Gilad Shalit Jabalya residents walking yesterday past a mural
depicting captured soldier Gilad Shalit. Photo by Reuters Text
size this story is by  The reason Gilad Shalit is not being
freed is that the consensus in his case is no consensus. Gilad
Shalit has been in prison for five years because between the big
words uttered about him and the emotional readiness to pay the
required price lies a big gap, to which we are not prepared to
admit. Shalit will not be freed because, contrary to
conventional wisdom, the push for his release is not
nonpartisan; it is part of a struggle that falls along classic
political lines.  It is noteworthy that the recent host of
gimmicks and gestures related to Shalit's release, including
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's announcement that he plans
to worsen the conditions of Hamas militants held in Israel, were
intended to commemorate Shalit's fifth anniversary in prison. In
other words, the interest these acts generate is tied to a
trigger, a symbolic moment - the five-year a