Before Gilad Shalit was freed, Egyptian state TV interviewed him exclusively – with the reporter alongside an Egyptian flag in front of him, and with a Hamas terrorist behind him wearing a black face mask, a green headband of the Qassam brigades (Hamas' military wing), Shalit was interviewed.
Did one think he agreed to, or actually wanted to do this interview?
As you’ll read, The Daily Telegraph thinks these facts aren’t relevant. Prior to being allowed to speak with his family, seek medical attention or begin to comprehend being released from his dungeon, he sat for a 12-minute interviewed, breathed heavily and was anxious.
He was forced to answer questions such as: “During all that time of captivity, you did just one video to tell the world and your family that you’re alive.” “Why just once? Why didn’t it happen again?” (Did one think he was allowed to grant interviews of his choice while terrorists controlled him?).
The Reporter asked him what “lessons” he learned in captivity, and other offensive, absurd and inappropriate questions. Tthe English translator left out his qualifiers to her question about whether he would like to see the rest of the [terrorist] prisoners free, so that the non-Hebrew speaking world did not know that he said that they might be freed only if they would give up fighting Israel.
Israeli TV anchor Yonit Levy called the interview "borderline torture", and Channel 10 commentator and presenter Raviv Drucker said her questions would "likely win the title of the stupidest questions of the past 100 years."
It was low, unethical and awful.
And now another journalist, Mary Ridell a columnist and political blogger for The Daily Telegraph, is reporting the Shalit interview as if it was an actual sit-down interview he agreed to and thought of – not one with a man who has just emerged from 5 years in a dungeon at the hands of terrorists who had just been removed only minutes ago (http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/maryriddell/100111170/gilad-shalit-calls-for-peace-israel-should-listen/ )
Ridell cites the Shalit interview in stating: “Gilad Shalit has been a fine ambassador for peace and for Israel. His government should follow suit. In calling for peace, Shalit made the boldest gesture possible. The Hamas regime may be loathsome. But the Netanyahu government, which bears the responsibility of an advanced democracy, also has a shameful record in its treatment of Palestinians in the West Bank. The blood of the Gazans killed in Operation Cast Lead is a stain on the name of Israel.”
Simply amazing, a political blogger ignoring the fact that this was a tortured man doing a forced interview. One often wonders when reading the media about Israel if it is hypocrisy or hatred.
Simply amazing the double standard which Israel faces – the only country in the world whose existence the media questions.
