What if it were your child?
That being a hypothetical question, I really couldn’t tell. But judging by what I know about human urges, if it were my child, I’d be willing to hide a bomb in our parliament and sneak cyanide into children’s food. This personal, emotional argument is a non-argument, because it takes into account only one perspective. What if it’s your child that will die in a terrorist attack? Would you approve the deal?
We do not know what will happen after releasing terrorists, but we know about a soldier who’s suffering in captivity right now.
Taking into account common sense and history (see Jibril Agreement), we can be pretty sure that at least some of the released prisoners will go back to terrorism, in other words – terrorist attacks. Indeed, the main problem of the Shalit debate is that it cannot be a balanced one – while we have the image of a suffering soldier and a tormented family on one said, we still do not have the faces and names of those who will die in terrorist attacks on the other side; we have yet to see the families of the murdered ones crying over their graves on TV.
All of this doesn’t matter. This soldier served the country, and the country must bring him back.
True, this soldier went there as part of his military service. He willfully chose the role of a combatant, knowing the risks involved. Truth is, in comparison to many other soldiers, he hasn’t been having it too bad. He didn’t get killed, or injured, and apparently is not shell shocked. Soldiers know that they are there to protect civilians. I am certain that Gilad himself wouldn’t want us to turn things around and make civilians his human shield – which is what we’re going to do if we release hundreds of terrorists.
Those are all great arguments, but one cannot conduct one’s affairs by cold reasoning alone. Why, the moment of Shalit’s return to
Sorry, I will not participate in this sentimental orgy. You cannot run a country from your guts. If you think you should, how about the names of that Jibril Agreement’s victims for some light reading. What if those were your children?
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Perhaps if the "rational" Israeli were also able to comprehend the perspective of his enemy, a whole people that has been systematically displaced and dispossessed and is now being demonised through brainwashing of every Israeli child, the rational Israeli would rejoice with all humanitarian people on this prisoner swap.
ReplyDeleteYes, tear down the wall of barbed wire surrounding the ghetto of Gaza, let the Gazan children play with their Jewish peers, and make the Gazans equal citizens of their own country, and this whole conflict would be over. So much for rationality.
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