Deborah Orr of The Guardian has her own explanation for the exchange of Gilad Shalit for over 1,000 palestinian terrorists.
Is an Israeli life really more important than a Palestinian’s?
The transfer of prisoners tacitly acknowledges acceptance of that obscene idea
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All this, I fear, is simply an indication of how inured the world has become to the obscene idea that Israeli lives are more important than Palestinian lives. Netanyahu argues that he acted because he values Shalit’s life so greatly.
Yet who is surprised really, to learn that Netanyahu sees one Israeli’s freedom as a fair exchange for the freedom of so many Palestinians? Likewise, Hamas wished to use their human bargaining chip to gain release for as many Palestinians as they could. They don’t have much to bargain with.
At the same time, however, there is something abject in their eagerness to accept a transfer that tacitly acknowledges what so many Zionists believe – that the lives of the chosen are of hugely greater consequence than those of their unfortunate neighbours.
Yep, I called it correctly (I just got the gender wrong).
As Honest Reporting explains, the Jewish concept of the Chosen People* has nothing to do with notions of superiority, and the swap deal shows just how much Israel values human life.
But I would go a step further. The swap deal also tells us how little the palestinians value human life, including their own. As if sending their own people to blow themselves up, and murdering each other in honor killings did not already tell you.
* The Hebrew for this concept is ‘Or LaGoyim’, being a ‘Light Unto The Nations’ So Deborah Orr’s very surname alludes to this. Sweet!
