Hard Light Productions Forums
Off-Topic Discussion => General Discussion => Topic started by: Sandwich on October 12, 2011, 10:27:15 am
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http://news.google.com/news/more?pz=1&cf=all&ncl=dW7axhZi1Fa5nqM1H4aS0MG5ABpsM&topic=h
If this happens and Israel gets Gilad Shalit back alive, it will (AFAICT) be the first time we've gotten a captured soldier back alive (see the Wikipedia article on Israeli Prisoner Exchanges (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_prisoner_exchanges)). Two of my personal friends from my time in the IDF, Adi Avitan and Beni Avraham, were returned in coffins.
The cost of getting Gilad back, however, is high. 1027 Palestinian prisoners, many with blood on their hands, for a single soldier. Is 1:1027 the ratio between the value Israel puts on a life vs the value the Palestinians put on a life? Maybe, maybe not. My concern is about the precedent this sets. While I'm overjoyed for Gilad and his family (and after 5 years in captivity, there's a saying here that "We are all the Shalit family"), this in many ways reminds me of negotiating with terrorists, capitulating to terrorism... rewarding it even.
As painful as it would have been, I personally think that we never should have agreed to more than a 1:1 ratio in prisoner exchanges - not just this time, but from the very beginning. It would have been very, very rough for that/those first prisoner's family/families, but it would have prevented this ridiculous situation we find ourselves in now.
What do you guys think? If your nation's armed forces was at a constant low-level warfare with neighboring forces, and one of your soldiers had been kidnapped, is returning that soldier worth any price?
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I feel for the family, but I can't help but rationally think that exchanging more than one enemy combatant / convicted terrorist for a single friendly life sets a really bad precedent for the security of a country.
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I'm impressed that they were able to leverage that many Palestinians out of Israeli prisons for one guy.
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It is my official policy not to negotiate with terrorists.
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Well, it shows the racism of the Israelis, didn't it ? ;)
Some of my leftist friends compare Israel to be "as bad as the Nazis" (and I have stopped a long time to argue about it ).
Hell, the Nazis killed 100 hostages per one killed German Soldier, and the Israelis relieve 1000 prisoners for the release of one Soldier (or even his corpse).
If they don't change that kind of politics in the near future they don't live up their bad reputation as vile and brutal oppressors ... ;)
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Come on man, I don't think Israel has a right to exist where it does, and even I can avoid bringing up goddamn nazis
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"Give us back our guy intact or we'll blow the heads off of all of your guys."
I don't support Isreal's existence either, but it I were them, that's what I'd do.
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The timeframe appears to be in the next few days. Impressively, they're not going to debrief Gilad first thing or anything like that - he's going straight home first thing.
I read an article (http://www.mako.co.il/news-specials/gilad-shalit/Article-fb9583b9b57f231006.htm) (in Hebrew) about the celebrations across the country over Gilad's return. Gilad was kidnapped on June 25th, 2006, so there's a simulated first status update on Facebook, simply saying "בבית" ("At home") - Facebook only opened to the broad public on September 26th, 2006.
He is possibly the only young adult on the planet who doesn't know what Facebook or Twitter are. :eek:
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I'm impressed that they were able to leverage that many Palestinians out of Israeli prisons for one guy.
Mabye Israel has massive amounts of palestinian prisoners for some reason?