Gilad Shalit was kidnapped by Hamas in 2006. His freedom was secured by Israel’s release of 1,027 Palestinian prisoners in 2011.
Murder is bad enough. In fact, it is difficult to think of something worse. But there is something worse: preventable murder. That moral onus — the capacity to prevent murder, squandered — is too much to bear.
But it is not only the advocates of Gilad Shalit’s release who bear it; it is all of us who ignored the admittedly tortuous Jewish teaching that sometimes a kidnap victim is not to be rescued, even when it is possible.
Needless to say, those who acted on Shalit’s behalf were well intentioned in the extreme. Needless to say, the ultimate moral onus rests with Hamas, not with its victims; and with those whose acts of murder were facilitated by Shalit’s release, not with Israel or Shalit’s advocates.
But cold-blooded murder is exactly, and directly, what Shalit’s release precipitated. Example: Mohammed al-Amira murdered Rabbi Michael (Mickey) Mark near the West Bank town of Otniel last July by shooting into his car passing on the road. Al-Amira was convicted of murder and of several counts of attempted murder.
Al-Amira was released from jail in the Gilad Shalit prisoner-exchange deal. Al-Amira was not the only murderer released in the prisoner exchange. Israel traded one life for another (and, we hope, not for many more future murder victims of the released prisoners).
The family of Rabbi Mark released this statement: “The State of Israel must not release terrorists in any deal whatsoever. It has been proven that terrorists, even ones without blood on the hands, return to the circle of terrorism and eventually become killers with blood on their hands.
“We ask our leaders not to bow to domestic or international pressure to release terrorists and we call on individuals who supported the [Shalit] deal to go to the graves of their victims and ask forgiveness.”
Such forgiveness would be meaningless to the victims, and probably also meaningless to the surviving families of the victims; but the act of asking for such forgiveness could be a salutary exercise for the well-intentioned politicians and others who advocated for and effectuated the release of Palestinian terrorists for the release of Shalit.
Hamas. ISIS. Boko Haram. Al-Qaida. Beheaders. Suicide bombers. Poison gas users. They deserve only death, and, as the family of Rabbi Mark put it, “The obscene murderer and the sentence he received [two life sentences] have not been part of our lives. . . . We have no interest in this killer. He lost his spark of humanity.
“ . . . We are busy strengthening our family, supporting one another and our mother, who has not fully recovered from the wounds she sustained in the attack [of the murderer, who tried to kill Rabbi Mark’s wife and children, too] and rebuilding our family’s day-to-day routine. Some people murder, others build. Our father taught us to continue building strength.”
Copyright © 2017 by the Intermountain Jewish News
This is a new wrinkle to me. I absolutely agree. Releasing terrorists only increases terror