The day after the release - random Gilad Shalit thoughts

I feel emotionally spent after spending the day yesterday following every minor event related to the release of Gilad. There's a jungle of thoughts running around my head, it's impossible to get them organized.

• Today is a better day than yesterday. Today, Gilad wakes up in his own bed, and will meet only people he knows and trusts.
• So many little things he'll need to catch up on. In five years he's missed out on (among others) Facebook, iPhones, last Harry Potter book, Lady Gaga, Chemistry Nobel prize... 
• We all saw the forced Egyptian TV Interview. It was cruel and sadistic. And yet, it highlighted the stark contrast between Gilad's sweet character and the brutality of his captors.
  I almost retched when I heard the question "You’ve known what it’s like to be in captivity. There are more than 4,000 Palestinian prisoners languishing in Israeli jails, will you now join the campaign for their release?"
  Gilad answered "I’ll be very happy if they are released, but they shouldn't go back to fighting Israel"
  This answer is nothing short of amazing, considering his captors were right behind him with a gun, and he couldn't be sure that his answers wouldn't prevent him from going home.
• Side note: this was not how it was translated in Arabic or by the BBC. People not listening to the original Hebrew received "I'll be very happy if they are released and go back to their families". Why bother interviewing him if you're going to lie about his answers?
• Speaking of cruel and sadistic, the interviewer Dragon Lady said she didn't know he was being forced to do the interview.
  Really? Masked Hamas men with guns behind him, and you think it's his free will?

  

  This looks like it's exactly how Gilad would like to spend his time

• To all the people who criticize Israel for "disproportionate use of force", where are you now? Why are you not criticizing this deal for its disproportionality?
• Reading users' comments on any other news site which allows them is an experience equivalent to reading a Kafka novel. On more than one occasion I've read comments talking about "the arrogance of the Israelis, thinking that they're the chosen people, that one Israeli is worth over a thousand Palestinians".
  Really? You guys think that we set the exchange rate? How clueless can you get?
• To all the people who scream "Apartheid" at Israel, will you continue doing that? You do realize that here we have killers going free just because they're Muslim and their targets were Jews? 
• Amna Muna, the She-Devil who lured Ofir Rahum to his death, was not nice to other inmates while in prison. In fact, she harassed and terrorized them. So much in fact, that she refused to enter Gaza because she feared retaliation from her victims' families. Instead, she delayed the whole thing and finally got sent to Turkey. May she choke on a Turkish delight. Amen.
• There were some delays in getting Shalit back due, among other things, to the Egyptian interview. We waited patiently, holding our breath.
  There were some delays in getting the freed prisoners to Beitunia, and finally the transfer route was changed. Of course the Palestinians rioted and threw stones. No one is even surprised because it's so typical.
• Notice how relieved we all were that Gilad, while extremely pale, traumatized and underfed, is more or less in good condition?
  How come nobody even doubted that the Palestinian terrorists would be?
  Oh right, Israeli Double Standard time.
• I started crying when I heard the Yas'ur pilot say over his speaker "מביאים את גלעד הביתה" (We are bringing Gilad home).
• What a dissonance. Gilad, after 5 years in captivity, can still muster enough optimism in him to say that he hopes this will advance peace. The terrorists, after barely a few minutes of freedom, already cried for "the next Gilad Shalit" to be kidnapped. 
• It's so nice to see Noam and Aviva genuinely smiling. 
• I can hardly believe the strength of character that Gilad has shown. What a sweet, brave young man.

I'd like to end this post with an apology to Gilad. 

For years we've glimpsed into your life, into your family. We feel like we know you, and now that you're back we act almost like we deserve a piece of you and your life. We don't. Please forgive our curiosity, it all comes from a good place in our hearts, and we want confirmation that now, everything will be all right and you'll be happy. I hope everyone respects your privacy.

ברוך שובך

So who are these monsters we have to release?

Make no mistake about my feelings in regard to the Gilad Shalit prisoner swap. I am very happy that he will come home and while the price to pay for his release is very high, I applaud my government for being able to make this very difficult choice, and support this decision.

But it is an incredibly high price to pay and one can only wonder about the society which welcomes monsters such as the terrorists we are forced to release.

Here's a little glimpse of a handful of the people beasts the peace-loving and state-deserving Palestinians wish to see free:

• Walid Abd al-Aziz Abd al-Hadi Anajas, born in 1980, currently serving 36 life sentences for his role in the terror attack at Moment Caffé in Jerusalem on March 9, 2002, where 11 civilians were immediately killed and 54 more were injured.
  
• Nasir Sami Abd al-Razzaq Ali al-Nasser - Yataima, born in 1977, currently serving 29 life sentences for his role in helping bomb the Park Hotel in Netanya when it was full of guests for the Passover Seder on March 22, 2002, where 30 civilians were killed and 140 injured.
  
  
• Maedh  Waal Taleb Abu Sharakh, born in 1980, currently serving 19 life sentences for his role in the bombing of bus 37 in Haifa on March 5, 2003, in which there were 17 fatalities and 53 wounded.
• Fadi Muhammad Ibrahim al-Jaaba, born in 1982, currently serving 18 life sentences, also for his role in the bombing of bus 37 in Haifa.
  
