Shalit's father would what? Kidnap a Palestinian?

The Israelis, for their own political purposes, cynically allowed one of their military,Gilad Shalit, to remain in the hands of Hamas for over 5 years. In a prisoner exchange last October, Shalit was released, unharmed.

Shalit's father is now a political candidate in Israel. His views are, to say the least, somewhat astounding, especially given what he and his family went through whilst their son was a captive of Hamas. He would kidnap Palestinians.

"The father of an Israeli soldier held in captivity for more than five years by Hamas has said he would kidnap Israeli soldiers if he were a Palestinian.

Noam Shalit, who announced earlier this year that he would be standing for the opposition Labour party in the next Israeli elections, has provoked outrage among the Israeli right with the comments. His son, Gilad, was released in a prisoner swap in October 2011.

Shalit added that the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers by Hamas militants was comparable to the techniques used by Israeli paramilitary fighters the Haganah against the British, arguing "we also kidnapped British soldiers when we were fighting for our freedom".

Speaking to a television interviewer in the kitchen of the Shalit family home, a familiar backdrop for the Israeli public from the family's five-year campaign for their son's release, Shalit was subject to repeated questioning attempting to pin him down on his political policies.

The former engineer eventually summarised his key campaign issues as "mutual responsibility. And not leaving soldiers behind or any Israeli who is in any trouble." He also said he would be prepared to negotiate with Hamas if he were an MP, something the Israeli government, along with Britain and the US, refuses to do."

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