Gilad Shalit Prisoner Exchange: A Study in Contrasts
The
release of Gilad Shalit in exchange for more than 1,000 Palestinian
terrorists was certainly a study in contrasts.
The Palestinians emerged hale and hearty from their time in Israeli prisons. Some even looked as though they had been working out.
Gilad Shalit, in contrast, came out pale, malnourished and blinking in the sunlight that he had clearly been deprived of for a long time.
When pounced upon by a Egyptian TV reporter immediately after his transfer from Gaza to Egypt, Gilad expressed his hopes for peace.
How much in contrast are the words of Wafa al-Biss, one of the freed prisoners, who spoke to children on her way home to the Gaza Strip, encouraging them to blow themselves up and kill as many Israelis as possible.
In 2005, Biss was traveling to Israel's Soroka Hospital for medical treatment. The staff at Soroka had saved her life, and she had been receiving caring treatment there for six months. Parenthetically, Israel routinely treats Arabs living in both the West Bank and Gaza in Israeli hospitals.
As she neared the checkpoint, the Israeli soldiers saw that she was walking rather strangely. The soldiers found 10 kgs (22 lbs) of explosives sewn into her underwear.
A member of al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an offshoot of President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah party, Biss was sentenced to a 12-year term for planning to blow herself up.
Biss said she had planned to blow herself up at the checkpoint, but her detonator malfunctioned. "Unfortunately, the button did not work at the last minute before I was to be martyred," Biss told Reuters.
After she spoke, the children cheered, waved Palestinian flags and chanted: "We will give souls and blood to redeem the prisoners. We will give souls and blood for you, Palestine."
In previous prisoner exchanges, 25% of those released have returned to commit acts of terror.
As Liat Collins of the Jerusalem Post noted, "I’d rather belong to a nation willing to pay to bring home a collective child than to a would-be country that turns its mass murderers into heroes."
--Diane Romm, Member, CoHaV Council; with material from Stuart Palmer and Maurice Ostroff
The Palestinians emerged hale and hearty from their time in Israeli prisons. Some even looked as though they had been working out.
Gilad Shalit, in contrast, came out pale, malnourished and blinking in the sunlight that he had clearly been deprived of for a long time.
When pounced upon by a Egyptian TV reporter immediately after his transfer from Gaza to Egypt, Gilad expressed his hopes for peace.
How much in contrast are the words of Wafa al-Biss, one of the freed prisoners, who spoke to children on her way home to the Gaza Strip, encouraging them to blow themselves up and kill as many Israelis as possible.
In 2005, Biss was traveling to Israel's Soroka Hospital for medical treatment. The staff at Soroka had saved her life, and she had been receiving caring treatment there for six months. Parenthetically, Israel routinely treats Arabs living in both the West Bank and Gaza in Israeli hospitals.
As she neared the checkpoint, the Israeli soldiers saw that she was walking rather strangely. The soldiers found 10 kgs (22 lbs) of explosives sewn into her underwear.
A member of al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an offshoot of President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah party, Biss was sentenced to a 12-year term for planning to blow herself up.
Biss said she had planned to blow herself up at the checkpoint, but her detonator malfunctioned. "Unfortunately, the button did not work at the last minute before I was to be martyred," Biss told Reuters.
After she spoke, the children cheered, waved Palestinian flags and chanted: "We will give souls and blood to redeem the prisoners. We will give souls and blood for you, Palestine."
In previous prisoner exchanges, 25% of those released have returned to commit acts of terror.
As Liat Collins of the Jerusalem Post noted, "I’d rather belong to a nation willing to pay to bring home a collective child than to a would-be country that turns its mass murderers into heroes."
--Diane Romm, Member, CoHaV Council; with material from Stuart Palmer and Maurice Ostroff
