Clarity coming?

In the aftermath of the exchange of murderers and prisoners for two coffins, there is some chance that some clarity may emerge. In the case of the two reservists, The Jerusalem Post reports they were killed outright, their bodies being grabbed for the purpose of bargaining. Jewish Law mandates redemption of captives, alive or dead; a fact well known by Israel's enemies and exploited to the maximum. Already the Hamasniks are increasing the price for Shalit's release, the third soldier taken in 2006.

Despite the blatant exploitation of Jewish Law by her enemies, Israel will not abandon its practice to bring back the bodies of its fallen soldiers. That does not mean, however, that there is concensus on the price paid. This is especially the case here, where Hizbullah and the Lebanese government gave a hero's welcome to Samir Kuntar and his fellow prisoners. It is not so much the televised spectacle that digs at the collective Israeli gut. It is the apparent silence and impotence of the world community for two years to expose the truth about the fate of the two young men. All assurances about their welfare or where-abouts were lies.

It is difficult to convey the centrality of the IDF experience in Israeli life. It is more than a "draft" or "service". Perhaps it approaches the US cultural concept of the colonial minuteman--the citizen soldier ready to go in a minute.

Whereas the high school experience in the US intended to prepare the graduate to survive in the job world, Israeli the Israeli high school, and post high school, experience prepares the graduate to serve in the IDF. For three years, Israelis perform some sort of national service. Afterwards, they serve in the reserves for another twenty, like the two young men whose bodies just came home. Many volunteer as reserve police or firefighters or EMTs after they are "too old to go".

Every family in Israel has experienced the waiting, the loss, and the homecoming. Every family knows the cost of taking a firm stand against brutality and thuggery, both of which show no signs of abating in the future. Every person here, tonight, feels the tears of loss and asks the eternal mourner's question, so well phrased by E. E. Cummings, "how do you like your blueeyed boy Mister Death".

It is hard, therefore, for Israelis to squelch the dissonance felt with the decision to release Samir Kuntar. Full of radical chic, Kuntar and some buddies took a rubber boat across the Israel Lebanon border to the seaside resort town of Nahariya to hunt Jews. They found them in an apartment complex where they gunned them down. The Prime Minister's Office released a video document of the crime today on YouTube:



It is not the attempts of Hizbullah to deride the Israelis as fools that galls Israelis. Nor does it bother Israelis that the international community continues to believe that mediation will work with parties who have no intention of following through on any agreement they make. What grinds them is that they are going to have to catch Kuntar again.