Swapping coffins for murderers

Today was Israel’s blackest day since I arrived some seven months ago. The ‘prisoner swap’, painstakingly thrashed out between Israel and the Lebanese terrorist group Hizballah reached its macabre conclusion. The two soldiers abducted by Hizballah almost exactly two years ago were returned to Israel, and Israel returned to the Lebanese convicted murderer Samir Kuntar and four Hizballah gunmen captured during the 2006 war sparked by the abduction.

Except, of course, the two Israeli soldiers, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, returned to their homeland in coffins.

It has been quite extraordinary witnessing the debate generated by this saga. Should Israel release the murderers of its citizens in return for dead soldiers? Indeed, should Israel release murderers at all - whether the soldiers are alive or dead? Should the entire principle, which the State of Israel has adhered to throughout its 60 years of existence, of placing the return of its soldiers over almost all other moral concerns, be abandoned?

A word about some of the specifics: first, Samir Kuntar. In 1979, in the middle of the night, he crossed the border into Israel and, after killing a policeman entered the home of the Haran family. He shot to death Danny Haran in front of his four-year old daughter Einat. He then killed her by bashing in her skull with the butt of his gun. Meanwhile, Danny’s terrified wife Smadar, who was hiding with their two-year old daughter Yael, accidentally smothered the child to death in her desperation to prevent her crying and giving them both away to Kuntar.

In anticipation of Kuntar’s release, Hizballah have prepared a massive celebration and the Lebanese government and people are welcoming him as a returning hero. Hizballah’s response is as predictable as it is despicable, but the general air of festivity in Lebanon is deeply disturbing and perhaps exemplifies how successful Israel’s enemies have been at sowing the seeds of hate in ordinary people.

Cruelly, Hizballah kept the families of the two soldiers guessing about their fate right to the last. Last week, after Israel had announced that they believed them to be dead, Hizballah leader Hassan Nasrallah told a press conference that this was just speculation on Israel’s part. Even today, as Israelis waited for a sight of the soldiers and the entire country prayed that the assessment had been wrong and they would be returned alive, a Hizballah official refused to confirm anything, simply telling the TV cameras: “You’ll know their fate soon enough”. Not long after, two black coffins appeared.

The debate in Israel is complex, incorporating not just national feeling but religious imperatives. According to Jewish law, everything possible must be done to secure the release of a captive, and further, even the dead body of a Jew must be returned to his family for a proper burial as a matter of supreme religious importance. At the same time, the Israel Defense Forces moral code states that missing in action soldiers will never be abandoned and all steps will taken to return them. In a country like Israel, where almost every family sends his children to the army at the age of 18, this promise is part of the contract between the army and the people it serves.

Both of these points resonate with me. And I don’t doubt that if my son were kidnapped I would willingly release every terrorist in Israel’s jails to secure his release. But my feeling right now is that this has to stop. I believe that Israel has to say: no more. No more negotiating the release of convicted murderers and terrorists. If you kidnap our soldiers our response will not be to agree a ‘swap’. For all the mishandling of the 2006 Lebanon War, that was the right response to the abduction of the soldiers. As Yitzhak Rabin described the policy that should underlie Israel’s dealings with its neighbours: “One hand will reach out for peace, the other we will keep poised on the trigger” - Arab olive branches should be responded to in kind, but acts of aggression will be met with the fury of a people that has faced hatred and persecution for 2000 years and now, finally, has the means to defend itself.

One more Israeli soldier remains in captivity. Gilad Shalit, was 19 years old when he was abducted by Hamas in June 2006 and taken into Gaza. It is generally thought that he is still alive. Israel sought to make his release one of the terms of the temporary ceasefire agreed with Hamas last week but Hamas refused, saying only that the ceasefire would speed up negotiations for his release. Like Hizballah, Hamas wish to secure the maximum capital they can from their captured Israeli; they want the release of several hundred Palestinian terrorists incarcerated in Israeli jails. And like Hizballah today with Kuntar, Hamas would draw the maximum possible propaganda value out of the release. Hizballah are proclaiming this as a great victory over Israel. Hamas would do the same, telling the Palestinian people that only they could force the hand of the Zionist enemy.

For this and other reasons, Israel should never have agreed to the truce. Even with Shalit’s release it made questionable strategic sense but without it, it simply buys a few months of calm which, despite the Qassam rocket fire, benefits Hamas more than Israel anyway. Israel should have said: no Shalit no deal. And if the rockets don’t stop we’re sending in the army.

There is simply no easy answer to how to deal with this. Whichever option is taken, there are serious implications for the safety and security of innocent people. And whichever option is taken, there is an injustice done somehow. What today has shown me, if i did not know already, is just how close-knit this country is. The entire nation is in mourning today for the two soldiers. The entire nation is crying. Every parent here knows it could have been their child.

Meanwhile, in Lebanon, Hizballah are basking in the glory of their ‘victory’ and a big party is being thrown for Samir Kuntar.