I guess I've got a new fan

A friend of a far bigger blog once told me that you only hit 'the big time' when you get a troll.

Well, it seems like I've finally got a troll for the blog. Now, I've decided not to publish any of his/her comments because they're totally condescending and to be honest, this person is more out to harass than to try and discuss things like an adult.

Well Anonymous (I guess you don't want to reveal your details to everyone here, so I will honor your 'request' and not reveal what I already know), I'm not sure if I 'know' you from my correspondence on other blogs but you're sadly wasting your time. If you want to discuss things like an adult, we can surely try. Otherwise, not much point sir/ma'am.

Have a good one.

Honored

Today, Tals & I had lunch at our place with Gramps and Renee. I'm not sure how many are fortunate enough to 'wine and dine' (yes, even on leftovers!!!) their grandfather but I really enjoyed the experience, especially as we all celebrated his 85th birthday together. עד 120 שנה!

Before the meal, 85 year old Gramps got to the floor to play with his 6 month old great grandson:



... and just before they left, Nissim gave the 'old man' a kiss:

No need for an asterisk here ..

* For anyone who doesn't get it, let me know and I'll explain ...
_

Seeing the Day of Night

Talya, Nissim & I spent our Passover vacation in New York with my parents, siblings & Nonna. We all had a lovely time, and I especially enjoyed seeing Nissim interacting with Nonna, Tova, Eitan and Gramps (who had arrived with Renee from Dallas especially to see him). He was certainly spoiled attention wise for those two and a half weeks!

When we returned to Israel, I saw a totally different side of jetlag - Nissim had no clue his nighttime adventuers were occuring during the late hours of the night. From Tuesday night till Friday night, Nissim spent a few hours every night kicking his legs, making funny noises and generally enjoying what he thought was his daytime hours. While it was very funny at times, it did get tiring. However, after much work, Niss managed to get in 8 straight hours of sleep on Saturday night and is thankfully back on a regular sleeping schedule.

***

May the memories of the 24,293 fallen soldiers & terror victims (since 1948) be forever blessed

***

The Iranian Citrus Fruit Conspiracy
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The Week That Was

I spent the past five days (Sunday through Thursday) deep in the Negev Desert with my reserve battalion. The 5 days in the field (yup, that means no showers or clean uniforms) were exhausting, as we spent almost 19+ hours every day awake and drilling during the hot days and chilly nights. However, as usual, there were many laughs and interesting discussions with the 'once a year or maybe more' friends.

A few highlights & thoughts:

* This was the first time since his birth that I spent so much time away from my son. I really missed him (& the wife too obviously!). Quite a testament to the miluimnikim who continually give of their time to serve this country, sacrificing time away from their family.

* On an hour break in the late evening, a few of us lay down on the APC and sang Beatles songs. I kinda liked the sound of She Loves You with a few thick Israeli accents.

* Like in past stints, I found myself talking to a few of the Hesder Golani boys who were heavily involved in Jenin during Operation Defensive Shield. Some of the stories I heard just left me as teary eyed as I was when I first read about these boys some 5 years ago in A Pslam in Jenin. This time however, I spent time talking to Moshe, who had Shmuel Weiss z'l and Avihu Yaakov z'l die in his arms. I asked him, "How do you stay sane when you see these men you care about die in your arms?" He just let out an uncomfortable laugh - that was enough of an answer.

* Due to the allegations against our soldiers during the recent operation in Gaza, quite a lot of us had a big discussion and the following questions we asked each other:

1) Would you just kill innocents while trying to kill an armed terrorist (the innocents, in other words, could be avoided easily)? One person said yes as a joke (no better way to piss off the hippies in our unit!) but everyone said no ... That's over 100 of us.

2) The next question was a far far tougher one ... If one of us & our mates were in danger and one of us had to kill an armed terrorist (ie, you don't fire - someone next to you or you are dead) but in the process kill innocents too, would you hesitate? Everyone said they'd take the shots ... No one said no, not lefties, not hippies, no one.

I think this is the main reason why civilians will die in any confrontation (well, that & fear) in populated areas. This past week definitely reinforced my faith in my army after a period were I was shaken and down due to these accusations.

On another note, I wish everyone a Happy & Kosher Passover, a חג שמח וכשר

בשנה הבאה בירושלים ב"ה
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Nissim ... and his baseball bat hands

If you cannot see the video, please click here.

