For Gilad Shalit, tonight, the beginning of Rosh Hashanah will mark his third New Year in Hamas captivity. Speaking with Ynet, his father, Noam, explained that trying to celebrate the Yomtov together with the rest of Am Yisrael will be “painful and difficult”.

The Friends of Gilad Shalit organization is arranging for a Yomtov meal outside the Prime Minister’s Residence in Yerushalayim on the first night but it will not be a real Yomtov meal with all the simanim and fine dishes, but it will be what they are describing a lean meal, a meal composed of dry foods and basics, explaining they feel it is appropriate to try to identify with the type of meal Gilad will be receiving on Rosh Hashanah.

Miki Goldwasser, whose son Ehud was killed in a cross-border attack in northern Israel along with Eldad Regev, the attack which led to the Second Lebanon War, called on the government to stop its concessions and stream of funding for the PA and Hamas regime in Gaza. She blasted government ministers, blaming them for Gilad’s continued incarceration. She made her remarks are a Shalit event on Sunday, as supporters of the soldier gathered to express solidarity.

The family and supporters of the Shalits have blamed Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and his cabinet on numerous occasions during the past years, expressing anger and outrage over continued Israeli good-will gestures to the PA, prisoner exchange deals, and the transfer of tax revenue funds, all while their son, an IDF soldier, remains in captivity.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)