By Zvi Bar'el, Haaretz Correspondent The fear that last week's kidnapping of Corporal Gilad Shalit could become a model adopted by terrorist organizations in Arab states has caused others of these countries to become involved over the weekend in the effort to arrange Shalit's return. Senior Saudi officials, for instance, spoke with Syrian and Lebanese leaders to determine their ability to influence the kidnappers and/or to moderate the urgings for them to stand fast that are emanating from Hezbollah and other organizations.
In other words, the Arab Leadership is caught between their own anti-Israel propaganda and the knowledge that local Islamists will try to kidnap them if the local Islamists see the Hamas kidnapping as being a success - poor babies.