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Kidnapped Canadian released

Fadi Fadel has been released:

Thirty-three-year-old Fadi Fadel was kidnapped 10 days ago, leaving his Montreal-based family fearing for his life. A Reuters report earlier Friday said that he had been assaulted but Arab television footage showed him ecstatic and displaying no visible injuries.

The Syrian-born Canadian citizen was not released as quickly as some of the other kidnapped aid workers, probably because his captors “accused” him of being Jewish, Israeli, or even an Israeli Mossad agent. (Apparently to the Islamists, they’re all equivalent accusations).

Fadal’s parents, family, and the Canadian government spent a lot of time denying these “accusations”. And precious little time saying anything about the fact that “Jew” and “Israeli” aren’t dirty words. Perhaps that’s understandable, as their goal was to secure Fadal’s release. But it leaves an icky feeling in the taste of my mouth. Perhaps the Canadian government didn’t directly negotiate with the terrorists… but they sure played their game. If we spend a lot of time saying “release him, he’s not Jewish”, then isn’t that almost like saying that it’s okay to kidnap Jews?

{ 3 comments… add one }
  • Hanthala 04.19.04, 2:01 AM

    Listen Sari, if that were my son, I would have done the same. I don’t think the larger political questions were on his mother’s mind and it isn’t really her, or Fadi’s making, that Iraqis and Israelis don’t like each other.

  • segacs 04.19.04, 2:55 PM

    The mother, I understand completely. Obviously, if Fadel’s mother thought that he would be released quicker if she went on TV and said she was a member of a cult of rock and roll followers, she’d have done it. And nobody would even question her motivations. Of course his mother’s first priority is his safety.

    It’s the government I’m thinking about, and their strategy.

  • Lance 04.22.04, 12:43 AM

    The implication of the government’s bending over backwards to convince the Arab world that Fadel wasn’t a Jew, is the endangering of Jewish Canadians; (perhaps the Liberals are even implying that some Syrian is more Canadian than Jews who have lived here for generations).

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