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THE 1,210 DAY NIGHTMARE IS OVER
Israel has learned that the secret to liberal-democratic success is the respect for the individual
By Gil Troy
Montreal Gazette
February 2, 2004
The 1,210 nightmare of the Avraham, Avitan, and Souad families is over. Three years and four months ago, their sons Benny, Adi and Omer were patrolling the Israeli border with Lebanon, a border which just months before the United Nations and the world community had approved.
Suddenly, on Oct. 7, 2000, they were attacked by Hezbollah militants wearing United Nations uniforms in full view of a United Nations outpost. The three, it seemed, died immediately, but Hezbollah took their bodies, claimed they had been kidnapped, and began a sadistic 40-month game, reducing human beings to trading cards, toying with the emotions of three families - and an entire nation.
On Thursday, Israel exchanged more than 400 prisoners for the three corpses as well as Elchanan Tenenbaum, an Israeli businessman lured into a Hezbollah trap a few weeks after the kidnapping. At a time when the country is enduring a relentless terrorist war, such a swap was particularly controversial, and extraordinarily painful. When cruelty becomes such a deliberate strategy, it transcends the rights and wrongs of everyday politics, it defies compromise. It hurts to release potential killers, to give the nihilists of Hezbollah and these brazen assailants against civilized values a seeming victory.
To emphasize just how high the stakes are, just how anguished these choices are, the Palestinians marked the day of the exchange with another suicide bombing. A Palestinian policeman from Bethlehem celebrated his 25th birthday by blowing up a bus full of commuters in downtown Jerusalem, murdering 11 innocents on their way to work, injuring dozens more.
The next day, Friday, Israeli newspaper headlines pronounced the day of 13 funerals "a day of tears." And the tears certainly flowed. At the funeral of Benny Avraham, a 20-year-old remembered by his two grieving sisters and dozens of devastated friends for his easy smile, modest ways and love of life, thousands cried for a life cut short so viciously, so pointlessly. The funeral defied the usual laws of chronological and emotional physics. School teachers are not supposed to bury their students. Parents are not supposed to bury their sons. A grandmother, who already lost one son named Benny in the 1973 Yom Kippur War, should not have to bury her grandson, the uncle's namesake, murdered in this latest systematic attempt to destroy Israel.
The president of Israel, Moshe Katzav, regretted that the conscience of the world was so dulled when it came to the Jewish state that not enough countries had done enough to help stop Hezbollah's ugly ploy, although everyone there was immensely grateful for the diplomatic intercession of the Germans, which had facilitated the breakthrough. Katzav also introduced one of the central themes of the next two days. Others might not understand our values, he said but these humanistic values are what make us strong.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon elaborated on the theme, acknowledging the controversy, the debates, the calculations.
Nevertheless, he said, Israel made the right decision in bringing these soldiers home. Sharon called it a Jewish decision reflecting a Jewish sensitivity. These phrases are easily caricatured as proof of hardheaded chauvinism, but as delivered, as explained, in fact demonstrated profound respect for the moral tradition, which has always emphasized redeeming hostages as one of the highest values.
Early in the Palestinian war against the Oslo peace accords, a Hamas leader sneered that the Jews were weak and ultimately would lose because they love life too much. As two flutists played a haunting yet inspiring tune, as the army chief of staff yearned for a time when the dove of peace would descend on his country, as one contemplated the intense personal sorrow yet national resolve that the terrorists repeatedly and self-destructively provoked, it became quite clear that loving life too much is a strength not a weakness. It is the secret to liberal-democratic success, this respect for individuals.
And it is the recipe that will see Israel and the rest of the West prevail in this ugly war of the terrorists against innocent people. Alas, it will come at a cost.
The 1,210-day nightmare of the three families has ended, but their mourning will last a lifetime. These families pray, along with the rest of the world, that their sons will be the last buried, that sanity and peace will return, even to the Middle East.
Gil Troy teaches history at McGill University in Montreal and is the author of Why I Am A Zionist: Israel, Jewish Identity and the Challenges of Today.
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