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Ziad Awad, who was released in Shalit deal and murdered police officer Baruch Mizrahi

Shalit deal was inevitable

Op-ed: Release of kidnapped soldiers, alive or dead, has been part of Israeli ethos for decades.

I'll start off with a statement which may be tough and painful, but there's no way to escape it: It's not the Shalit deal which led to the murder of police officer Baruch Mizrahi on the eve of Passover. It's the reality of our lives. The endless war, the ongoing killing, the abductions, the arrests, and so on and so forth.

 

 

This is a difficult and bitter statement because it pulls the rug from under our feet, crushes the faith, or at least the desire to believe, that we have control over events. That when we want to, we'll release, and when we want to, we'll jail. And so when we want it, there will be gunfire from the ambush in the middle of the night, and when we we want nothing to happen, nothing will happen.

 

If it were not Ziad Awad, the terrorist released in the Shalit deal, it would have been a different Hamas man. Because in the reality of our lives, there will always be a Hamas man rising up against us, and we will pursue him, and the others. And if it were not police officer Mizrahi, it would have been a different police officer. Or a different soldier.

 

And the Shalit deal? It was inevitable. And it was executed because the release of kidnapped soldiers, alive or dead, has been part of the Israeli ethos for decades. It is part of a contract which, indeed, has never been written or signed, but is firm and valid. And this contract binds decision makers, perhaps more than any other contract.

 

We will let our children go to the army – and we do let them, we don't send them – not because the Conscription Law terrifies us, but because we understand there is no other choice, and we know that this state, under any leadership, will do everything possible to bring them home safely.

 

And that's what will happen in the next negotiations, and in the next deal: It will be executed with great frustration, and with deep fear, but with clear knowledge that this is a choice between bad and worse. That this is precisely their leeway, and this is also their breathing space, and ours. That you don’t leave a soldier behind, even if his return will put others in danger.

 


פרסום ראשון: 06.25.14, 10:28
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