shalit has languished
in captivity, being held against his will by
the Hamas terrorists. Gilad's whereabouts
and well-being are unknown; Hamas has
denied the Red Cross or any other inter-
national organization access to him. And all
diplomatic efforts to free him have failed. To
add insult to injury, on Dec. 14, at a rally in
Gaza city, his captivity and incommunicado

status were celebrated during a
parade organized by llamas.
This Chanukah, please keep
Gilad in your thoughts, and
raise awareness of his plight
among your family and in the
wider community. To read
more about Gilad, go to the
www.habanim.org Web site.
You can also watch a moving
video of children reading a
story of hope for peace which
Gilad wrote several years ago,
"When the Shark and the Fish
First Met on www.youtube.com.
In addition, a Facebook
discussion and action group has been
set up on behalf of Gilad, with more than
50,000 members to date. To join, search
for the group name, "24.06 my facebook
status is waiting for Gilad Shalit for two
years!" or go to www.facebook.com/
group.php?gid=16835438359.
Please also write to Egyptian
ambassador Sameh Shoukry, e-mail:
Embassy@egyptembassy.net, urging that
that government, which has a key influ-
ence on Gaza, continues its efforts to free

Shalit.
Finally, pray this Chanukah for Gilad's
safe return — tefilah l'shlomo shel Gilad:
(As your family gathers to celebrate
Chanukah, the festival of freedom, please
add this prayer for Gilad Shift's freedom
to your candlelighting):

Lord, who is in heaven, please guard over
Gilad Shalit.
Gilad, who was taken as the youngest of
men, a mere 19 years old.
Protect him against all sorrow and injury.
And, please, God, return him to Israel and
to his family,
And to his home, healthy and whole.
We, B'nai and B'not Yisrael, plead for you
to protect him.
As the Torah says,
`And those Hashem ransoms will return,
And come to Zion exulting, singing, and
will be visibly happy forever,
Joy and gladness will overtake them, and
sorrow and sadness will flee." Amain. ❑

Allan Gale is associate director of the
Bloomfield Twp.-based Jewish Community
Relations Council of Metropolitan Detroit.

The Light of Courage

Freedom to light our Chanukiah.
Freedom to experience Shabbat.
But freedom without courage
Did not deliver us from Egypt.

God, with the light of your presence,
Give us the courage of Nachshon ben
Aminadav,
The courage of the Maccabees.

Courage to take the first step
Out of our own Mitzrayim,
Courage to battle the foes
Who seek to destroy us,
Courage to be joyful
And share the light within.

I

wrote this poem this past July, while
attending a cantorial workshop
in Cincinnati. It was written for a
Chanukah service to lead into the "Mi
Chamochah," which extols God's miracu-
lous parting of the Sea of Reeds. With
Chanukah approaching, I pulled it out
again, and found it more applicable than
ever.
I recently saw a pre-screening of The
Boy in the Striped Pajamas, a heart-
wrenching and beautiful movie based

on a novel by the same name. It is about
Bruno, the 8-year-old son of a Nazi
Commandant, who moves to a home
on the edge of Auschwitz. He befriends
Shmuel, a Jewish boy from the camp,
and though it is Shmuel who is trapped
inside the camp and presumably Bruno
is free, we see Bruno shown behind
visual bars throughout the film (in the
shape of a banister, the slats of a window
and the eventual nailing shut of that
window).
"Freedom without courage ..." Though
we feel this friendship leading inexorably
to a terrifying conclusion, it also gives
Bruno the courage to escape from the
dictates of his father and his anti-Semitic
upbringing. As his courage is strength-
ened, the virtual bars disappear.
As Americans, we have incredible
freedoms, and irrespective of one's own
political predilections, our nation's recent
elections clearly exemplify the breadth
and vigor of these freedoms. Although
President-elect Barack Obama received
a letter of congratulations from Iranian
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, he
took the opportunity during his first
post-election speech to clarify his posi-

tion against
Iran acquiring
nuclear capa-
bilities. I predict
that this issue
will be one of
the greatest
Rachel
challenges of
Kalmowitz
his presidency
Community
and hope that
View
this admirable
and coura-
geous act is an indication of the coming
administration's policies.
As the beacon of democracy, the U.S.
strives, and should continue to strive,
unceasingly to promote freedom and
resolve conflict. But, at the same time,
our embrace of peace must be tempered
by the courage to see that, when con-
fronting those forces in the world whose
desires cannot be met by anything less
than our collective politicide, a differ-
ent type of resolve is needed — namely,
the "courage to battle those who seek to
destroy us ..." [I]

Rachel Kalmowitz is the cantorial soloist at
Temple Beth El in Bloomfield Twp.

Still
Asleep
After
Mumbai

Philadelphia

V

ictims caught in terrorist
atrocities perpetrated for
Islam typically experience
fear,.torture, horror and murder,
with sirens
screaming, snip-
ers positioning
and carnage in
the streets.
That was the
case recently in
Bombay (now
called Mumbai),
where some
195 people were
Daniel Pipes
murdered and
Special
300 injured. But
Commentary
for the real target
of Islamist ter-
ror, the world at
large, the expe-
rience has become numbed, with
apologetics and justification muting
repulsion and shock.
The one Mumbai terrorist still
alive, Ajmal Amir Kasab, in action. If
terrorism ranks among the cruelest
and most inhumane forms of war-
fare, excruciating in its small-bore
viciousness and intentional pain,
Islamist terrorism has also become
well-rehearsed political theater.
Actors fulfill their scripted roles, then
shuffle, soon forgotten, off the stage.
Indeed, as one reflects on the most
publicized episodes of Islamist ter-
ror against Westerners since 9-11
— the attack on Australians in Bali,
on Spaniards in Madrid, on Russians
in Beslan, on Britons in London — a
twofold pattern emerges: Muslim
exultation and Western denial. The
same tragedy replays itself, with only
names changed.
Muslim exaltation: The Mumbai
assault inspired occasional condem-
nations, hushed official regrets and
cornucopias of unofficial enthusiasm.
As the Israel Intelligence Heritage
& Commemoration Center notes,
the Iranian and Syrian governments

Still Asleep on page A48

December 18 • 2008

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