A continuing thorn in Israel’s side is the soldier, Gilad Shalit who was captured by HAMAS back in 2006. Negotiations for his release ebb and wane without ever producing his release. I understand that those holding him feel that they are gaining leverage over the Israeli government and that they eventually hope to secure the release of some of their own people who held by the Israelis. There is nothing new in this, this sort of thing has been going on for years, Shalit is simply the latest Israeli soldier captured and then offered in trade for Palestinian prisoners.
The bit I do not understand are the calculations made by the Palestinians. They are regularly ground down by Israeli military and economic strength and go to great lengths denouncing the Israelis in a variety of lurid ways. The general contention is that Palestinians are equal to Israelis and deserve to be treated as equals. Fair enough, why not. Well one reason seems to be that neither the Palestinian leadership nor their Arab allies, supporters or interlocutors really believe this proposition.
As evidence we need nothing more than the latest observations by the Egyptian Foreign Minister Aboul Ahmed Geit. He has suggested that the Israelis need to honor “a promise to release 1,000 Palestinian prisoners for Cpl. Gilad Shalit.” In an interview at the U.N. he expanded on this by observing that “[i]f you want a soldier, if you need a certain commodity and you are ready to pay in that commodity then pay for the sake of the soldier — give the Palestinians what they are after.”
Apparently the Palestinian leadership, and its allies are quite happy with the proposition that a single Israeli is worth 1,000 Palestinians. This is bizzare. The Israelis have been happy to indulge this style of thinking in the past, releasing hundreds of Palestinian detainees / prisoners in exchange for an individual Israeli. Presumably the Palestinians that the Israeli’s release are not seen as hard-core terrorists. No doubt Palestinian families are happy to receive their family members back, but from both a practical and a morale standpoint this strikes me as insidious.
Practically, it encourages the Israelis to imprison more people than they may need to in order to ensure they have a sufficient surplus of low-value detainees that they can exchange at need.
From a morale standpoint these exchanges can only bolster an Israeli self-image that sees themselves as superior to Palestinians while equally depressing Palestinians. After-all, what is the value of a Palestinian life to either party when you allow a 1000-1 exchange rate. Clearly the Israelis don’t think much of the Palestinians if they are willing to hand over 1,000 of them in exchange for a single Corporal.
Simply put, if you don’t value yourself why would anyone else value you.
It seems to me that from a morale standpoint the Palestinians might do better to demand the release of a single Palestinian, of equivalent rank, in exchange for Gilad Shalit. It would send the message that they don’t think Israelis are better than them in any manner. Plus it would have the additional advantage of making Israeli detention practices look more extreme. As per “we held a single Israeli, and we have secured the release of one of our people. But Israel still holds X thousand of our people etc etc.”
As an example, if I am a South Korean citizen would I care more if I lost 1 won or 1 U.S. dollar (today’s exchange rate 1190-1). I know that 1 dollar isn’t really worth all that much, so this exchange tells me even more emphatically that 1 won is really worthless.