Jerusalem - Freed Israeli Soldier a Mystery Despite Exposure |
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In this photo taken Thursday, July 12, 2012, freed Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit, center, speaks with the French Ambassador to Israel Christophe Bigot at theA mbassadors residence in Tel Aviv, Israel. Nine months after he was freed from Hamas captivity in a massive prisoner swap, Gilad Schalit is emerging from the shadows, showing up at parties, sporting events and in gossip columns. But the shy former soldier remains an enigma. He's refrained from giving interviews and has shared few details about his five and a half years of captivity in a Gaza basement. Unlike former prisoners of war, though, he hasn't vanished from sight either. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)Jerusalem - Nine months after he was freed from Hamas captivity in a lopsided prisoner swap, Gilad Schalit is emerging from the shadows - showing up at parties, sporting events and even writing a newspaper column.
Even so, the former Israeli soldier remains an enigma. He has refrained from giving interviews and has shared few details about his 5 1/2 years of captivity in a Gaza basement. But he hasn’t vanished from sight - quite the opposite.
The slender 25-year-old has morphed into a celebrity from an awkward, anonymous teenager whose plight inspired a nationwide campaign. While he still enjoys widespread public support, some Israelis are beginning to question whether his tragic ordeal has been converted into undue hero status.
Palestinian militants abducted a wounded Schalit from his tank in June 2006 in a brazen cross-border infiltration from Gaza. After years of failed negotiations and mounting public pressure, Israel agreed to free more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners, including hundreds of convicted killers, in exchange for his freedom. Schalit was joyously welcomed home, but the government also faced criticism for agreeing to such a one-sided swap.
The nation embraced Schalit as a symbol largely because most Israelis his age - men and women - do compulsory military service. Parents of present, future and past soldiers - and that is just about everyone in Israel - empathized with the Schalit family, picturing their own sons in captivity.
Schalit has been recuperating quietly at his home in northern Israel - and in stark contrast, making public appearances.
He has been serenaded at music concerts, spotted at a Davis Cup tennis match, seated courtside at basketball games and even played in a celebrity game himself. Israel’s most popular comedy show based a character on him, and Israeli celebrities have lined up to be photographed with him and then rushed to post the photos online.
Recently he became a high-profile sports columnist for Yediot Ahronot, Israel’s largest newspaper, traveling to the NBA Finals and the Euro 2012 soccer championships. On Thursday, he was the guest of honor at Bastille Day celebrations at the French ambassador’s home in Tel Aviv, where onlookers snapped photos of him on their cellphones.
The superstar treatment follows him abroad. He attended the NBA All-Star game in Orlando, where he hung with Israeli player Omri Casspi, and the Israeli consul-general’s office in Miami posted a picture of him on Facebook interviewing University of Miami star running back Mike James. In Florida, he attended a baseball game and was hosted by the NBA Miami Heat’s Israeli-born owner Micky Arison.
Schalit has been named an honorary citizen of Paris, Rome, Miami, New Orleans, Baltimore and Pittsburgh. In the most publicized event, former French President Nicolas Sarkozy ceremoniously feted the dual Israeli-French citizen at the Elysee Palace.
Schalit’s family has also been front and center. His father, Noam, who led the media campaign for his son, announced less than a month after the release that he was entering politics and would run as a Labor Party candidate. Schalit’s older brother, Yoel, met his girlfriend through the campaign - she was an activist - and news of their upcoming wedding made headlines in Israeli newspapers.
Israel’s main TV entertainment show covered Schalit’s visit to the set of the Showtime hit-series “Homeland,” which is based on the Israeli series “Prisoners of War.” The theme of the show, about how a released POW returns home to his family, is similar to Schalit’s saga in some aspects.
While shooting an episode in Israel, the show’s stars, Claire Danes and Mandy Patinkin, met with Schalit.
Such glitz and glamor has angered Israelis who opposed the Schalit deal, for personal or political reasons.
Ron Kehrmann, whose teenage daughter Tal was killed in a 2003 suicide bombing attack in Haifa, petitioned against the prisoner swap that freed those involved in his daughter’s killing. Given this baggage, he said it would be more tasteful for the Schalits to keep a lower profile.
