Rumor Has It….

Jews all over the world are all aware of the bleak reality: one of our boys has been in held in captivity by an Arab terrorist group for over three years. Gilad Shalit, a soldier in Israel’s Armored Corp (a.k.a. tanks for the non-army savvy) was kidnapped in June 2006 and has been held captive by Hamas ever since.

 

MIAs hold a special place in the heart of Israelis, as well as with Jews world-wide. There isn’t a single family in Israel that doesn’t consider Gilad one of there own, regardless of political or religious views. It is extremely rare to find a person who didn’t or doesn’t now have someone near and dear to them enlisted in the IDF and the horrible actuality of one of our boys held by our enemies strike close to home.

 

Late Thursday night, a friend who had been visiting me had suddenly exclaimed “Oh! I just remembered! I heard that they’re very close to striking a deal and getting back Gilad Shalit!” We both got really excited and started scouring the internet for more substance on this rumor. Who was this “they”? How accurate was the rumor? What would be exchanged? After almost an hour, numerous websites and no information later, we came to the conclusion that this must have been just a rumor. So much for getting our hopes up.  Not wanting entirely to give up, we promised to look a bit tomorrow morning, and then moved onto “greener” topics.

 

True to our word we were both online early the next morning, looking for more information to substantiate the rumor. Our first attempt was successful, only not in the way we hoped. There, splashed across the headlines of the Jerusalem Post online was: Don’t Believe Shalit Disinformation. Disappointed, we both continued with our daily routine and that was the end of that.

 

Or was it? Thinking about it later, I came to the conclusion that this wasn’t just some obscure rumor. It must have had a basis or at more importantly at least a broad following; otherwise it would not have merited being one of the headlines on Jpost.com. The pictures, the recent movies and the family’s anguish are still alive and kicking in everyone’s mind. True, not everyone actually does much or even anything about it, most people will only go as far as protest or sign petitions, but people still remember. It is three years later and people still remember. That, in my opinion, substantiates the rumor. Politics be damned, we haven’t forgotten you Gilad and we will get you back!