Last year, after a key note presentation by Benjamin Netanyahu, one of the students participating in Do The Write Thing returned to our conference room excited about an interaction he had on the way back. Upon leaving the hotel where the speech was given to cross the street back to the Sheraton, he came across a protestor holding a sign that said "Free Gaza" - specifically Gaza. He asked the man, in a sensitive manner, "What are we freeing Gaza from?" and the man replied "The occupation of the Jews." This student asked the man if he was aware that there were no Jews in Gaza, that they had been forced to leave in 2005. The man seemed confused, and asked "Really? No Jews, at all?" to which the student responded "Well there is one, his name is Gilad Shalit and he's being held as a captive and being denied his basic human rights." This was new information for the man and he claimed that he would go home and do more research. this was all the student could hope for and therefore a successful interaction.
Now there are no Jews in Gaza.
This is the moment we were waiting for, a moment that was hard to believe possible up until it actually happened. As I spent the day watching the live stream from BBC World News and checking updates on JPost and Haaretz's websites, I thought about the many years of campus activism and campaigns that kept the focus on Gilad. I thought about my involvement with them. The first major event I helped coordinate as a student at Hillel was a community rally in November 2006 to kick off the Missing Soldiers campaign - rallying for the return of Ehud Goldwasser, Eldad Regev, and Gilad Shalit, who had all been captured in the summer of 2006. The last event I planned for the Jewish community before leaving for Israel involved a banner of support for the Shalit Family. Now this activism can end.
I am ecstatic that Gilad is back with his family, that he is alive, that he has the chance to regain his life has a free man. I believe that bringing him home was essential and that his safety would only have been increasingly threatened if he remained in captivity.
However, I am also quite saddened by this event. The deal that brought him home is a lousy deal. It is a deal that says "We value our children's lives more than we hate our enemies" but it also says "We are willing to negotiate with terrorists and hand over 1000 prisoners in exchange for one captive." I fear we have placed a huge price tag on the heads of our soldiers and made the business of kidnapping even more appealing to Hamas.
I am also quite bothered by the return of the prisoners. I am bothered that people who have committed heinous crimes are being allowed to walk free - I am bothered by this more than I fear them repeating their crimes. I am bothered that there are people in the world who don't see the difference between Gilad Shalit, a captive who was captured in his own country, being returned to his family and prisoners - murderers - who were serving sentences for crimes, being returned home and thus let off the hook. What frightens me is that these terrorists were welcomed as heroes and that in rallies welcoming them, public statements were made calling for more kidnappings so that more of these monsters can be returned home. What frightens me is that they don't show any remorse - they don't understand what was wrong about their actions - they do not feel sorry or shameful. There is no part of the civilized world that would think this release makes sense. There is no part of the civilized world that shouldn't fear these people having freedom.
As a Canadian citizen who expects that people who commit heinous crimes will receive just punishment, it is hard to accept these prisoners being freed - at home, I wouldn't sleep well knowing that people like this were living amongst the public. Yet, the rules seem to be different here and in this case. As bothered as I am, it would be more bothersome to have watched Noam and Aviva and the rest of the Shalit Family told repeatedly that the deal is not good enough or, worse, that we waited too long and their son had been killed. Although it seems unjust and immoral, granting freedom to 1000 terrorists seems like the lesser of two evils in this scenario.
The joy that I witnessed on the face of Gilad's brother, and the many supporters at the tent on Tuesday night, is all the proof I need that the right thing was done.
I pray that the security fence stands up to any attacks these terrorists may try to carry out and for the safety of the soldiers in the IDF - may we not have another kidnapped soldier in our lifetime.