“I don’t understand how you make an icon out of a soldier who was captured and then traded for so many murderers. Instead of putting that chapter away in a dark, little corner, they are turning him into an icon,” said Kehrmann. “He doesn’t interest me and I don’t want to hear about him. Every time I hear his name, it reopens the wound.”
Nine months after his release, the shine may be coming off the Schalit image.
“His legitimate choice to publish a sports column marks a new stage in the relationship between the Israel public and someone who until recently was been known as `everyone’s son,’” wrote Amir Ben-David, a columnist for the Walla news Web site. “It could mark the end of his immunity, his symbolic and practical extraction from the warmth and safety of the embracing consensus.”
The sports column, co-written with veteran Israeli media personality Arik Henig, is an informal discussion about random sporting debates, such as who is the best soccer goalie in the world, and which is the greatest basketball team ever.
Schalit is said to be a die-hard sports fan and has said he gained strength from sports during his captivity, keeping up to date on the rare occasions his captors allowed him to listen to radio or watch TV.
Other than that, he doesn’t appear to have any expertise, and his column has been dismissed by critics.
“Beyond his name, which is highlighted prominently, it is a column that doesn’t have much sporting value. The result has not been very interesting,” said Shlomo Mann, a sports critic for “The Seventh Eye,” an online Israeli media review.
For the most part, the normally aggressive Israeli media has surprisingly respected his request for privacy and generally portrays Schalit as Israel’s “national son” who can do no wrong after losing five years of his life.
Noam Schalit turned down an Associated Press request to interview his son, saying he was not yet ready to face the media - despite his public appearances and his own media presence.
Those close to Schalit also would not discuss his current state. Henig would not return phone calls, and the editor-in-chief of Yediot Ahronot declined comment, citing his privacy, as did a group that aids former prisoners of war.
“If Gilad chooses to be interviewed, that, of course, is his right,” responded Orly Lieberman, secretary of a nonprofit devoted to helping former POW’s. “Our choice is to allow him to rehabilitate his life without media coverage.”
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Read Comments (15) — Post Yours »
1
Jul 14, 2012 at 11:04 PM ABRAMO Says:Report as Inappropriate
Sounds like Barbra Walters will soon be knocking down his door for an exclusive first time interview. Why isn't the media interviewing the victim's family about how outraged they are that their children's murderers were set free?
2
Jul 14, 2012 at 11:28 PM Abramowitz Says:Report as Inappropriate
Look, nobody would want to have traded places with Shalit, regarding his experience of being kept in an isolated dungeon, for over five years. Therefore, I have no problem with him enjoying life, and attending sporting or otherevents. The fact of the matter is that in spite of his upbeat appearance, he is probably suffering form post traumatic stress syndrome. Isn't it better that he enjoy life now, rather than sinking into a deep depression?
3
Jul 14, 2012 at 11:29 PM Babishka Says:Report as Inappropriate
He is NOT making a career out of being an ex hostage. It just looks as though he used his celebrity status in order to get his dream job as a sports writer. Good for him! I hope he enjoys a successful career and finds a nice girlfriend.
4
Jul 15, 2012 at 12:41 AM Anonymous Says:Report as Inappropriate
He is just a very average chiloni kid who became famous because he was a shlimazel who turned the whole country into a shlimazel on his behalf. Leave him alone. He is clearly worthy of obscurity unless there is chas vesholom an incident - in that case, I hope he and his family are hounded by protestors and go back to France.
5
Jul 15, 2012 at 12:49 AM cool masmid Says:Report as Inappropriate
Every picture of him has him wearing the same shirt. I think s/o needs to buy him a few shirts and maybe s few pairs of pants.
6
Jul 15, 2012 at 04:41 AM Billy Says:Report as Inappropriate
Which soccer team does he support?
