In the ensuing intoxication of success, one fact was overlooked: in the daring operation huge risks were taken. If even one detail of the complex action had gone wrong, it would have meant disaster for the abducted passengers. It could have ended in a bloodbath. Since it succeeded, nobody dared to raise questions.
The results of the operation to release the abducted athletes at the Munich Olympic games in 1972 were very different. When the German police, with the encouragement of the Golda Meir government, tried to free them by force, all the athletes lost their lives. Most of them were probably killed by bullets from the guns of the German policemen. How else to explain the fact that to this very day, the governments of Israel and Germany have both refused to release the post mortem results?
The same happened two years later when the Israeli army was ordered by Golda Meir and Moshe Dayan to free the 105 children who were being held by Palestinian commandos in the Northern Israeli town of Ma'alot. The action miscarried, and 22 children and 3 teachers lost their lives. In this instance, too, it seems that some " if not all " of them were killed by the bullets of the liberators. These post mortem reports also remain unpublished.
The same happened in 1994 when the army tried to free the "abducted soldier Nachshon Waxman in the West Bank. The army had exact intelligence, the action was planned meticulously, something went wrong, and the prisoner was killed.
Lately it was learned that a senior officer had called on his soldiers to commit suicide rather than be captured. He has given orders to fire on the "abductors, even when it means endangering the life of the captured soldier.
It may well be that one of the reasons for the prolongation of Gilad Shalit's suffering lies in the hope of the army commanders to obtain intelligence about his whereabouts, so as to try to free him by force. It is no secret that the Gaza Strip is crawling with informers. The dozens of "targeted killings and many of the actions of the "Molten Lead operation would not have been possible without a dense network of collaborators, recruited during the long years of the occupation.
Incredibly " it borders on a miracle - the Israeli security service has been unable to fulfill this hope. It seems that Shalit's captors are succeeding in maintaining rigorous secrecy. That, by the way, explains why his captors have adamantly refused to have him meet with the International Red Cross representatives and to convey letters by and to him, including parcels (that could well have contained sophisticated locating devices). That may have saved his life.
It can be assumed that the video that was conveyed yesterday by the German mediator, in exchange for the release of 21 female Palestinian prisoners, was meticulously prepared so as to prevent any possibility of identifying the place where he is being kept. (Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
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