We are Binghamton

My Alma Mater, Binghamton University (otherwise known as SUNY Binghamton), made the NCAA tournament for the first time in the school's history after a win on Saturday in the final of the America East tournament.

For game highlights, click here.

"...and I'm proud to be a Binghamtonian" ;)

Binghamton wins America East, punches first dance ticket
Associated Press

VESTAL, N.Y. -- Kevin Broadus choked back tears. So, too, did Emanuel Mayben as teammates D.J. Rivera and Reggie Fuller struggled to find the right words.

That's what securing a spot in the NCAA tournament can do to a coach and his players, especially when it's the first and you've overcome a heap of criticism.

Fuller, a senior forward and junior college transfer from Texas, had 19 points and 10 rebounds, Rivera added 16 points, and Binghamton beat defending America East champion UMBC 61-51 on Saturday for the conference title and the school's first NCAA tournament berth.

"We just persevered and fought all year long," said Broadus, conference coach of the year in just his second year at Binghamton. "They never gave up. The only way you can be a champion, someone told me, is to beat a champion. This year was an unbelievable ride for me personally. These guys coached me. These guys showed me what a true champion is all about."

It was the 11th straight win for the top-seeded Bearcats (23-8) and their first America East title since moving to Division I for the 2001-02 season.

UMBC (15-17), the sixth seed and the last team to beat Binghamton, made its first NCAA tournament appearance a year ago. The Retrievers' chance of a second vanished when they failed to score in the game's final 4:49.

"We didn't score for a while, but we had numerous chances," UMBC coach Randy Monroe said. "It just wasn't meant to be."

Rich Flemming led UMBC with 14 points and 11 rebounds, conference scoring champion Darryl Proctor had 12 points and 11 rebounds, and freshman Chauncey Gilliam had 10 points.

Two decades ago, the Binghamton Colonials were a mediocre Division III team playing in an old gym with a tiny fan base. These Bearcats were cheered by a raucous green-and-white-clad, standing-room-only home crowd of 5,342, the largest in the history of the Events Center, and they celebrated the first title of any kind in the program's 63-year history.

"We had a long year," said Rivera, named tournament most outstanding player. "I'm just happy and excited it's paid off."

Binghamton shadowed UMBC guard Jay Greene with a taller player at every turn, and the strategy worked. Greene was just 3-for-10 -- 1-for-6 from beyond the arc -- and finished with seven points, four assists and five turnovers in playing every minute.

Binghamton took control by scoring 12 straight points spanning the halftime break, and then held on at the end when the Bearcats had difficulty finding openings in the UMBC defense. Mayben's layup that gave Binghamton a 56-47 lead with 7:32 left was the last basket of the game for the Bearcats.

The Retrievers had plenty of chances to challenge after moving within 57-51 but it all failed. In the final 4 minutes, Greene missed a 3, Proctor was called for a charge as he made a layup, then missed another drive to the basket and a pair of free throws.

In the final frantic minute, Flemming missed a follow and a 3 and Gilliam missed a 3 and a layup.

That set off a noisy celebration on the court. The Bearcats had been the subject of a recent article in the New York Times that criticized the school administration and Broadus for his recruiting.

League coaches vote all-conference teams, and when they delivered a message by not selecting any of the Bearcats to the first team -- Rivera, a transfer from Saint Joseph's, was voted to the second team despite losing the scoring title to Proctor by just 20.2 to 20.1 points per game -- Broadus defended his record and the university backed him.

On Saturday, he simply wanted to put that all behind.

"There comes a time when you have to let things go," said Broadus, a former assistant at Georgetown. "We were like racehorses. We put blinders on, earplugs in and just played the game harder."

_

Playing Tawlee

Playing what? It's the Iraqi name for Backgammon, or Shesh Besh as we Israelis call it.

Now I'm sure you're asking, how do I know that? Well, for the past two and a half years, I've developed a friendship with an Iraqi blogger* whom I started interacting with when he blogged about Zionism. I didn't see eye to eye with it, and thought it was important he hears the story through my eyes. Since then, we've kept in touch and I've managed to learn more about his Iraq (& the future he hopes to see for her) through his many interesting blog entries.

