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Yes, at any price By Yoel Marcus Tags: Hezbollah, Samir Kuntar The way our government is handling the business of bringing home the abducted soldiers is nothing short of disgraceful. The humiliating treatment of the families of Eldad Regev, Ehud Goldwasser and Gilad Shalit, forced to go begging in the corridors of power to get their sons back, is hard to watch. Very hard. How can Israel's ex-chief of staff, who not only looks like a dummy but really is one, not be ashamed of himself to declare at such a painful and fragile point in the negotiations that "a prisoner of war is not ransomed for more than his life is worth?" - which is another way of saying "not at any price." A real bull in a china shop. The Israel Defense Forces is not like any other army in the world. We don't have an army of salaried soldiers - military professionals who do what they do for a living. Our soldiers are not career soldiers for whom the risks are no different from those of a coal miner, who knows that one fine day the mine may collapse on him, and either he'll be saved, or he won't. The act of sending our troops into battle is different than for any other army. The Israeli army, as a people's army, assumes total responsibility for the soldiers it sends out to fight. Those who are drafted into the army or called up for reserve duty need to be sure that even if they are taken prisoner or kidnapped, there is someone who will turn the world upside down to get them back. Advertisement The government went to war in Lebanon with the express goal of bringing our kidnapped soldiers home. We sacrificed 150 soldiers and citizens for that. And now, when we know with almost 100 percent certainty that Regev and Goldwasser are no longer alive, the security services - the Shin Bet, the Mossad and military intelligence - suddenly say no to the release of the murderer Samir Kuntar. Now they wake up? If the government wants to change the rules, let it do it later. You don't change the rules over the bodies of our boys, as the families slowly go berserk. The way our politicians are playing hero at the expense of the hostages is a cross between cynicism and Chinese water torture. Since 1948, the number of Israeli prisoners held by the other side has been very small, compared with thousands in our hands over the years. The numerical formula, in other words, will always be lopsided. In a one-for-one exchange, we will still have thousands left over on our side. On top of that, we are talking about a deal between two sides that are unequal in many ways: Israel, a democratic country with organized procedures and a free, open press, versus organizations controlled by lone wolves, a decision-making process that is very different from our own, and a closed, censored media. So the components that come into play on both sides come from different worlds. Jewish tradition sanctifies life, whereas our adversaries belong to a society that sanctifies death and suicide. Which is to say, we come from societies that are polar opposites. In addition, life in Israel is controlled by Jewish religious law. When the body of a married soldier lies across enemy lines, the Jewish laws governing agunot - women whose husbands have disappeared and are thus forbidden to remarry - make the problem even worse. The transfer of the Regev and Goldwasser files to the IDF Chief Rabbinate, to establish whether they are buried in enemy territory, seems to hint that Israel is leaning toward not freeing Kuntar. That is a cynical zigzag that a government like ours should not be making after reaching the decisions that have already been reached. The current deal is reasonable, and we have a supreme obligation to bring Regev and Goldwasser home. When the security services oppose letting Kuntar go after more than 30 years in jail, the question is where they were when we freed Lebanese militant leaders Dirani and Obeid, who were considered "bargaining chips." Allowing the issue to become fodder for media discussions and political debates not only causes suffering to the families, but affects soldiers who may be sent tomorrow on missions in which they could be killed, taken prisoner or kidnapped. Will they, too, become footballs to be kicked around by the politicians? What is a soldier to think when he sees politicians fighting like tigers to keep their seats while doing nothing to take advantage of an exhausted Hamas to insist that the immediate release of Gilad Shalit be a precondition for the "truce"? "The No. 1 job of the IDF is to make sure that no soldiers are kidnapped," says Uri Slonim, an attorney who has been working in the field for many years. "But if a soldier is taken captive, Israel needs to negotiate right away and be done with it, as soon as it happens. The more time that goes by, the higher the price." Now is the time to tell the politicians: Stop being heroes at the expense of our captive soldiers and their parents. Bring them home without delay, no matter how much it costs. Yes, at any price. Bookmark to del.icio.us   Haniyeh's plea Hamas leader in Gaza says rocket fire must stop for sake of Palestinians. Softening position Shin Bet agrees to free prisoners 'with blood on their hands' for Shalit.   1.   Marcus Should Not Call Anybody a Dummy 03:29  |  Tod Zuckerman 27/06/08   2.   Leftist media at it again 04:14  |  A Nice Fellow 27/06/08   3.   completely right, mr. marcus 08:53  |  saul a. readner 27/06/08   4.   Marcus calls for terrorists to be freed all the time 14:21  |  Binyamin Dissen 27/06/08   5.   Marcus is tottaly wrong 14:38  |  CM 27/06/08   6.   Markus offer yourself as a substitute for captives 14:48  |  CM 27/06/08   7.   The political circus 15:09  |  Mark Lincoln 27/06/08   8.   180 degrees reversal of Marcus by Marcus,once again 15:26  |  Absolute Sweden 27/06/08   9.   Yes,at any price. 17:01  |  David Nigel Braham 27/06/08   10.   The morality of Hezbollah 17:29  |  Jo 27/06/08   11.   cm 17:46  |  saul a. readner 27/06/08   12.   tod zuckerman 17:49  |  saul a. readner 27/06/08   13.   a nice fellow 17:50  |  saul a. readner 27/06/08   14.   binyamin dissen 17:52  |  saul a. readner 27/06/08   15.   is yoel marcus trying to score cheap shots 18:06  |  judea 27/06/08   16.   i ask all those who would listen 18:10  |  judea 27/06/08   17.   judea 18:21  |  saul a. readner 27/06/08   18.   yes, at any price 19:55  |  scallywag 27/06/08   19.   shameless human trade 10:41  |  Cipora Julianna Kohn 28/06/08

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