There will, apparently, be no 11th hour deal between Israel and Hamas to bring Gilad Shalit home after nearly 1,000 days in captivity. And while I wrote yesterday about the moral failings of Hamas making outlandish demands to agree to his release, today I write about the State of Israel’s failing to acquiesce to those very demands.
To be sure, this is a complicated issue – one with human, political, and security implications which are more complex than any one conclusion can satisfy. Perhaps there is no way to make the deal. Or perhaps, there really are security needs which make it unwise. But the reasons offered so far are simply unacceptable.

The comments coming out of Israel which seek to explain why a deal could not be reached raise real questions which cannot be ignored, no matter what any of us believes to be the proper response to this situation.
Is it really appropriate for the government of the State of Israel to ignore the facts in poll after poll, that 69% of Israelis favor making the deal which Hamas requested? That’s about the same percentage of Israelis who favored the recent war in Gaza. If the state relies on public support about going to war, why can they not do the same when it comes to achieving a moment of peace and bringing one of its own soldiers home?
Beyond some abstract understanding of justice, what is lost by returning even hundreds of Palestinian fighters with the blood of civilians on their hands? Is veteran Israeli, Nahum Barnea journalist really correct that in making such a deal, Israel runs the risk of “awful security damage that will be wrought by those dangerous prisoners once they are released.”? Do we not assume that there are plenty of young men and women who are already eagerly filling void created by their capture?

It’s not that they don’t, from my perspective at least, belong in prison forever – they do. But is the failure to make this deal because of new security challenges posed by the release of convicted terrorists, or because we find it painful to release them?
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s comments as the talks broke down offer a disturbing answer to this question. “We have red lines. We will not cross them”, he said. “We are not a defeated nation.” It seems to me that bringing captives home, telling the world that no price is too great for the safety of one of our sons or brothers, and that national self image is nothing when compared with that one life, is actually the mark of a truly victorious nation.
To subscribe to “Windows & Doors” click here.