The Prisoner Exchange.

I find I can’t criticise Israel for freeing a child murderer and others in exchange for the bodies of the two soldiers captured south of Lebanon. They have their reasons for doing so, of which giving their soldiers the knowledge that they would not be abandoned even in death is maybe the deepest and most human of them. But it bothers me for the message it sends to their enemies, that they can bargain for the release of the most heinous of the terrorists even with captives no longer alive. It gives them a great incentive to kidnap more Israelis, not necessarily military personnel, and they have no need to even bother keeping them alive. These consequences one might think would outweigh the deep emotional need to look after their own and so I admire immensely that in spite of that they do what they think they ought.

Jeff Emanuel takes a more serious look at the problem of releasing prisoners like these and the Gitmo inmates, taking in as he does how the NYT has been getting it wrong for ever.

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