חטופים

Watching Hatufim, the moving and chilling TV series about the return of two POWs to Israel after 17 years in Syrian captivity, I am reminded of the immense pain floating around in Israel and that hardly any family in that society has managed to avoid some huge personal drama. What I realised living in Israel in the early 90's is the intensely personal nature of politics there - in the sense that politics intrudes violently in everybody's personal life. It thus requires a huge amount of moral strength and intellectual detachment to rise above these dramas and look dispassionately at the issues. But this is what I expect from the people of the Book.