The dice are loaded against a Middle East solution

Yocheved's husband Oded Lifshitz, who is still in captivity in Gaza, was an Israeli soldier who fought in the Six-Day War of 1967 and the Lebanon War of 1982. But he spoke Arabic, and during Israel's 2007 blockade of Gaza he and his wife organised emergency medical supplies for the besieged Palestinians. A Hamas video shows Yocheved Lifshitz thanking a captor as she is released to the Red Cross. AP By the same token, Yocheved told the media that her Hamas captors had treated her "very nicely". She had received food and medical attention every day, and her kidnappers had…