Gilad Shalit

I'm not outraged by the kidnapping of Private Gilad Shalit, nor do I regard it as a terrorist act. In the past, I've argued that if Palestinian militants cast themselves as fighting a war against Israeli occupiers, then Israel certainly has the right to assassinate their leaders as part of the conflict. By the same token, however, they are certainly justified in attacking an Israeli military outpost. This is not the same as a suicide bombing in a nightclub. It was a highly focused attack on a military target designed to achieve a specific objective.

I can worry about Private Shalit, just as I can anyone else who briefly becomes a name and face from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Some demonize the entire IDF; however, in a nation with mandatory military service, demonizing the armed forces is the same as demonizing the entire population, and I know better than that. There are too many Israelis I like and respect for me not to give any one of them the benefit of the doubt. However, the way to stop this sort of situation is ulimately to work for a just end to the conflict, not calls for revenge and teaching the enemy a lesson.

UPDATE: The fact this post is the #10 google hit for (Corporal) Gilad Shalit is very strange. See this and this for my more complete thoughts on the situation.