Israel Matzav

Why Netanyahu did it

A good winter and a good year to all of you. A reminder once again that I am online because in Israel all of the major holidays - with the exception of Rosh HaShanna - are one day.

Daniel Gordis looks at why Prime Minister Netanyahu made the totally lopsided deal that he made for Gilad Shalit's release.

In agreeing to this prisoner swap, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli public chose to return to their roots, to revive a central tenet of old-time Israeli ideology: we do not leave our sons in the field.

The tenet is as old as the country itself. It stems from the fact that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) is a citizens’ army, in which conscription is universal and every family knows that it could face the same tragedy as the Shalits. And in the army itself, the “stretcher march,” in which soldiers in training are ordered to carry one of their heaviest comrades on a stretcher up hills and down valleys for miles, is a formative ritual meant to instill one message: there is never a case in which soldiers cannot bring their wounded home.

This ethic is taught in other armies, too, but it resonates differently in Israel. From the moment of his capture, Gilad Shalit has been a household name. Compare this to the silence in the United States regarding Bowe Bergdahl, the U.S. soldier held hostage by the Taliban since June 2009. Ever since Shalit’s kidnapping, Israeli society has been wracked by a sense that it failed in its obligation to him.

Bringing Shalit home, the costs of the agreement with Hamas notwithstanding, is thus a fulfillment of an honored tradition.

Well, yes, but.... Were it not for an orchestrated media campaign that resulted in 70% of Israelis being willing to do the deal on almost any terms, I doubt Netanyahu would have done it. As much as I don't like the deal, I give Netanyahu a lot of credit for resisting the temptation to get it done at any price. While it's a bad deal, it could have been a whole lot worse.

Labels: IDF ethics, terrorists for Gilad trade

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 6:30 PM