\The name Abd al-Aziz Salaha means nothing to most of us, but we all remember his hands. Back in 2001, he was one of the Arabs who beat an Israeli soldier to death in Ramallah and then proudly thrust his blood-covered hands out the window to a cheering Palestinian crowd. He has been released in exchange for Gilad Shalit. Nasser Yataima was the brains behind a Passover tragedy in which 30 seder participants gathered at Netanya’s Park Hotel were murdered and 140 wounded. He has been released in exchange for Gilad Shalit. You might recall the bombing of the Moment Café in Jerusalem in 2002 in which 12 people were murdered and 54 wounded, thanks to Walid Anajas. He has been released in exchange for Gilad Shalit. 477 convicted criminals and terrorists have been released with another 550 to be released in the next two months, a total of 1,027 people in exchange for one Jew. I mention all this by way of saying that the first casualty of the Shalit deal (I hesitate to call it a prisoner swap) is justice. Actually, this is an egregious example of how emotions can move us to compromise our sense of justice, if not to undermine it completely.
Back in 2004, you might recall Israel released 430 prisoners in exchange for three dead soldiers and one Israeli businessman, a deal struck with the terrorist organization, Hizbollah. Writing for the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, Nadav Shragi determined that by 2007, only three years later, those who had been freed were responsible for the deaths of 35 Israelis.
Trying to understand the benefits of the Shalit deal is actually mind-boggling. From the perspective of Middle East shuk haggling, the Arab world couldn’t be happier. With one Jew they were able to secure the freedom of 1027 prisoners, many who had been serving life or multiple life sentences. Will this encourage future kidnappings because as everyone can see, kidnapping is profitable? Because Israel has handed a dramatic political victory to Hamas, the violent face of Palestinian identity, has it strengthened Hamas at the expense of the more reasonable Fatah, which would not bode well for future peace negotiations? While we might say that Shalit’s victory has been won at the price of 1027 prisoners, only time will tell if that price will go up, as released prisoners return to their pernicious ways and take the lives of other sons, daughters, fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters. It’s only a conjecture, but history has shown it a probability.
So why did Israel do it? How do we explain it? Robert H. Mnookin, a Harvard professor and chair of the university’s negotiation program offers this unique perspective.
"Gilad Shalit is a known individual: what psychologists call an 'identifiable being.' His picture has been plastered throughout Israel. The Israeli press has written hundreds of articles speculating about his well-being. By contrast, the Israelis who are endangered by this deal are mere statistics—an unidentifiable group of people who may die in the future. Psychologists call these “statistical lives.” There is a long line of psychological research showing that, in making decisions, human beings will incur far greater costs to save one identifiable being from immediate peril than to enact safety measures that might save many more statistical lives."
The Wall Street Journal, October 17, 2011
You know, I’m delighted that Gilad is back with his family and returned to our people. I am not delighted by any stretch of the imagination with the price that has been paid for his freedom. But I am not an Israeli politician and I do not bear the joys or responsibilities attendant with that venerable role. And thank God for that because were I in that position, and were I to wake up one morning to learn of news of a terrorist attack perpetrated by someone I released, I don’t know how I’d get the blood off my hands.
The only way I can understand what has been done is to accept that I have no idea what went on in closed rooms in order to reach this decision. The more we read/see/hear the less we can be sure we know to be true. We will probably never know what was said/promised/threatened. And we hope for the best
ReplyDeleteGilad has been “everyone’s son” for the past 5-plus years. His release has stirred an overall sense of joy over much of Israel and the Jewish community and reflects the beautiful Jewish value of the preciousness of each individual life. But as you point out, the thanksgiving of the Shalit family is countered by the pain and betrayal felt by the Mandell family, whose son Koby was viciously murdered 10 years ago. As Sherri Mandell, Koby’s mother, wrote in a Jerusalem Post op-ed, “as a result of prisoner exchanges, the Israeli justice system can only be seen as a joke, a mockery, even a travesty of justice...it provides no deterrent and no retribution. It’s as if our government says to the killers: Come hurt us again. We’ll be happy to release you one day. We’ll let you go when you demand it.”
ReplyDeletePerhaps Rabbi Avi Weiss expresses this heart-wrenching decision best “Today, the heart wins out. But this is not a moment of euphoria. It is that moment under the chuppah when we celebrate joy and happiness only to firmly plant our foot on the glass and by breaking it remembering the souls and the families whose lives are forever shattered.”