The Key and the Crises

It's Saturday night, after Shabbat, and I figured I'd check the news.

Main headline in the Jerusalem Post:
Bush: Shalit's release is the key to solving crisis


Ha'aretz home page says: Bush: Freeing soldier is key to ending Gaza crisis Israel rejects demand for release of 1,000 prisoners
while it links to: EU: Militants must free soldier, Israel must free Hamas officials

On Ynet, they open with: 'No Hamas decision-maker' , though Bush: Freeing soldier 'key'
US President says 'Initial goal should be freeing Israeli soldier. That is key to ending the crisis' is near the top.

The New York Times has different priorities: With Roberts at the Helm, a Supreme Court in Flux and Discovery's Mission Means a Lot to NASA . Then a little further down the page there's: Israel Squeezes, and Gaza Strip Adapts to a Vise

None of this really helps. According to the news, Gilad Shalit is still imprisoned by the Arabs in Gaza, and sorry to disagree with Bush, but freeing him isn't the "key" to anything. It's the nice humanitarian thing to do, no more, no less.

The "key" to the crises is something else.
Like the key to a lock, it's a tool to open it up and see what's inside, the secret, the mechanism.
First let's define the crises he's trying to solve.

US president George Bush stressed on Saturday the need for freeing kidnapped IDF Cpl. Gilad Shalit as the way to resolve the crisis between Israel and the Palestinians (Jerusalem Post)

Bush is being terribly superficial and short-sighted, but that's no surprise.

Arab attacks on Jews in Eretz Yisrael (the Land of Israel) even predate the Zionist Movement, but as soon as Jews began to establish communities, the violence increased. Since then, we have suffered massacres and wars. Israeli concessions have not brought peace, only more attacks.

The key to solving the problem is convincing the Arabs that we're here to stay! Unfortunately, we'll have to convince our fellow Israelis and Jews, too.

Shavua Tov!