Mentally, Gilad Schalit seems amazingly sound

Larry Derfner By Larry Derfner October 18, 2011 | Edit

Gilad Schalit’s mental state seems amazingly sound. In his interview on Egyptian TV, all his responses were perfectly rational, lucid, to the point. He didn’t mumble, he didn’t talk to himself, he wasn’t disconnected from reality – he looked dazed but definitely seemed to have his wits about him. I’m sure he has all sorts of psychological difficulties, of course, but the fear that he’d lost his mind seems to have been allayed.

In fact, not only does his mind seem alright, it seems remarkably strong, judging by one of his answers to the Egyptian TV interviewer. Here he is after more than five years in what sounds like solitary confinement, he’s still in Egyptian custody, and the interviewer asks him if he’s going to campaign for the release of the remaining 4,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. He replies: “I’d be very happy if all the Palestinians prisoners went free, but they shouldn’t return to attacking Israelis.” No trace of Stockholm Syndrome here!

Larry Derfner

I was a columnist and feature writer for The Jerusalem Post, as well as the correspondent in Israel for the U.S. News and World Report, for many years. I wrote feature articles for the Sunday Times of London during the second intifada, and have been writing for American Jewish publications since 1990. Politically, I would describe myself as an ultra-liberal Zionist; as journalist Bradley Burston put it, I’m “probably as far left as a centrist can be.” I was born in New York, grew up in Los Angeles and moved to Israel in 1985.

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