Provocative trade in corpses - Haaretz

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Tue., January 22, 2008 Shvat 15, 5768

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Last update - 11:11 21/01/2008

Provocative trade in corpses

By Haaretz Editorial

Tags: Hezbollah, Second Lebanon War

The responses to Hassan Nasrallah's speech stating that Hezbollah was in possession of the remains of Israel Defense Forces soldiers who died in the Second Lebanon War range from demands by ministers and Knesset members to assassinate Nasrallah to an attempt to interpret his comments as an expression of weakness. The voices of the relatives of abducted IDF soldiers Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser could also be heard amid the tumult, saying that as long as the Hezbollah leader was not offering negotiations for their release, he should be ignored.

Nasrallah, the father of the theory that Israel is weaker than a spider's web, has already proven that he is attentive to the mood of Israeli society and knows how to get on its nerves and generate debate among its leadership on all matters related to the redemption of captives, whether alive or dead. In stating that his organization has the body parts of soldiers killed in battle, Nasrallah has hit at the heart of Israeli sensitivity.

The Israeli attitude toward the dead and dead bodies is loaded and complex. The dignity afforded the dead and the consideration granted to the family of the dead are indeed important values, for the sake of which the IDF and the State of Israel invest a lot of resources into identifying corpses. Nonetheless, conducting negotiations with Hezbollah as a result of a blatant provocation would be a serious deviation from the list of appropriate acts carried out in the name of these values. It would even be a serious distortion, undermining Israeli society's self-confidence and dragging it into a depressing and futile deal in death.

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Most of the cabinet ministers have so far been wise not to cooperate with Nasrallah's provocative trafficking in bodies and emotions. A few did get swept away in their reactions, but ultimately, it's clear that Israel will not let itself fall into the new abyss toward which Nasrallah wants to drag it.

Even if the government encounters pressure from those who rely on halakha (Jewish religious law) and the obligation of the living to bury their dead, it must understand that they are mistaken and misleading. As in other matters concerning the dead, such as organ donation and autopsies, the halakha regarding burying the dead is used as though it provided a definitive answer - even though the determining halakhic principle regarding live captives and certainly regarding corpses and body parts is that they should not be redeemed at an excessive cost.

Former IDF chief rabbi Brigadier General (res.) Yisrael Weiss expressed this in a reserved and balanced way yesterday, saying in an Army Radio interview that while we should try hard to bury the body parts of the dead, it should not come at any price. He supported a proposal made in Jerusalem whereby Israel will discuss the body parts only in the context of the ongoing negotiations for the release of Regev and Goldwasser.

The government would do well to stick to that position and treat Nasrallah with the repugnance due him, while ignoring - in the name of the dignity of the dead and the living - his recent macabre call for opening additional negotiations.

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1.	IF NASRALLAH was serious instead of grandstanding for the"DEATH	11:42	\|	PETER SM	21/01/08

2.	Israels style	12:43	\|	Natallie Durson	21/01/08

3.	To Natallie Durson (no 2)	13:48	\|	Khalil Ishabib	21/01/08

4.	ZIONISTS LIED TO THEIR PEOPLE. NASSRALLAH EXPOSED THEM	13:58	\|	TrippleJump	21/01/08

5.	TRIPPLE Jump"Where did they say"bodies were collected one piece`	14:15	\|	PETER SM	21/01/08

6.	israel mustn`t five in to Nasrallah`s provocations	14:25	\|	l	21/01/08

7.	To Khalil Ishabib #3	00:49	\|	Yessir ibn Badkarma	22/01/08

8.	Natallie Durson, a Mohamedan in Christians	04:53	\|	Cristo	22/01/08

9.	To What called Yessir ibn Badkarma	07:43	\|	Khalil Ishabib	22/01/08

10.	Nasrallah`s in Israeli Eyes	13:31	\|	Ellie	22/01/08

11.	It`s a shame...	00:32	\|	Bear	23/01/08

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