7
Jul 15, 2012 at 01:21 PM esther Says:Report as Inappropriate
“ He is just a very average chiloni kid who became famous because he was a shlimazel who turned the whole country into a shlimazel on his behalf. Leave him alone. He is clearly worthy of obscurity unless there is chas vesholom an incident - in that case, I hope he and his family are hounded by protestors and go back to France. ”
we're about to start the 9 days. try to show a little more rachmanus on someone who suffered unimaginably because he was protecting yidden and ey.what have you done for anyone lately?
8
Jul 15, 2012 at 03:05 PM Anonymous Says:Report as Inappropriate
“ we're about to start the 9 days. try to show a little more rachmanus on someone who suffered unimaginably because he was protecting yidden and ey.what have you done for anyone lately? ”
He was just a kid sent to do a man's work, and he failed. He suffered (assuming that he was mistreated, which I doubt) because he was a pawn in a conflict that was mismanaged from the start, and his father, who is using him for political purposes, is beyond contempt.
9
Jul 15, 2012 at 03:35 PM shimon Says:Report as Inappropriate
Me too, i think he has well earned his celebrity status.
He also needs alot of seclusion, in order to be a little bit in public eye, without displaying his past trauma.
I hope he gets all the help he needs. But yes, he also deserves a celebrity status, there can be no question about it. 5 and a half years? yes, that would have made him a different person, so he is more than just like one of us.
10
Jul 15, 2012 at 08:01 PM esther Says:Report as Inappropriate
“ He was just a kid sent to do a man's work, and he failed. He suffered (assuming that he was mistreated, which I doubt) because he was a pawn in a conflict that was mismanaged from the start, and his father, who is using him for political purposes, is beyond contempt. ”
i'm sure you're a big man who could have done a better job,or at least talk about it.
11
Jul 16, 2012 at 04:35 AM Anonymous Says:Report as Inappropriate
“ i'm sure you're a big man who could have done a better job,or at least talk about it. ”
I am sure I would have had more sense than to either follow bad orders or to make whatever mistake this kid made. When I was last in EY, which was my LAST visit until Moshiach comes, I realized that the army is a bunch of kids who succeed only in times like 67 and Entebbe when Hashem sees it fit for them to be His messengers. Otherwise, as Lebanon and Gaza showed, they are just shlimazel kids led by shlimazel politicians.
12
Jul 16, 2012 at 07:56 AM esq Says:Report as Inappropriate
“ Look, nobody would want to have traded places with Shalit, regarding his experience of being kept in an isolated dungeon, for over five years. Therefore, I have no problem with him enjoying life, and attending sporting or otherevents. The fact of the matter is that in spite of his upbeat appearance, he is probably suffering form post traumatic stress syndrome. Isn't it better that he enjoy life now, rather than sinking into a deep depression? ”
Yes you are 100% right. Can't believe even one Jewish person disagrees w u. Shows u just how low we've sunk. Always focused on the packaging ( the socks the streimel the tablecloths and the hashgocha) but not on what binds us
13
Jul 16, 2012 at 07:58 AM esq Says:Report as Inappropriate
“ He is just a very average chiloni kid who became famous because he was a shlimazel who turned the whole country into a shlimazel on his behalf. Leave him alone. He is clearly worthy of obscurity unless there is chas vesholom an incident - in that case, I hope he and his family are hounded by protestors and go back to France. ”
I really hope this was not the comment of a Jew. Where is this hatred coming from?
14
Jul 16, 2012 at 07:59 AM esq Says:Report as Inappropriate
“ He was just a kid sent to do a man's work, and he failed. He suffered (assuming that he was mistreated, which I doubt) because he was a pawn in a conflict that was mismanaged from the start, and his father, who is using him for political purposes, is beyond contempt. ”
You must be kidding.
15
Jul 16, 2012 at 08:01 AM Anonymous Says:Report as Inappropriate
“ He was just a kid sent to do a man's work, and he failed. He suffered (assuming that he was mistreated, which I doubt) because he was a pawn in a conflict that was mismanaged from the start, and his father, who is using him for political purposes, is beyond contempt. ”
he wasn't mistreated? Sounds like u r envious of his notoriety he paid plenty for it not of his own choosing btw I'm sure they pampered him.