Eins zu Eintausendsiebenunzwanzig

"One versus 1.027. As of this writing, those are the cold, hard numbers of the proposed exchange: one Gilad Shalit for 1.027 Palestinian prisoners. This lopsided equation is, in a raw sense, a point of tribal pride. See how much a Jewish life is worth. See how far the State of Israel will go to rescue one of its own. But a competing interpretation suggests that this unequal calculation is an invitation for yet another brutal kidnapping – what a price you can fetch for an Israeli soldier – and a cautionary tale of what can happen when a single person propelled by an effective public relations effort becomes the focus of collective angst and governmental guilt. This clash between the heart and the head is embodied in essays published elsewhere in the Forward, from a Jerusalem mother who sees in Shalit’s freedom a metaphor for the collective Israeli soul, and from a political scientist who worries about the strategic consequences of the exchange (...) Israelis say that in the more than five years of captivity, Gilad Shalit had become everyone’s son. We will do anything for our children. That’s why the equation was a thousand to one. Pray that the short-term victory in this calculus won’t be transformed into a long-term loss, that heart will win over head if there is a next time."

The Jewish Daily Forward in einem Editorial (13. Oktober) zum Befreiungs-Deal für Gilad Shalit