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Bringing Home Gilad Shalit

Today the Israeli government approved a deal to bring home Gilad Shalit, a soldier who was abducted in 2006 by Hamas.  Negotiations over some kind of prisoner swap have been going on off and on ever since.  Prime Minister Netanyahu authorized, and the cabinet approved, a deal that will release hundreds of Palestinians involved in terror attacks against Israelis.

Here is the text of Prime Minister Netanyahu's remarks before the Israeli cabinet meeting:

Today, I bring a proposal to the Government for a deal that will bring Gilad Shalit home alive and well; bring him home to his parents Aviva and Noam, his brother Yoel, his sister Hadas, his grandfather Zvi, and the entire people of Israel. Two and a half years ago, when the government was formed, I took upon myself, as my first priority, to bring Gilad home to his people, to his family – to bring him home safe and sound.

At the time, Gilad was already held in captivity for two and a half years, with no visits from the Red Cross, with no visits at all, and we did not know what state he was in. The first step I took, and we approved it here in the Government, was to get a video recording of Gilad, and we all breathed a sigh of relief when we saw it. We saw that he was functioning, physically, mentally and cognitively. We saw that he was functioning well. We knew that he was healthy and that he was alive. I regarded that tape as an insurance policy, because it obliged the Hamas before the international community to safeguard him, to keep him alive and maintain his health. But that was obviously only the first step.

The most important mission that we had was more challenging – to actually bring Gilad home. To that end we held long and tough negotiations through the German mediator. These negotiations were based on a framework outlined by the previous government. They were long and exhausting and despite all our efforts, a deal was not reached.

I must point out that not a day went by without us trying various ways to bring Gilad
home, any way possible, and that didn't work either. In the last few weeks, the
negotiations were renewed in Cairo, this time with the Egyptian government as mediator.

My instructions to the team were to adhere to the principles and framework that are
important for the security of the State of Israel, which I will detail in the meeting.
There is an inbuilt tension between the desire to bring back an abducted soldier, or
citizen, and the need to maintain the security of the citizens of Israel. This is my dual responsibility as Prime Minister.

The deal I am bringing to the Government expresses the right balance between all of
these considerations. I do not wish to hide the truth from you – it is a very difficult
decision. I feel for the families of victims of terror, I appreciate their suffering and
distress, I am one of them. But leadership must be examined at moments such as this, being able to make difficult, but right, decisions.

I believe that we have reached the best deal we could have at this time, when storms are sweeping the Middle East. I do not know if in the near future we would have been able to reach a better deal or any deal at all. It is very possible that this window of opportunity, that opened because of the circumstances, would close indefinitely and we would never have been able to bring Gilad home at all.

Therefore, for all of these reasons, I instructed the team to put their initials on the deal last Thursday, and today it was finalized and signed by both sides. I thank my Military Secretary Maj. Gen. Yohanan Locker, the Chief of the Shin Bet Yoram Cohen, my personal envoy to the negotiations, David Meidan and his predecessor Hagai Hadas. I thank the team that has accompanied them all these years.

I thank the IDF, the security forces for doing everything they could regarding Gilad
Shalit. I also wish to thank the German mediator, and the Chancellor Angela Merkel who supported his mission all along. A send a special thanks to the Government of Egypt and the Egyptian Intelligence Services for providing much assistance in mediating and helping us reaching this agreement.

This morning I Invited Noam Shalit to my residence, and I spoke on the phone with the mother Aviva and the grandfather Zvi. I told them that I am keeping my promise and I'm bringing their son and grandson home. I told them, "I'm bringing your boy back." I am happy that I succeeded in fulfilling the Jewish decree of redeeming captives, and if all goes as planned, Gilad will be back in Israel in the next few days with his family and his people.

The Nation of Israel is a unique people. We are all mutually responsible for each other, as our Sages said: "He who saves one soul, it is as though he saved an entire world." Tonight, I bring the Government a proposal to save Gilad Shalit, to finally bring him home to Israel after five years.

