Schalit?

Gilad Schalit, who has been imprisoned for now for over five years is very close to being set free.  Israel has offered to release one thousand Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Gilad Schalit.  But this brings up the question, is it worth saving one life for a such a large cost?  Some of these prisoners were imprisoned for acts of murder and terrorism.  Through a fully logical perspective, if we accept that one human life is no greater than another human life, then we can conclude that, that if one person is killed by one of these released prisoners then the deal to save Schalit was pointless since one human life was traded for another.  However, if two or more people are killed by one of the thousand released prisoners it would be a loss of one or more lives to save Gilad Schalit.  I fully understand the sadness of this situation, he is a young man who has been imprisoned for five years and I know that if he were my brother or son I would want the trade between the prisoners to happen.  I am not sure how I stand on this issue yet but I just feel that the Israeli government is taking an incredibly large risk by freeing all these prisoners.    

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Facts

If you go to a rally in support of a Palestinian state you are sure to receive a number of pamphlets showing large pictures of Palestinian children who are either dead, injured, standing behind a fence, crying etc.  If you go to a pro Israel rally you are sure to receive a number of pamphlets listing many facts on Israel's actions, ratios of civilians killed to militants killed, facts about Jewish presence and the need for security etc.  These pamphlets are well put together and can convince anyone who reads them.  However, that's the problem.  People are required to read these pamphlets to be convinced while they only need to glance at a picture of a dead Palestinian infant to be convinced that Israel is a horrible country.  Besides, isn't a picture of a crying child more moving than a statistic or a graph?  Think of the Muhammad al-Durrah incident.  The story makes little sense and there is evidence that the boy is not even dead.  But once people see the picture of the crying child they are convinced, regardless of the amount of evidence that the entire incident is a forgery.  I'm not saying that a pro-Israel campaign should not use facts to back itself up.  Facts are one of our best weapons against Palestinian propaganda.  However, in order to touch the hearts of many the campaigns should use images of victims as well as shatter Palestinian lies with facts.

Palestinian Propaganda

Israeli Propaganda