Human ammunition

Gilad means monument. Since when three years and one month ago the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit was kidnapped by Hamas in Gaza, the young man has become also a symbol himself, not only his name meaning. And even in something more: a weapon. For both sides.

Since the 25th of June 2006, at least four times one side or the other has claimed the imminent liberation of Shalit. None of them was made true. In twice of them Hamas blamed Israel, the third one was the opposite. Last one, this Thursday, Israel is to be blamed again, but this time by Mubarak, Egyptian president and the negotiator in the three party talks.

It’s not the first time Israel plays to fool everyone. In fact, the trick of tiring the opponent until they throw the towel is far known in the region. Of course, it’s been played for everyone during the last 60 years. And if the side who bet their lives are the Arabs, Israel is happy. But if there is one Israeli under risk, it changes.

In January, Shalit’s father charged against Olmert government for stopping the offensive in Gaza. More than fifteen hundred casualties, two thirds of them civilians, weren’t enough if his son wasn’t at home by Hanukah.

But what didn’t realize Noam Shalit, the soldier’s father, and neither does Israeli society, is that few people is now really concerned about Shalit. Every moment he spent in Hamas’ hands makes him more valuable, makes more expensive the deal and makes the Palestinian to suffer more -which in the end, makes longer the conflict. There is a good sentence in this Haim Watzman’s article, in the last paragraph, that illustrates perfectly it:

Here is our dilemma, and that of our leaders: As we enter Gilad Shalit’s fourth year of captivity, we must be cool and collected, and bold and courageous. We must be prepared to pay a heavy price to bring Gilad home, but we must not pay too much. I do not know what that price should be. My policy analyst’s head tells me that every price that Hamas has asked has been far too high; my father’s heart tells me that we should have paid it long ago.

Let’s put it on numbers. Olmert’s government accepted a year ago a liberation in exchange of 1,000 prisoners. Then they demanded the list to be reduced to 450 high caliber prisoners. Now, Netanyahu’s government, according to Mubarak, boycotted in the last minute that deal.

Meanwhile, in those three years have been thousands of attacks (in both sides), retaliations (in both sides) and deaths (mostly in one side) that have fueled the cycle again. Many of those operations or attacks, like last Gaza war, were supposedly backed on Shalit’s freedom.

But truth is that one more day, one more month, one more year in captivity; everything goes down to a justification for one operation more, one political decision more or one radical recruitment more. Even Israeli iconography surrounding Shalit reminds to that used by the Palestinian to remember their own prisoners or martyrs.

Hamas stated in January during the offensive in Gaza that Shalit’s health wasn’t anymore a priority for them (understandable after all that was going on over them -literally- then) and that Shalit’s life was as worthless as “a cat”.

They lie. Shalit is their best weapon right now, as it is for Israel.



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