Five Years for Gilad

June 25, 2011 paulas Gaza, Gilad Shalit 2

Today is the fifth anniversary of Gilad’s captivity. Anniversary is such a funny word – it usually means a celebration, but there is none today. You count up anniversaries, feeling blessed with each new one – here there are no blessings, no great wishes for more to come.

Five years…and my list gets longer and longer. What have you done in the last five years of your life?

In the last five years, we have:

  • Bought a house.
  • Sold a house.
  • Moved our offices.
  • Bought a car.
  • Sold a car.
  • Bought another car.
  • My daughter got married.
  • My daughter moved to two different apartments.
  • My daughter had a baby.
  • I became a grandmother.
  • My oldest son went into the army.
  • My oldest son finished the army.
  • My second son went into the army.
  • My second son got married.
  • My second son is about to leave the army in a few weeks.
  • My third son celebrated his bar mitzvah.
  • My third son grew taller than me.
  • My youngest entered first grade…and second…and third…and fourth…and fifth.
  • I expanded my business to include new courses.
  • I’ve trained hundreds of students in technical writing, marketing communications, social media and more.
  • My husband and I went on vacation; celebrating our years together.
  • We got new phones – three times.
  • I got a new laptop – and need another one now.
  • I got a new refrigerator.
  • I got a new oven.
  • I got two new microwaves.
  • We got new mattresses.
  • My daughter got a new bunk bed.
  • Two of our dogs died.
  • We got a puppy.
  • We got a new bird.
  • Our fish all died and we didn’t get new ones.
  • I stopped drinking diet coke.
  • I still love chocolate.
  • We got new couches.
And so much more – what have you done in the last five years? The answer for Gilad’s family is wait…wait and pray that he will come home.
The second flotilla against Israel set sail today – what a cruel irony that they chose this day of all days to sail. The naval blockade against Gaza is yet another result of Gilad’s imprisonment. I call on the flotilla participants to demand Gilad’s freedom – loudly and clearly. 
If they get to Gaza (they won’t from the Israeli side), I hope they will ask for Gilad to be released and bring him home.
Of course, if all they really wanted was to get to Gaza, all they’d have to do was go to Egypt and enter Gaza from that side – but that never was their goal. The UN has repeatedly confirmed there is no humanitarian crisis. Israel (and now Egypt) are sending in supplies – no, this was never about humanitarian issues – not last time, and not now.
What it SHOULD be about, is Gilad. Five years is an abomination. Gilad must be free. This should have been a flotilla to free Gilad – instead, it is yet another flotilla of hatred, of shame, of support for Hamas and terror.

Shame on Alice Walker who dares to suggest that because she once married a Jew (who she divorced and now bashes as often as she can), she can’t be accused of anti-Semitism. Of course, she can. She sails a flotilla of hatred – just see the Tweeter posts that surround her.

Shame on those who are too naive to realize that they do not sail for humanitarian rights for Gaza – they sail FOR Hamas…and against Israel and Gilad. THAT was the truth of the flotilla, and is the truth of the flotilla – then, now, and always.

2 Comments

  2. Interesting – this is dated February 10th, 2011 and yet:

    In 2009, the UN confirmed there was no crisis: http://current.com/groups/gaza/89624005_un-no-humanitarian-crisis-in-gaza.htm

    And, in 2010, a UN representative confirmed that there was no humanitarian crisis in Gaza (http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/136180)

    And a few short weeks after your reference above, in April, 2011, it was widely reported (and certainly never denied) that the Red Cross again confirmed that there was no crisis: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/143659

    Israel transfers hundreds of truckloads of materials across into Gaza weekly and now that the Egyptians have opened the Rafiach border crossing, there certainly can be no claim of a siege and NO reason whatsoever for this misguided flotilla.

    Reply

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