The Imperatives of Trade

A business deal like none other. A social, humanitarian rescue, this trade. You give me one of ours, I'll give you oh, let's see, will a thousand of yours do? This is fair trade, Middle East style. Oh perhaps more specifically, Israel-Palestinian style. Israel, anxious for the return of one of her own - or three, as the case may be - is agreeable to returning hundreds upon hundreds of their own.

Of course, there's perspective at play here, also. A handy one to put in place is the realization that the meagre few Israel remains so anxious to recover represent young men conscripted into her army. Theirs was guard duty; called upon to guard the fractiously porous borders between Israel and her determined attackers. The prisoners that Israel holds were more actively engaged.

Their duty as Palestinians, as the wronged, was to "struggle" against their oppressors. The oppressors, needless to say, wanting nothing better than to withdraw with conditions - that they no longer be the continual victims of viciously bloody attacks. Struggle to be construed as a range of attitudes, intentions and successes. From tossing rocks or mortars, to murder.

Always two sides to any story, and no one is without guilt, granted. The Palestinians have suffered much. Like any other people they deserve their freedom to pursue a goal of satisfaction in life. Exclusive, however, of removing that opportunity from others' potentials. The nub of the matter is, give a little, get a lot. Or, in the instance of very stiff negotiations; give a lot, get what you need to get along.

The terror group Hamas, in control of Gaza, also has control of the whereabouts of IDF Sergeant Gilad Shalit, missing as a result of a cross-border raid into Israel since June of 2006. Mr. Shalit's parents would dearly love to embrace him and look upon his beloved face once again. As would the bereft parents, partners and children of incarcerated Palestinians.

Hamas is adamant it will not release Sergeant Shalit until and unless Israel meets its demand to release about one thousand, four hundred Palestinians currently in Israeli jails. There for all manner of reasons from the relatively minor to the horrendously murderous. One of whom is a potential Fatah PA leader, Marwan al-Barghouthi, currently serving five life sentences for the murder of five Israelis, and the wounding of many others.

There's a possible escape clause here in that Barghouthi has blood on his hands through the ordering of the murders; he did not take part in the actual physical drama, although most Israelis consider him guilty as charged and absolutely not to be considered for discharge. However, Israel's Deputy Prime Minister, speaking for the cabinet, thinks otherwise.

"Ultimately we will have to approve a list [of prisoners]. It doesn't matter what title these people are given. What's important is to return the boys home", said Shaul Mofaz, emphasizing that Israel intends to "take every step" to secure the release of Sergeant Shalit and two other Israeli soldiers captured by Hezbollah guerrillas last year.

Amazing the gap in the valuation of human life, between what we see of Israel's determination and the cleverly-determined bargaining of a terror group who see nothing morally amiss in sending fatefully indoctrinated children out as decoys and would-be suicide bombers against their perceived enemy.

But then that kind of skewed reasoning has its counterpart in the insistence of the Palestinian Authority that Israel cease its expansion plans for a Jerusalem neighbourhood that has been an inseparable part of the State for decades and which Israel fully intends to maintain as an integral portion of the state, negotiations aside.

While at the same time the PA sits on its hands, allowing its terror affiliates to continue lobbing Qassams into Israel.

And then, speaking of lop-sided fairness, there's always the neat little tricks of archaeologically sensitive sites around the Temple Mount being bulldozed by the PA's offshoots, lest any valuable artifacts be discovered that might solidify Israel's claims for prior establishment on the historical record, in a most unequivocal way.

What has been destroyed cannot be recovered, alas.

But let Israel's professional archaeological teams enter mutually sensitive areas in a careful search for antiquities of any derivation, and the Palestinian religious hierarchy cries shrill fouls claiming that Israel is intent on destroying Islamic cultural treasures.

Just business as usual in the geography.