This past week, we both discovered that we're fans of backgammon. So we decided to play each other, via Yahoo! games, this Sunday. Although we didn't finish any games due to internet issues, we both enjoyed the experience of "an Israeli and an Iraqi playing backgammon!"

* I am not disclosing his name or the blog url for the time being, but hope to do so in the near future when we do a 'blog vs blog' Q&A session.
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Israeli Apartheid Week

Interesting piece from the San Francisco Chronicle by Ishmael Khaldi:

For those who haven't heard, the first week in March has been designated as Israel Apartheid Week by activists who are either ill intentioned or misinformed. On American campuses, organizing committees are planning happenings to once again castigate Israel as the lone responsible party for all that maligns the Middle East.

Last year, at UC Berkeley, I had the opportunity to "dialogue" with some of the organizers of these events. My perspective is unique, both as the vice consul for Israel in San Francisco, and as a Bedouin and the highest-ranking Muslim representing the Israel in the United States. I was born into a Bedouin tribe in Northern Israel, one of 11 children, and began life as shepherd living in our family tent. I went on to serve in the Israeli border police, and later earned a master's degree in political science from Tel Aviv University before joining the Israel Foreign Ministry.

I am a proud Israeli -- along with many other non-Jewish Israelis such as Druze, Bahai, Bedouin, Christians and Muslims, who live in one of the most culturally diversified societies and the only true democracy in the Middle East. Like America, Israeli society is far from perfect, but let us deals honestly. By any yardstick you choose -- educational opportunity, economic development, women and gay's rights, freedom of speech and assembly, legislative representation -- Israel's minorities fare far better than any other country in the Middle East.

So, I would like to share the following with organizers of Israel Apartheid week, for those of them who are open to dialogue and not blinded by a hateful ideology:

You are part of the problem, not part of the solution: If you are really idealistic and committed to a better world, stop with the false rhetoric. We need moderate people to come together in good faith to help find the path to relieve the human suffering on both sides of the Israel-Palestinian conflict. Vilification and false labeling is a blind alley that is unjust and takes us nowhere.

You deny Israel the fundamental right of every society to defend itself: You condemn Israel for building a security barrier to protect its citizens from suicide bombers and for striking at buildings from which missiles are launched at its cities - but you never offer an alternative. Aren't you practicing yourself a deep form of racism by denying an entire society the right to defend itself?

Your criticism is willfully hypocritical: Do Israel's Arab citizens suffer from disadvantage? You better believe it. Do African Americans 10 minutes from the Berkeley campus suffer from disadvantage -- you better believe it, too. So should we launch a Berkeley Apartheid Week, or should we seek real ways to better our societies and make opportunity more available.

You are betraying the moderate Muslims and Jews who are working to achieve peace: Your radicalism is undermining the forces for peace in Israel and in the Palestinian territories. We are working hard to move toward a peace agreement that recognizes the legitimate rights of both Israel and the Palestinian people, and you are tearing down by falsely vilifying one side.

To the organizers of Israel Apartheid Week I would like to say:

If Israel were an apartheid state, I would not have been appointed here, nor would I have chosen to take upon myself this duty. There are many Arabs, both within Israel and in the Palestinian territories who have taken great courage to walk the path of peace. You should stand with us, rather than against us.

*****

2 Funerals & 2 Weddings

I had never been to a funeral of a family member before this past month. In 10 short days, this would all change as I attended the funerals of my two great aunts, two women I had been very close to. Losing one person you love is tough enough, but losing two in such a short period of time is extremely difficult to handle. Both Auntie Monica & Tante Amelie had been mainstays of my childhood in Ra'anana and important parts of my life since I returned to Israel in 2003. During these 10 days, the city of Ra'anana and my understanding of life changed drastically. Ra'anana will obviously never quite be the same, and life ... well, life will remain the same, just with a stronger realization that death is unfortunately an unavoidable part of our existence as we forge on along.

It's not easy to see motionless loved ones wrapped up in a talit (a prayer shawl). Tears flow, and you start thinking of their last words to you ... and then through gritted teeth, you silently whisper good bye. Despite the darkness of the new reality, I found myself eager to push through to the proverbial 'light at the end of the tunnel.' A day after the first funeral, and a few hours after the second one, I was at weddings - which to me symbolized that light. Despite the sadness I felt, I wanted to be at both weddings and celebrate in the happiness of the bride & groom. Although I didn't dance at either wedding, I enjoyed the excitement generated by each event. Yes, the pain was, and still is, there. The tears still accompany their memories, or photos, or videos ... but life, with an adjustment to the newly created void, must go on. I hope it doesn't come off like I'm slighting the memories of my great aunts, far from it. I just feel like when the lights of those we love is extinguised, we must 'be content' with the light we have from our other loved ones (be it our siblings, parents, spouses, children etc...) and continue to enjoy the time we have with them in this world.

