I am not tweeting for Gilad Schalit

Gilad Schalit is about to spend yet another birthday in captivity. In honor of this occasion, several Jewish/Israel activists have called for Twitterers to tweet messages about Gilad with a specific tag, in the hope of making his name a Top-10 trending topic.

Let me be clear: I hope and pray for Gilad's safe and speedy return to his family just as much as the next guy; I cannot even begin to imagine what kind of suffering he and his family must be going through.

But I will not support this or any other "Free Gilad" campaigns. Not on Twitter, not on Facebook, not even as a bumper sticker.

Think about it: who is supposed to feel the heat from these campaigns? Hamas? You gotta be kidding! If Gilad Schalit became the top trending topic on Twitter for an entire year, it would not make one whit of difference to those bloodthirsty savages. Rather, it would have exactly the opposite of the intended effect: once Hamas sees that so many people care about Gilad, they will know that they can up their price for him.

The only party who is going to feel the pressure is the Israeli government, who will feel themselves pushed to make yet another obscenely lopsided deal to release more and more murderers, terrorists and common criminals in order to get back one Israeli soldier - who may C"V not even be alive any more. And these deals always result in more terrorism and murder.

I want Gilad home - but not at any price. I will not be party to any pressure campaign on the Israeli government in this regard, because there are 6 million other Jews in Israel who should not be made to pay for Gilad Schalit with their own blood.