It is a favorite barb against the Zionist left that from the comfort of their homes in New York or Cleveland, they presume to tell Israel what to do, how to behave. Never mind that no one (not even the president or the secretary of state, much less dovish Jews) can “tell” Israel what to…
As Gilad Shalit settles back into life in Israel, the country resounds with an uncomfortable question: What happens next time? Israel started paying high prices for its captured soldiers in the 1980s, and since then, the prisoner-swap exchange rate has been subject to hyperinflation. In the Shalit deal it was 1,027 Palestinian prisoners to one…
The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on October 24 that Ilan Grapel, a dual American-Israeli citizen, will soon be released from an Egyptian prison, after four months of detention on what are believed to be trumped-up charges. American and Israeli policymakers, however — and citizens abroad — should be concerned that the…
It was an uncharacteristic moment of uncertainty — and a rare divergence from Israeli policy — when the usually emphatic Republican presidential candidates were asked how they would have handled Hamas’s demands for the release of Master Sgt. Gilad Shalit, the soldier for whom Israel traded 1,027 Palestinian prisoners, including some terrorists. “You can’t negotiate…
You didn’t have to be a great lover of Israel to get choked up at the sight of Gilad Shalit walking unsteadily into the sunlight of freedom October 18, after five years of being locked in a hole somewhere in Gaza. At the same time, you couldn’t miss the anguished second-guessing that dominated public discussion…
After seeing, hearing and reading the flood of anguish and outrage that’s followed Israel’s decision to free 1,027 terrorists in return for one captured soldier, you might be astonished to learn that Israelis approve of the deal by a nearly 6-to-1 margin, according to a poll published in the Jerusalem Post October 18. The Dahaf…
Uri Ehrenfeld knew exactly how Gilad Shalit felt as the pale and scrawny soldier strode to freedom on Israeli soil October 18 after five years in captivity. Ehrenfeld, who spent months in captivity during the Yom Kippur War, relived his own rush of emotions when he watched Shalit hug his father and return to a…
It is impossible to overstate the intensity of emotion felt in Israel at the news of Gilad Shalit’s impending release. Many of us have been glued to the television screen with unrelenting tears in our eyes since we first heard about the imminent deal. It feels like we just let out a collective breath, like…
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