• Mus’ab Ismail aI-Hashlimun, born 1982, currently serving 17 life sentences for dispatching the two suicide bombers who realized the twin bus bombing in Beer Sheva on August 31, 2004, where 16 civilians were killed and 100 wounded.
  
• Tamimi Aref Ahmad Ahlam, born in 1980, the female terrorist currently serving 16 life sentences for driving the suicide bomber to his destination, the Sbarro pizza restaurant terror attack on August 9, 2001, where 15 people (including 5 members of the same family) were killed, and 130 people wounded.
  
• Abd al-Aziz Yussuf Mustafa Salehi, born in 1981, the man who proudly waved his blood stained hands to a cheering crowd after the brutal lynch of two Israeli non-combatant reservists, before their bodies were thrown from the window and trampled on, on October 12, 2000.
  
  ;
• Muna Jawad Ali Amna , born in 1976, serving 1 life sentence, was present at the Ramallah lynching and was excited by what she saw, and decided to get active online. She lured 16-year-old Ofir Rahum to Jerusalem then Ramallah, after telling him on the Internet that she was a new immigrant from Morocco. She drove him to his killers who fired several shots at him.
  While in prison, she adopted a young baby born there, does not regret what she did and says that people shouldn't look at her only as a murderer, she also has a deep personality.
  

These are not people who deserve to be free. They deserve to rot in hell for a few eternities, not to be hailed as heroes in their home villages.The only thing I can console myself with is the fact that they had very good living conditions in Israeli prisons, and will now go back to their previous, crummy living standards. In fact, they will all probably have to go into hiding because Israel has made it clear that just because they are being returned does not mean they are no longer targets.

Remember, it's easier to kill them outside of prison rather than inside.


You can see the full list of the terrorists about to be freed here.
For detailed accounts of the lives cut short because of these terrorists, One Family Fund has it all. Read their stories and remember their lives.

Politicians of Europe, listen to THIS guy

What do the politicians of Europe think when they hear this? Do they realize the truth in his words? The absurdity of even thinking about letting Sharia law enter a judgement?

He points out that many centuries ago, "Islam preserved ancient scientific knowledge..." which brings me to a point I'd like to address. I like very much the fact that he says "preserved" rather than "invented".

People often say of numbers (yes, those things like 1, 7 and 4) that they are Arabic numerals, and give the impression that numbers were invented by them and that without them we wouldn't have the wonderful world of maths.
Misconception.
The numbers are in fact Hindu numerals. When Europe came to know about them, it was through Arab and Persian mathematical works, so they called them Arabic numerals.

Didn't anyone else ever find it odd that even though "Arabs invented our numbering system", they themselves don't use it?

Politically Incorrect: Most Suicide Bombers are Muslim

I'm interested in point number 4 of this article, Ten Politically Incorrect Truths About Human Nature.

4. Most suicide bombers are Muslim
Suicide missions are not always religiously
motivated, but according to Oxford University sociologist Diego Gambetta, editor
of Making Sense of Suicide Missions, when religion is involved, the attackers
are always Muslim. Why? The surprising answer is that Muslim suicide bombing has
nothing to do with Islam or the Quran (except for two lines). It has a lot to do
with sex, or, in this case, the absence of sex.
What distinguishes Islam from
other major religions is that it tolerates polygyny. By allowing some men to
monopolize all women and altogether excluding many men from reproductive
opportunities, polygyny creates shortages of available women. If 50 percent of
men have two wives each, then the other 50 percent don't get any wives at
all.
So polygyny increases competitive pressure on men, especially young men
of low status. It therefore increases the likelihood that young men resort to
violent means to gain access to mates. By doing so, they have little to lose and
much to gain compared with men who already have wives. Across all societies,
polygyny makes men violent, increasing crimes such as murder and rape, even
after controlling for such obvious factors as economic development, economic
inequality, population density, the level of democracy, and political factors in
the region.
However, polygyny itself is not a sufficient cause of suicide
bombing. Societies in sub-Saharan Africa and the Caribbean are much more
polygynous than the Muslim nations in the Middle East and North Africa. And they
do have very high levels of violence. Sub-Saharan Africa suffers from a long
history of continuous civil wars—but not suicide bombings.
The other key
ingredient is the promise of 72 virgins waiting in heaven for any martyr in
Islam. The prospect of exclusive access to virgins may not be so appealing to
anyone who has even one mate on earth, which strict monogamy virtually
guarantees. However, the prospect is quite appealing to anyone who faces the
bleak reality on earth of being a complete reproductive loser.
It is the
combination of polygyny and the promise of a large harem of virgins in heaven
that motivates many young Muslim men to commit suicide bombings. Consistent with
this explanation, all studies of suicide bombers indicate that they are
significantly younger than not only the Muslim population in general but other
(nonsuicidal) members of their own extreme political organizations like Hamas
and Hezbollah. And nearly all suicide bombers are single.

This is all very interesting. Especially the fact that for some reason it isn't politically correct to state the truth, which is MOST SUICIDE BOMBERS ARE MUSLIM. This is not racism. It's the truth. Politically incorrect as it may be.

This article isn't completely right though... We know now that there are more and more female suicide bombers, that suicide bombers are not especially poor, and we have also seen suicide bombers who were heads of families.