If I have, as I assume, made little sense here, perhaps this little pearl from the Chofetz Chaim will sum up what I'm trying to put forth:

Rav Shmuel Dovid Walkin was with the Chaftez Chaim during some of the more horrific times of World War I. He vividly recalled how the Chafetz Chaim would lecture those who were in danger of becoming depressed by the terrible suffering that they experienced or witnessed.

He would say to them, "Why are you so fearful and devoid of hope? Chazal teaches that when Adam saw the first sunset, he said to himself, 'Woe that because of my failure, the world is about to return to chaos and confusion.' He spent the entire night crying together with Chava and it was only when he saw the gathering light of dawn that he realized that the sun's disappearance was a part of the natural order that G-d had decreed for the World ... We know that this night will not last forever. Light will soon come again, for such is the order that the Creator has set for this world."

(I first saw this in Rav Abraham Twerski's 'Twerski on Chumash', but this is quoted from Sefer Talelei Oros)
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Better Late than Never

More please!

Lake Kinneret rose by almost 8 inches over the weekend after heavy rains battered Israel in the most serious storms of the winter.

The storms will taper off on Sunday, after dropping 60-100 millimeters of rainfall in various parts of the country and thickening Mount Hermon's snowy mantle.

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The End of a Generation

This past Thursday, I went to Meir Hospital in Kfar Saba to see my dad's aunt, Amelie. At 93, she was in a bad way and judging by the fragile woman I saw, I knew this would be the last time I would see her alive. She noticed me straight away, "The real Avram Piha" as she always used to stress when seeing me (I am the only one in the family line who shares her father's name and last name). I said a few words, and then she proceeded to wish my family a long life & good health. I leaned over, kissed her on her forehead and said, "I love you and thank you." Thank you? Yes, thank you:

I remember as a 5 year old growing up in Ra'anana that I always used to dread going to visit my dad's Tante Amelie and Oncle Solomon z"l. Nothing against them as people obviously, I was just little and when you're young, unless they're named Granny or Grampa or Nonnou or Nonna, old people are just not the 'in thing'. As I grew older however, my attitude towards Tante Amelie greatly changed (Oncle Solomon z"l passed away in the last 1980s - 1988 if I'm not mistaken). What brought along the change in attitude? A story. A story that effectively summed up her role in my family's existence: Life Saver.

Rhodes, the birthplace of Tante Amelie and my Nonnou Nissim z"l, had a thriving Ladino (Spanish Jewry who trace their roots back to Spain pre-the 1492 expulsion) community up until the Holocaust. As Hitler's armies swept into the Rhineland, and then the Sudetenland, and finally the 'real' invasion into Poland on Sept 1st, 1939, European Jews who actually foresaw the upcoming tragedy started looking for any possible way to escape the continent. From what I understand, Nonnou's mother, did not want Tante Amelie to take Nonnou on the boat but she nonetheless took him onto one of the boats that left Rhodes. That boat would be the last boat to leave Rhodes before the Nazis arrived. Along with the majority of the Rhodes Jewish community, his mother Miriam and one brother (Isaac) perished (while one brother, Yeshaya, survived).

Tante Amelie would proceed to move to Palestine with her husband, while Nonnou went to the Belgian Congo, eventually ending up in South Africa, where he lived until he passed away in 2000. Were it not for Tante Amelie's insistence on Nonnou being on that boat with her, the Piha line would have died in the holocaust (Oncle Yeshaya never had kids). She is the reason why I'm alive, why my dad, my little brother and I carry the Piha family name. My dad said she always looked at him as a son, and me and Eitan as grandsons. Although she wasn't the 'mother' that gave us life, she did have an extremely important role in assuring that we'd in fact be alive.