More on the Gaza Events

There are a couple of responsibilities that Jews have at this time, when Israel is under a great deal of scrutiny.  One is to know enough to explain to other people what the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians is and has been about, and how it has evolved over Israel's 62 years.  There are a couple things I have written recently that are helpful for that.  In last Sunday's Nashua Telegraph is a column I wrote for the general public.  For the congregation, I recently wrote a bulletin article about the modern history of Jerusalem.

At the same time, we have a spiritual obligation not to let venom directed at Israel divert us from our fundamental values.  We seek peace, for Israel and all around her.  We seek justice, for Israel and for all around her.  We seek an end to unnecessary suffering, by Israelis and Palestinians.  No actions by critics, no failures of the Palestinians' own leadership would justify our failing to keep committed to those principles.

Here are a few more interesting things to read:

A good Israeli response/rebuttal from Ambassador to the U.S. MIchael Oren

A thoughtful critique of the raid from an American Jewish defender of Israel Leon Wieseltier

Another (heartening) angle:  What's really happening these days between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, from Thomas Friedman

More on Gaza

A couple interesting new items:

Haaretz: Possible agreement between Israel and flotilla to unload next ship at Ashdod

Today: Hamas preventing ship supplies from entering Gaza from Israel

Israel's Operation Off Gaza

Earlier today, Israel intercepted ships belonging to an organization protesting Israel's blockade of Gaza.  The ships were heading for Gaza from Turkey with relief supplies.  When the ships did not stop, Israel's navy boarded the ships, there was fighting, people on the ships were killed and Israeli soldiers were wounded.

For those who immediately condemned the attack, the defining frame is: Israel's blockade of Gaza is unjust and violates international law.  It's a continuation of "occupation" in a different form.  Any resistance is presumptively justified.

Israel has this blockade, both to put economic pressure on the Hamas regime in Gaza and out of a justified fear of weapons being smuggled into Gaza.  So -- you can watch this on tape -- Israel offered to escort the ships to Ashdod, unload and inspect the cargo, and bring the aid supplies to Gaza under the watch of the people who had come to deliver it.  To which the ship's reply was "negative."

The debate, condemnation, and defending that has begun and that will unfold are exactly the same as during the conflict of December 2008 and the subsequent Goldstone Report (and everything else).  I'll see like everyone else what the facts of this incident turn out to have been.  At this point, I don't see how to fault Israel for making an offer that defends itself and offers to deliver the aid in question.

Israel -- Remarks at Yesterday's " Community Service for Peace "

These words, which I entitled "Our Fears, Our Dreams", are what I said at the rally and service for peace yesterday at the Jewish Federation of New Hampshire. (The Manchester Union Leader published a very positive article about the program, quoting extensively from remarks by Israel's Consul-General in Boston, Nadav Tamir.)

At a time of great trouble and danger, we are here reaching out to our fellow Jews, our sisters and brothers in Israel, the Palestinians who share our ancient land, and also to our neighbors here in New Hampshire. We are here because we have dreams, and we have fears, and this gathering is about both. Especially to our Palestinian neighbors, we have to speak about our dreams and our fears.

We have for so long dreamt of living as Jews in peace and justice on this earth, anywhere, and in our homeland.
We fear there are those in the world who don’t believe us, or who won’t let us.

We dream of an end to killing, and more positively, we dream that Eretz Yisrael, which you call Palestine, and the holy city of Jerusalem, will be once again be historic places of inspiration for the entire world.

We dream that all our Arab neighbors will see us as human beings, see us for our deep human values
But we fear that you are coming to know us only by our weapons or our mistakes.

We dream that your leaders will finally say yes when we extend our hand in peace – not yes but, or yes if, but yes.
We fear this won’t happen; we fear what will happen to us and to you if it doesn’t – that we will become, forever and irreversibly, statues of hate.

We fear that our peace offers and our withdrawals, and the flexibility Israeli leaders have shown -- in 1947 at the UN, in 2000 at Camp David, in 2005 on the way out of Gaza -- will make us foolish in our own eyes and in yours.
But we dream that you will imagine what we have come to learn, perhaps with difficulty – that the blessing of peace will only be ours if we share it with you.

