...The Middle East Burns
June 27, 2006 -- JERUSALEM - Israel is poised to launch a massive military sweep of the Gaza Strip after the government rejected demands from terrorists who abducted an Israeli soldier.
Egypt, Qatar and France, along with Palestinian security officials, were trying to head off the crisis by negotiating the release of 19-year-old tank gunner Gilad Shalit.
If that fails, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has ordered his military chiefs to prepare a "broad and ongoing" operation - the first in Gaza since Israel's withdrawal last year.
Olmert gave no time frame, but Israeli officials believe the invasion could begin by tomorrow if Shalit is not freed.
An Israeli official who was not identified was quoted as saying that if any harm came to the kidnapped soldier, Israel would bring down the Hamas government.
Shalit was wounded, and two colleagues killed, on Sunday when terrorists used a tunnel under a Gaza fence to raid a base inside Israel, the first major cross-border attack since the Gaza pullout.
Olmert ordered Gaza sealed off "by land and by sea."
But authorities in Jerusalem fear Shalit will be smuggled through another tunnel from Gaza to a more secure location for terrorists. He is the first Israeli soldier kidnapped by Palestinians in 12 years.
"We believe that those who are holding him also have families and children, and that they know what we are feeling," said Shalit's French-born father, Noam Shalit.
Yesterday, three terror groups, including the military arm of Hamas, demanded the release of all imprisoned Palestinian women and children under 18 - just in return for information about Shalit's fate.
Olmert remained firm. "This is not a matter of negotiations, this is not a matter of bargaining," he said."
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The Palestinian terrorists aren't giving this guy up without getting anything in return. If they were smart, which they are not, they'd leak information as to his whereabouts then look the other way while he was being freed, saving face and defusing this volitile confrontation.
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