Elkin: Everywhere I stand, I ask a lot of questions

There's a popular phrase among organizations that promote support for Israel that goes, "Everywhere I stand, I stand with Israel." I first came across it on an acquaintance's T-shirt in the summer of 2006. She told me she had gotten it at a rally for the release of Gilad Shalit, the then 19-year-old Israeli soldier who had just been kidnapped by Hamas. Though many people do, I personally don't closely connect my identity as a Jewish American with unquestioning support for the decisions of a state, Jewish or otherwise, so the phrase didn't totally sit right with me. "Everywhere?" I thought. "All the time? No matter what? Forever?" That sounded to me like the kind of promise I should make only to, say, my sister.

As a high school junior on the cusp of being almost a real person with basically informed opinions, I wanted to engage this girl in a bit of intelligent repartee, so I asked,  "What if, like, Israel does something, like, really bad?"

"Well," she replied, "Mainly I just really like the T-shirt."

Five years later, I've been exposed to much better arguments on every side of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,  I'm a bit closer to being a real person with basically informed opinions and Israel has negotiated an agreement with Hamas for Shalit's release. Shalit gets to go home to his family members, who have been camped outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's house for more than a year. In return, Israel is in the process of releasing more than a thousand Palestinian prisoners, many of whom are known to have committed deadly acts of terrorism.

I'm a 21-year-old kid from New York with very little experience in hostage negotiation, so I'm not going to accuse Israel of "doing something, like, really bad." I'm going to stick with the choice I made five years ago to spend more time thinking about where I stand before declaring it. As of now, my thinking is that this event, though not unprecedented in Israel, seems politically charged and not conducive to eventual peace in the region. I am happy for Shalit and his family and I am happy for whichever prisoners were wrongfully detained, but I don't see this as a decision that promotes peace, so I cannot see it as a victory.  

On a short-term, practical level, this is what the psychologists like to call reinforcement. Kidnap a soldier, wait five years, get a thousand prisoners released. Reinforcement is what causes people to repeat their behaviors, in this case, kidnapping. On a long-term level, the decision grants Hamas legitimacy among Palestinians, and that popular legitimacy is then used as an argument against a peace agreement that includes any form of Palestinian sovereignty. Israel's position is that it cannot broker long-term peace as long as Hamas has a stronghold, and yet it has made a decision that will empower the organization.

Families of those killed by Hamas militants have spoken out angrily about the decision, as have Palestinians who don't support Hamas, but the images we are seeing portray a great deal of jubilation on both sides.  With everyone seeing this as a victory, we become more entrenched  in the polarization that continues to stymie any eventual hope for peace. Observing from afar, it seems this conflict has a paradoxical ability to constantly develop in ways that lead to further stagnation.

Shalit deserves the support of his country and his government, and he deserves his freedom. He deserves to go through the rest of adulthood without his life being threatened. But as long as each side prioritizes individual victories and affirmations of their own power, everyone's safety and freedom will be threatened.

Five years ago, I was a bit jealous of my Jewish American counterparts who got free T-shirts and got to know where they stood, but now I think such cultural reassurance comes at the price of any eventual resolution. Where I stand right now is against attitudes and decisions that promote divisiveness. It's good to know where you stand. It's also good to be willing to pick up your feet and move sometimes.

Ali Elkin is a Medill senior.

She can be reached at a.elkin@u.northwestern.edu