What we can learn from Gilad Shalit

[Mosby]

by Hesham Hassaballa, October 25, 2011

As Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier captured by Hamas more than five years ago, was finally released in a vast prisoner exchange, it made me think about the relentless pursuit of his release by Israel. Such a pursuit by one's family is both natural and understandable. Yet, not only was his family behind him, but the entire nation of Israel was behind him. So many times, Israelis - from government on down - mentioned that they will never abandon one of their own. No matter how one feels about the Arab-Israeli conflict, it must be said that the tenacity of the Israeli people over Gilad Shalit is truly admirable. I even saw someone wearing a shirt saying "Free Gilad Shalit" during the 2011 Chicago Marathon this year. And it begs a very important question: do we as Muslims have this same tenacity over "our people"?

Sadly, the answer is "no." In so many places around the world, Muslims are being slaughtered like animals, and the Muslim world hardly lifts a finger for their aid. Ideally, NATO warplanes should not have had to intervene in the Libyan civil war, because it should have been Muslims on the ground and in their air helping their own brothers and sisters defeat a maniacal and murderous madman. Rather than help the people of Bahrain gain more freedom for themselves, the Saudi government sent in its own troops to make sure the people's voices were not heard at all. Yes, Muslims all over the world rightly decry the injustice being committed against the Palestinian people. Yet, when some Muslims commit the very same injustices against their own people, the cries of condemnation by other Muslims are sometimes not as fierce or loud.

more at:

http://www.altmuslim.com/a/a/a/4505


Hesham A. Hassaballa
http://www.beliefnet.com/Columnists/a-j/Hesham-A-Hassaballa.aspx

[shaayecanaan]

1. Thats correct as far as it goes...

Jews are a smaller group. Being smaller generally entails being more tightly knit. There are over a billion Muslims, and even more Christians. The larger the organisation, the lesser and looser the bonds between the people within it.

That means that Christians generally don't give a toss what is happening to their brethren in the Sudan or Balkans. Or even in the Holy Land, if Christian indifference to the plight of Palestinian Christians is anything to go by.

There is an American solider called Bowe Berghahl who has been held by a Taliban-allied militia since September 2009. The US is not negotiating for his release, and has no plans to do so. The Haqqani network has offered to release him for 21 Taliban prisoners, which is a modest proposal compared with the deal that Hamas reached for Shalit.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowe_Bergdahl

Naturally, the reason why the Taliban is asking for far less prisoners than what Hamas sought for Shalit is that the average American doesn't actively care about "the troops", and the Taliban knows it. The Israeli army is a conscript army, meaning that everyone has a stake. The US Army is all volunteer, meaning that only the predominantly poor and working class slobs that make up its ranks have a stake. That means that you can find homeless people on the streets of American cities with Bronze and Silver Stars pinned to their chests. It also means that the US can get away with paying scandalously low wages and benefits to its enlisted men, as well as offering them practically no support.

As can be seen here:-

www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/woundedplatoon/view/

Of course, this has really nothing to do with Islam, unless you want to make the same criticism of Christianity.

[Riftaxe]

2. LOL "captured"

cute, very cute!

heh that's like saying daniel pearl just had a shaving "accident"

[vminfla]

3. "captured" sounds so less confrontational than "kidnapped"

in the parlance of terrorist sympathizers, words like kidnapped are never used.

[azurnoir]

4. I guess what we've learned is that when an on duty IDF soldier is taken by Palestinians

it's kidnapping not capture and we've also learned that IDF is considering a new policy I thionk it's called the Samson option or something of the sort but it means no more prisoner exchanges when an on duty IDF member is 'kidnapped'

[pelsar]

5. the samson option...is an old one

it means that when a soldier is seen been taken away as shalit was seen, the soldiers open fire to stop the capture, even if the solder is killed in the process.

[azurnoir]

6. well there was a Ha'aretz article a couple of days ago

that stated it was being reconsidered