The Hamas terrorists who rule Gaza see negotiations for Gilad Shalit’s release as a nerve-racking game which Israel is bound to lose. And they are right: It is a nerve-racking game, and Israel will lose, no matter how things turn out. Either the Jewish State will release a thousand terrorists in exchange for one child of Israel and hobble itself with the threat looming of future child kidnappings, or it will refuse to comply with the demands of the Jew-hating murderers and hobble itself with the threat looming of future child kidnappings. For what’s to keep Hamas from doing it again?
Only ordinary Gazans themselves have the power to do that. What are they thinking—especially the women—as each day, engaged in their quotidian to-ing and fro-ing, they pass by a mural depicting Gilad counting the hours until his release from captivity among them? Do they recognize the degradation of celebrating, or accepting, or just ignoring the kidnapping of children for use as bargaining chips in the endless terror war against their neighbor?
