Dear Hamas,
We have been playing this game for 3 years. Two wars later we are still anxiously awaiting the return of Gilad Shalit. We have tried countless times to reason with you, we have tried diplomacy, we have tried concessions and we have tried brute force. Each time, the sacrifice of your people and our own has been worth keeping Gilad captive. You think that this is sending us a message that you dictate the terms.
Our patience has finally run out. In the box this letter is attached to, is the head of a Palestinian prisoner we have just executed. We will be killing 1 prisoner every hour until you release Gilad Shalit. Tomorrow we will kill 2 prisoners every hour and so on. There will be no mercy; women and children first.
We know that Gilad is currently alive and while you may think you have leverage, let us warn you, if he does not return in one piece, all 11000 Palestinian prisoners will be executed. There will be no more hostage situations; if an Israel soldier is taken captive, we will carpet bomb the nearest village to his last known location. We will mourn him as a lost soldier of Zion and honour him as one who sacrificed his life for the protection of this great nation.
Your time of emotional blackmail has ended, this country has learned its lesson with Ron Arad, Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser. We will do everything in our power to bring our soldiers home safely, but never again will Israeli soldiers be used as bargaining chips to fuel your machine of terror. The choice is yours, return Gilad Shalit peacefully or face the consequences.
Once Shalit is returned safely and you recognize Israel's right to exist, we are willing to sit down and discuss the future of our peoples. There will be no more talk of land for peace; peace for peace is the only way to ensure that your people have a state of their own in the near future. Give up your arms, show us that you are responsible leaders and that you are willing to listen and cooperate for the sake of your people and then you will reap your due rewards.
But let this message be a warning, the Jewish people have survived persecution for millennia, nations have enslaved us, tortured us, attempted to annihilate us and yet there is one constant, they have fallen to dust and our people have gotten stronger each and every time.
The choice is yours, either you return Gilad and work with us to plan our joint future in the land of Israel or face the wrath of a nation who is tired of giving in to your demands without seeing an iota of progress.
Choose your fate.
The people of Israel
