Gilad Shalit poster
צילום: EPA
An empty rightist gesture
Op-ed: Teenagers’ objection to be traded in future prisoner swaps a childish gimmick
My gut feeling in respect to the high-school students who asked the government not to free them in a prisoner swap in the event they will be captured beyond enemy lines was: Sure, no problem. Great. You spared us a future problem. Your letter has been filed and will be kept for future reference.
At this time you are of course heroes, on paper. When the time comes (and hopefully it shall never come) we shall see whether you are real heroes in real time.
Yet that won’t happen, of course, and the youngsters who signed the letter know this well. Indeed, the letter is merely a provocation that is empty of any substance. Hence, more than just addressing this current letter, it’s important to understand its historical and contemporary context.
The mythological 12th graders’ letter was written and sent in 1970 by a group of concerned Jerusalem high school students who protested the dangerous diplomatic impasse in a letter to then-Prime Minister Golda Meir. They were ahead of their times and of the disastrous Yom Kippur War by three years. In any case, they were part of a spontaneous grassroots initiative.
Since then, every few years, we would see more and more letters from 12th graders. Most of them were swallowed up by the black hole of history because they were an empty gesture, a pale imitation of the real thing.
Nobody asked you
Yet the latest letter constitutes an advanced stage of cynicism: A transparent political move by the radical rightist camp, led by the National Union party. The handful of teenagers who signed the letter are not exactly Zionism’s silver platter, but rather, its wild outgrowth.
By joining the move they are continuing the ideological line of the extreme national-religious camp: Using the army as a political platform and creating nationalistic-religious enclaves within the military.
After setting up private militias in the form of hesder yeshivas, after taking over the IDF Rabbinate and turning it into the spearhead of radicalization and haredization, after inventing a ridiculous qualm in the form of a ban on female singing, they are now offering us a separate system of values. A different model for future prisoner swaps. A price list.
The time has come to tell them, in a clear voice: Nobody asked you. Go back to your studies and tell your political patrons to come up with a different spin. Our reality is complex enough even without your childish gimmicks. And have a nice army service.
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