We fear that you don’t share these dreams. But we dream that you do – no, we have faith that you do.

Mekor Hachayyim, Adon Hashalom -- Source of all Life, Master of Peace, we pray that you calm our fears, and bless our dreams of peace. Amen.

Israel and Gaza

This is a very difficult time for Israel, Israelis, and Palestinians. I sense that this episode in the fighting is going to be different from what took place a couple of years ago. Israel's credibility as a nation able to defend its citizens is at stake, versus the credibility of Hamas and Iran as threats to Israel (and beyond).

It's important to have good sources of news and information. I rely on Haaretz, Israel's most thoughtful newspaper, and on the Jerusalem Post. Both are available at these links on-line in English.

There have been a couple of articles worth reading in recent days. Rabbi Daniel Gordis, who made aliyah from the U.S., writes personally about southern Israel, and what is at stake in the fighting. Yossi Klein Halevi, an Israeli journalist, analyzes the situation from the standpoint of Israel, its various leaders, Arabs, and in The New Republic.

We have responsibilities. First, to give what moral and financial support we can to Israelis we know, to people in our community who have family and friends living in harm's way or serving in the Israel Defense Forces.

Second, we will be called on to explain and comment on what is going on. We live in a community where most people know little about the backdrop of the Israel-Arab conflict. What people see most are gruesome images on war on CNN, or headlines and brief articles in the local press.

When we talk, the most important thing is to frame what is going on in terms of the biggest picture: Israel is a country that has been attacked since the day of its founding, that has defended itself, and that seeks peace with Palestinians and its neighbors. Anything else we say has to be grounded in that. That's the basic narrative of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Every Israeli leader, even those of the hard right, has been engaged in negotiations about Palestinian self-rule. Israel offered to withdraw from over 90% of the Palestinian territories at the Camp David summit in 2000, but Yasser Arafat walked away from that deal. Israel removed its forces and its citizens from the Gaza Strip unilaterally in 2005, and left some of the infrastructure from its very successful agricultural industry there. The response has been Hamas and rockets.

There is no one left among the possible leaders of Israel who advocates incorporating most of the Palestinian territories on the West Bank into Israel along with its population. There are Israelis who oppose this approach, there have been unwise and immoral acts along the way. But the basic thrust is toward peace and coexistence.

There is a difference between targeting civilians for attack, and killing civilians in the pursuit of fighters who hide among them. This isn't easy to say, especially when I am not the one on the front line as an Israeli solider or a Palestinian casualty. But to say that Israel cannot fight because Hamas chooses to fight from populated areas -- that is to say that Israel cannot defend herself at all.

Israel's opponents frame a different narrative: The Palestinians are a people subjugated by Israel and engaged in legitimate resistance against a massively powerful army of oppression. If this were true, what Israel has been doing this week would be nothing more than murder, the act of a morally bankrupt nation. But the truth is, the Palestinians have had opportunities to say yes to a state of their own living in peace -- in 1947, in 2000 -- and they have either chosen not to, or been betrayed by their leaders. Those who speak and act on their behalf have chosen war and terror.

Before being drawn into a debate about the day's news, we have to establish our version of the narrative. Israeli leaders do not live up to it every day, and Palestinian civilians are killed in this war, and horrible things will happen. It is not our responsibility to defend everything that happens. To hate the Palestinians, or Arabs, or Moslems, is also a desecration of God's name and of the Jewish people. But it only we who can explain what Israel's hopes are, even at a time of war.

As I said in shul last Shabbat, it is hard to have this responsibility, especially for those of us who dream like Shimon Peres of a peaceful, prosperous, integrated Middle East one day. But you can't do tikkun olam, can't reshape the world, without understanding it. And that means understanding the forces of violence and hate that push back, that push away from peace and from life. That's where we are this week.

I hope we are all able to answer questions when they come, to write the local paper when misconceptions creep in. If you know a high school or college student, they have it hardest of all -- help them bear up and stand up too.

Hashem oz l'amo yiten, Hashem y'varech et amo vashalom. May God give strength to God's people, may God bless God's people -- all of God's people -- with shalom.