Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Silence is not golden


For a long time Noam and Aviva Shalit kept quiet and maintained a low public profile with regard to their son Gilead, held captive in the Gaza Strip. The government solemnly promised them that the subject was being taken care off and that everything will be fine. A month has passed, and another month, and another. The fourth anniversary of Gilead's capture comes near, and there is an increasing feeling nothing is being done.

Now, the parents decided to break their silence and set out on a long foot journey across Israel. Now they decided to confront head-on the Prime Minister and his ministers, and appeal directly to public opinion. Now they say openly what was, in fact, well known already long ago: that in order to get the Israeli captive free, many Palestinian captives will have to be released, including some of those defined in Israel as having "blood on their hands".

Would it work this time, after four years of captivity? Will we soon witness Gilead Shalit reunified with his family? (and at least some of the Palestinian prisoners reunified with theirs?).

Binyamin Netanyahu once defined the main principle of his policy: "Those who give will get, those do not give will mot get". In practice, this can often be rendered as " "Those who shout will get, those who keep silent will not."