Macabre but Telling Exchange Rate, Palestinian-Israeli Human Rate, No Purchasing Power Parity………
“Israel has agreed to free 20 Palestinian women prisoners in exchange for information about Gilad Shalit, a captured Israeli soldier held in the Gaza Strip…it expected the movement to release a recent videotape of the soldier proving that he was alive.......Shalit was seized by fighters from Hamas and allied groups during a raid on an Israeli border base in 2006. Hamas is demanding that Israel release hundreds of prisoners, many of whom are serving lengthy sentences for attacks on Israelis, in exchange for the soldier.......”
I think it is a great deal, especially for the Palestinians. But it tells a sad story of relative human value or exchange rate, as well. It would have been even better for all if Shalit himself was released as well, from both the humanitarian and exchange rate aspects.
The sad story is: Twenty Palestinians for one video. That makes what we economists call the exchange rate 20:1. But with a video, not with another human being. Now if we could just convert the video to a human it would be better for both sides.....
By Hamas standards, as by rival Salafi standards, a man is equal two women. That means the Israelis would need to release only ten Palestinians in exchange for the video of Shalit if they chose to release only men.
Ten Arabs for a video of an Israeli, twenty Arabs for a video of an Israeli.
Actually this is an improvement; the Arab exchange rate has risen, except that it is against a video. In times of wars past it used to be something like hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Egyptian captives per Israeli, a steep exchange rate by any standards, except by sad Arab standards…...
Cheers
mhg
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