Bring Gilad Home!: Being part of history.

 Five years ago, Hamas terrorists attacked an Israeli tank with a rocket propelled grenade, killing two soldiers and injuring nineteen-year-old Gilad Shalit. Gilad was captured and taken to an unknown location in Gaza, where he has been living in captivity for 1,938 days.

 Since Gilad’s capture, Israeli’s and supporters abroad have lobbied for his return: rallying, protesting, and sitting with Gilad’s parents Noam and Aviva Shalit in the tent they have erected next to prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s house. Whether you’re a supporter of the past and present negotiations for Gilad, everyone is deeply concerned for Gilad’s safety and health, and wish to see him return home.

   On Tuesday October 11^th 2011, year course was receiving a presentation from current year course parent Marsha Gladstone, whose son Yoni was killed eleven years ago to the date in a bus bombing on Allenby Street in Tel Aviv. Her story was sad, but her strength and willingness to allow Yoni’s organs to be given to two Israeli’s and one Palestinian girl was moving.

 After the presentation had finished, every year courser remained motionless in our seats, our faces somber, unsure of how to transition into the exciting Sukkot break that awaited us.

  It was then that out our counselor Yehudit informed us that Prime Minister Benjamen Netanyahu was in the process of signing an agreement to bring home Gilad Shalit. She told as that the deal was not final, but that she was going to the Shalit tent in fifteen minutes to show support, if anyone wanted join her. We were in total shock. The attention in the room shifted from the tragic story of Yoni, to the tragic but  hopeful story of Gilad.

 When we arrived at the Shalit tent, there were already about fifty people swarming the tent, with several news stations interviewing the supporters. Dressed in our YJ shirts, we did what any youth movement would do; we joined arms and started singing “am yisroel chai” (Israel will live). Some supporters disagreed with our singing, because they felt there should be no celebration until Gilad is returned home. The Shalit family was also giving a press release at the time, so we eventually did stop.

  Although we maybe should have been slightly less celebratory with our singing, we were singing out of hope, unity, and our excitement for the long awaited return of one of Israel’s own. It was truly a bonding experience to be singing so closely with my fellow year coursers during such a historic and emotional time. We also got a lot of media attention that went viral, which showed the world how supportive we are of Israel.

  

On Tuesday Israel will release 450 evil terrorists, so one Jewish person can live. If Gilad does come home alive, it will be a miraculous and emotional time for everyone. 

Look for YJ kids...

http://www.subber.com/v.php?t=cb89e7fd570d7c1bdac274a4ede29443&tid=4714&l=1&s=0

  
Some excited young Zionists. 

                1,938 days and counting.

   and the Shalit family waits....

A beautiful poem written by Libbie Snyder who made Aliyah from Boston and is now living in Tel-
Aviv.

Gilad Is Coming Home

The absurdity

Absurdity in its absolute purest form

Of the ultimate trade

The ultimate measure of a Jewish life

The demands put upon us, expected upon us

Speak for themselves.

What is the value of a Jewish life?

How far are we willing to go, to stand by what we cherish?

The decision we have made today

The headlines we put into print that we never thought we’d see

Spell it out for us,

In black and white,

That at the end of the day

There is good and there is evil.

There is one Jewish life, and there are a thousand Palestinians.

There is no scale

To measure justice, because ultimately there is no justice –

There are just declarations

Of what we stand for, what matters to us, what we believe in

And at the end of the day

Those who want to kill, will kill

Whether it’s the thousand Palestinians we release today

Or a decade ago

Or a decade from now

They’re all the same

And the one thing we have proved today, if anything,

Is that there is only one Gilad Shalit.

We gave meaning to the saying

“If you save a Jewish life, it is as if you have saved the entire Jewish people.”

If there’s anything we have proved

In our 3,000-year-plus history

It’s that we will always beat our enemies, in the end

Anyone who chooses to rise against the Jewish people, in the end,

Meets their demise.

So to the thousand Palestinians being released today, I say to you:

You are irrelevant.

In your so-called victory, you equal one-thousandth of a Jew,

if that. No one knows your name, or will remember you.

Gilad Shalit,

Even if your freedom means I am now in one thousand times greater danger,

I have to accept that.

Because at the end of the day,

You would have done the same for me.

That is what it means to be Jewish.