I always try to spend time with Tante Amelie when I'm in Ra'anana. Despite being 89 years old, she's still remarkably sharp and recounts stories as if they had happened just yesterday. I always bring up the same story, thanking her for what she did. I never feel as if it's enough though. How can you honestly thank a person for a deed that great? The Talmud says that if you save one life, it's as if you've saved the whole world - well I guess Tante Amelie technically saved the whole world a few times over - and for that, my family will be eternally grateful to her.

I will miss her and her stories about the 'world' that was, or her phenomenal memory that allowed her to sing the Ladino & Italian songs from her childhood. 93 years, a loving marriage, 5 wonderfully warm children, and many grandchildren and great grandchildren. May we all be as blessed.

Au Revoir Tante , je t'aime ... Menuhata Be'gan Eden ... ברוך דיין האמת



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Six Pack

Unbelievable really ... I've been here for 6 years already. It seems like only yesterday I got off the Boeing and onto an Arad bound taxi. I'd like to write a masterpiece but it's late, and I have to get up early tomorrow for minyan. So I'll recap the 'year' with two blogs:

The High: The birth of my first child, Nissim David Piha
The Low: The passing of my dear great aunt, Monica z'l

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Saying Goodbye

On Sunday, February 1st, my mom called and told me her aunt Monica's condition had deteriorated. As we discussed the severity of her condition, my mom said she'd be arriving in Israel later that week to spend time with her and help the family out as much as possible. As I hung up the phone, I immediately called Auntie Monica. She answered in a tired and weak tone, and within a minute, the conversation was over. As I put down the phone, I started crying. Something in her voice told me she was readying to give up her fight against cancer.

I want to write so much about this phenomenal woman - a humble, kind and caring individual who I've long admired and looked at like another granny - perhaps that bond was struck due to the many similarities she had with her sister, my Gran ... who knows. But I feel I'd do the impact she's had on my life, especially since I returned to Israel, an injustice. She has been that loving, caring shoulder I needed throughout the early hiccups of Aliyah ... the warm & welcoming home during my army service ... the excited 'Gran' during the highs of my engagement, wedding and birth of my first son. She's been a part of it all, and now she's gone.

I've really struggled to write this blog ... There's so much I want to add and share, but I feel that doing so would just go against the humble & private ways of my dear Aunt. So I'd like to end this entry like this ... When I wrote a blog about my Granny (her sister) a few years ago, she responded with the following:

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on my dear sister. I have this wonderful picture of her and I just above my computer -it was taken on one of her visits to Israel to visit you guys – and I look up at it everyday. Yes, she was special – and she had the ability to make everybody that she came in contact with feel that they were special.

I only hope she knew that her last sentence described her perfectly as well.

I will miss you dearly Auntie Monica. I love you.

Nissim Pavarotti

I missed his main performance, but I did get his encore ...

Puzzle One

I decided two weeks ago that the wife and I were going to build a puzzle together. Yes I know, nerdy but hey, I thought it would be fun activity for us to partake in instead of watching TV or surfing the net. Honestly, it was a lot of fun and both us enjoyed building it. Only downside was that despite it being 1000 pieces, we finished it rather quickly - oh well, we hope the next one is more challenging!

The Box:



After Day 1:



After Day 2:



After Day 3:



After Day 4:



After Day 5:

Nissim in Video

If the embed isn't working for you, click on the title and that will take you to the YouTube page. Enjoy!

Noises during the Hiccup Battle



Nissim's 6th flip in the last 2 days!

David Shapira, an ordinary hero

Let his words do the explaining, mine are unnecessary here:



"...but this was what I had to do"

Are human rights for some, but not others?

Another brilliant piece courtesy of Aish:

Liraz Madmony, a 23-year-old law student from Sderot, addressed the UN Human Rights Council Special Session on Gaza in Geneva on behalf of the European Union of Jewish Students (EUJS) on Monday, Jan. 12, 2009 before the vote by the council that condemned Israel's military offensive in Gaza and resolved to send a fact-finding mission to investigate alleged Israeli abuses against Palestinians.

Here is the text of her speech.

Thank you, Mr. President.

I come from Sderot, the city in Israel that for eight years has been terrorized, by 10,000 rockets fired against us from Gaza.

As a law student, I learned -- and I believe -- that all human beings have the right to peace and security.

But when I see today's resolution, I ask: Why is the United Nations ignoring my suffering? When the terrorists committed these 10,000 violations of international human rights and humanitarian law, why was the UN silent?

