Re: prisoners for a soldier dead or alive . Where does that philosophy come from?

Dear e.e. cummins -- good luck in getting your shift key fixed...

In any case, one of the "benefits" to making such extreme measures for
the return of both hostages and bodies is that it's good for morale in
the armed forces. Unless you've served in the military, you have no
idea how much difference it can make to know that one way or another,
you _will_ be coming home and not left in the hands of the enemy or
abandoned in an alien land. There's also a message in there to the
enemy, that one dead Jew is worth hundreds of live Arabs. As a rule, I
don't approve of any concessions to terrorists or negotiations with
them, but this is one of the few cases where it is worthwhile.

Eliyahu

q_q_anonymous@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
prisoners for a soldier dead or alive . Where does that philosophy come
from?

I hope and pray that the soldier taken captive is not treated badly,
and is returned/rescued in good health.

totally separate from that though
.
I'd like to discuss the issue of swapping palestinian prisoners for the
body of a soldier.

I can understnad prisoners for a live soldier. But israel has in the
past, and does, consider prisoners for a dead soldier.

That is not a jewish principle, afaik . Risking lives in return for a
dead body.

(also, in jenin, there was a story from bomb maker known as 'the
engineer', of israeli soldiers going in to get a body, and them killing
a load of them).

in an interview on newsnight, jeremy paxman asked former mossad head
ephraim halevy if it was an article of faith. He explained it as
precisely an "article of faith" kept repeating the term, and saying how
he signed to it, and everybody on (almost?) every level going right to
the top signed to it. The minister of defence, officers, everybody.

It's like a religious thing. What is the religion of the israeli
government. Well, as i've read here, Stalin style socialism -
communism. Infact, I was listening to an interview on tamar yonah show
with Shmuel Cytryn/citron a prisoner taken by israel. Listening to a
description of how he was treated, it was no different to the account I
read by Natan Sharansky of his time spent as prisoner in the Gulag for
crimes against the government. Ironically, Sharansky was a "prisoner of
zion", but the "real" prisoner of zion was Shmuel Citron!!

Perhaps it is kind of stalinist. Perhaps they have the utmost respect
for soldiers, because soldiers are working for the government,
protecting the government. And to honour them, even their bodies are so
sacred that it's worth risking lives for. But that's problematic too.
Why risk soldiers lives e.g. jenin incident.

another answer i can think of, is propaganda . The israeli government
loves to show how moral they are to the world in how they treat the
arabs (by action). So, they want to show how much they value life.
Going above and beyond common sense. Negotiating for a dead body.

do they get the idea from a warped view of judaism. They take a concept
they like. man is made in the image of G-d, so humans life is sacred.
But why a dead body?

I suppose everybody values bodies, (not just religious jews that
believe in the resurrection of the dead and burial). But, risking
lives for them, releasing prisoners for them, is something else.

I'm guessing for satisfactory answers. I know some right wingers have
more insight than me, i'm interested what people think.

.

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