Israel Matzav: What price Gilad Shalit?

What price Gilad Shalit?

My son came home tonight and I drove him back to yeshiva with more supplies. In the car, we were talking about Gilad Shalit and the price that the Israeli government is apparently willing to pay for his release. We understand why it's wrong. So does Mordechai Kedar. But apparently, an awful lot of other people do not.

In the name of which set of morals should we choose Gilad Shalit's life over the lives of people to be abducted in the future because of the surrender that prompted his release? And once all prisoners demanded by Hamas will be released, how many of our citizens will be murdered? Is each one of those calling for securing Shalit's release "at any price" willing to pay that price personally when they are murdered, heaven forbid, by a released detainee? And what will we be paying for abductees in the future? A Jerusalem neighborhood in exchange for a solider and half a neighborhood for a civilian?

A greater problem is the fact that people who abduct Israelis are going on with their lives while feeling nothing bad will happen to them and that they won't have to pay any price for their acts. Only once in history did abductors of Israelis have to pay with their lives for the abduction: The kidnappers of the Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics, apparently because the captives were murdered.

The Hamas leaders who hold Gilad Shalit are sleeping in their beds, sitting in their offices, and traveling worldwide as if there is nothing wrong with their acts and conduct. On Monday, the man who abducted Shalit and is holding him, Ahmad Jabri, traveled to Egypt while realizing that an IDF drone is flying above his car. The State of Israel no longer scares anyone, and many in the Arab world feel that they can do anything against it, without paying any price for their actions, as grave as these may be.

Has anyone in a position of power thought through the implications of trading 1,000 terrorists for one kidnapped soldier? What will happen the next time? How many people will die to bring Gilad back to his family? These are the real issues, and no one in power is facing them.

Kedar asks whether we belong here if this is how we respond to abductions of our troops. It's a good question. Trading 1,000 terrorists, including hundreds of murderers for one soldier may be a watershed event in our existence here. I shudder at the potential consequences.

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Israel Matzav: What price Gilad Shalit?