Are human rights for some, but not others?

The constant assault on Sderot has destroyed our ability to lead a normal life. The warning before each attack gives us only 15 seconds to run for shelter. Fifteen seconds that will decide, life or death.

Mr. President, who will protect our right to life? My family does not have a bomb shelter, so we run to the most protected room, which is the shower.

There is one attack I will never forget. We heard the siren at seven in the morning. We ran to the shower. The rockets fell next to my house. My little brother, who was 14, went to see if anyone needed help. He found a man whose legs were blown off, and a woman blown to pieces.

My youngest brother is six. The rockets have been falling for eight years. He knows no other reality.

Everyone suffers in Sderot. Fathers and mothers are afraid to go to work, creating poverty. Kids are afraid to go to school. I have missed many of my law classes. My friends are afraid to visit. The streets lie empty.

I dream of the hometown that I remember. When the park near my house was filled with happy families and children playing. When people enjoyed life.

I still dream of peace. It will come when the rulers of Gaza choose humanity over hate, when they stop firing on our children while hiding behind their own.

We refuse to grant victory to the terrorists. We choose to live, staying strong with our faith, family and love of country.

Mr. President, who will protect our most basic human rights? My country is now trying its best, and all who love life and desire peace should pray they succeed.

Thank you, Mr. President.

I muse a lot

In a brilliant letter by A.B. Yehoshua to Gideon Levy, one of Israel's most ultra left wing media figures, Yehoshua (a left winger himself) brings up some excellent points:

There is something absurd in the comparison you draw about the number of those killed. When you ask how it can be that they killed three of our children and we cause the killing of a hundred and fifty, the inference one can draw is that if they were to kill a hundred of our children (for example, by the Qassam rockets that struck schools and kindergartens in Israel that happened to be empty), we would be justified in also killing a hundred of their children.

In other words, it is not the killing itself that troubles you but the number. On the face of it, one could answer you cynically by saying that when there will be two hundred million Jews in the Middle East it will be permissible to think in moral terms about comparing the number of victims on each side. But that is, of course, a debased argument. After all, you, Gideon, who live among the people, know very well that we are not bent on killing Palestinian children to avenge the killing of our children. All we are trying to do is get their leaders to stop this senseless and wicked aggression, and it is only because of the tragic and deliberate mingling between Hamas fighters and the civilian population that children, too, are unfortunately being killed. The fact is that since the disengagement, Hamas has fired only at civilians. Even in this war, to my astonishment, I see that they are not aiming at the army concentrations along the border but time and again at civilian communities.

Gideon Levy responded in today's Haaretz, a response which I stopped reading after this line:

a fundamentalist movement using improper means to fight for a just cause, namely the end of the occupation

You wonder how extreme you have to be to describe Hamas in such kind words. Whatever motivates Levy's ultra left wing sickness, perhaps he should take some time to read Hamas's charter before defining their cause as just:

Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it

... Unless of course that's what he wants too ... You have to wonder sometimes.

*****

The Piha family spent the weekend in Kochav Yair with Elaad, a good friend of mine from the army. As we ate lunch on Saturday, the phone rang. For a religious family, this is a very rare occurrence. The mom got a fright that it was related to Elaad's youngest brother, who has spent the last two weeks with an elite unit in Gaza. She asked someone to run to the gate to see if three officers were there to notify her of his death. Elaad's sister got very angry, "They wouldn't have called first, they would have come to our house. It's just a wrong number, it happens." Realizing what scared her so much, I responded, "You shouldn't think like that. You're just tempting the evil eye." She looked at me after a glance at Nissim, and said, "You'll be the same way in 18 years."

In my heart, like most Israeli parents, I hope my son won't need to serve in the army; that when he's 18, he'll see a different world, a region at peace. Alas, when Elaad's mom said that sentence, I smiled uncomfortably realizing that my heart's hope had little chance of being more than just that, a hope.

*****

Birthday wishes go out to one of Israel's greatest singers and actors, Yehoram Gaon, who turned 69 in late December. Here is one of my favorite Gaon songs (bar the ones he performed in Ladino, which he's fluent in):



*****

I'm not sure how long this cease fire will last but I am disappointed that it will most likely not include Gilad Shalit, who as of today has spent the last 938 days in captivity.