What Have They Learned?

I hope the Israeli's love their children too...
(More than land anyway. Or vengeance, or settlers' rights, or torching mosques... Poor kid. Playing at being a soldier. Feed him something, already.)

But by the time Shalit actually walked free on Tuesday, so frail he passed out on the helicopter ride home, the elation was tempered by the specific reality of the price Israelis had paid to set him free. The 1,027 Palestinian prisoners to be exchanged for the lone Israeli corporal turned out to include men and women convicted of some of the worst terror attacks in a country still haunted by the memory of the Second Intifadeh.

Ambivalent," says Aya Ilouz, of her feelings on the matter. Strolling in downtown Jerusalem with her husband, Liron, and their five-month-old baby girl, Yael, the couple is so in synch on the question of the day that they finish each other thoughts.

"Yes," says Liron, "we are very happy and excited to see Gilad meet his family. And on the other hand..."

"...we are very concerned...," says Aya.

"About what happens next," Liron explains. "When the next terrorist blows himself up, someone will have to answer."
...
On Tuesday, Jewish Israelis stopped and stared at televisions wherever they came upon them. On the sidewalk outside the 24-Hour Hillel Market at midmorning, 50 people were gathered under the flat screen to catch the first images of Shalit, looking painfully thin as he was marched through a high-ceiling hall at the Egyptian border. Behind the cash register, Merav Cohen promised champagne for everyone the moment he entered Israel.

"It was moving. It was very exciting," says Anat Rubin, 42. "I just saw photos of him getting out of the car. It gave me chills."