It was an exchange of bodies. Israel threw in some live terrorists, too, so they can take up their mission again. It is hard to grasp why Israel again and again agrees to such deals.
Hard to grasp, but not incomprehensible.
But now it's almost guaranteed that Gilad Shalit will not return alive, because Hamas has now learned for sure that you don't need living Israelis to blackmail the Jewish state. Bodies suffice. No need to feed a Zionist anymore.
Now they have proof of what they can do to put Israelis into psychic hell and squeeze them for what a terrorist wants. The geniuses in the Israeli government didn't manage to exchange live terrorists for live soldiers, or only bodies for bodies. Furthermore, Hassan Nasrallah can rejoice that he didn't give any information about Ron Arad, so he breached the agreement even before last Wednesday's exchange.
I was inclined to throw every principle overboard to embrace an "explosive" welcome for Samir Kuntar and the other thugs in Beirut. Especially since all the other nice guys participated in that big party. Well, the Israelis wouldn't do that; they're much too decent. And the terrorists count on Israeli decency. Isn't that nice?
The terrorists, for their part, don't have any decency left. They demonstrated their inhuman core in letting nobody know what state the kidnapped soldiers were in; and they played their cruel games until the last moment, until the second casket was put beside the first. Anybody telling me that Hizbullah has some rightful grievances against Israel runs the risk of getting his bottom spanked for good. To ascribe anything positive to such monsters is to be as bad as they are.
A German TV station let one of their correspondents talk about the first signs of some kind of reconciliation between Israel and Hizbullah, and even about a possible breakthrough to peace between Syria and Israel. Which would be also break the Iranian-Syrian axis. Congratulations. Dummy, what exactly do the terrorists have to do to make you think twice about what they are up to?
It was also nice to hear German TV coverage call the live ex-prisoners "fighters" and the 199 dead ones "Lebanese and Palestinian soldiers." The t-word seems to be almost inconceivable here. Almost. ARD's late news actually called Samir Kuntar a terrorist; so the others are probably just poor Joe Sixpacks who happened to be in Israeli prisons because of some minor offenses?
At least almost all German media made sure to point out the difference between Hizbullah's cruelty and Israeli grief - in this case. I wish they would do that more often.
Just to get a slight impression of the difference between the two sides of the conflict on the northern front, take a look at the front page of last Thursday's issue of Yisrael Hayom, an Israeli daily newspaper.
Some will say the freed man in Hizbullah uniform might just have given the crowd a wave. Could be, but it sure looks like something else to me; especially compared to Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi's salute of Ehud Goldwasser's casket.
Anyway, the terrorists' families and buddies always knew the whereabouts and the health condition of their comrades in Israel - Hizbullah mocked the Israeli soldiers' families until the last possible moment. That alone should tell everybody whose side to take, without the need to show the Nazi-like behavior of Israel's enemies.
Unfortunately, there are far too many who won't listen, won't look and don't want to know.