when the climax of the crescendo of Qassams was reached, Cast Lead was deemed ineffective and Israel was forced to null it. Balance has been reached when Hamas tried new rockets that can reach to TA.

"Balance has been reaches when Hamas tried new rockets that can reach Tel Aviv" No rockets have ever reached Tel Aviv. Qassams have yet to stop falling on southern Israel.

This is short-sighted thinking. There will be no catharsis for the families of the murdered and the injured still recovering. And experience tells us there will be future casualties at the hands of the released terrorists. One life now for more dead and maimed in the future. Care to reconsider?

When they kidnap the next soldiers, or children, or anyone else, what are going to release?

Free palestinian captured with no Deal with Hamas in this way : 1-you will give no victory to your enemy Hamas. 2- you will give no commitment to recapture them again or even kill them(deal conditions). 3- Judge put (criminals ) in jail for rehabiltation and to keep them away from clean society ,you dont care for this you .they will live in another place where all hate you the same . 5- Isreal killed 1500 and ijured 5000 most of them are disabled and this is enough to make you feel happy and strong. If you free all prosners then Hamas will have no reason to retain Shalit any more and will free him if you only reopen crossing points !!.

what a success for hamas so much so that their offering 1.5 million to anyone capable of kidnaping an israeli soldier. 1 soldier for 850 captured terrorist how stupid can israel be. keep up the good work the world hate you and you are losing on every front. israel you have become a weak people

If there were some sort of general amnesty then there would be a sense of consistency, but releasing criminals convicted of nationalistic offenses is simply not acceptable in a normal democracy. So people twist and turn and come up with all sorts of logical gymnastics to justify the release of nationalistic killers of Jews (for peace, for Shalit, for goodness, light and looking good). Morally it doesn't hold water. They just want a fig leaf to hide behind.

This isn't just another left-wing useful idiot of the jihad, this one's a new age moonbat! What's the Post coming to?

...going to stop being part of the problem? Operation Defensive Shield, Operation Cast Lead when is Israel going to launch Operation Peace Path? Instead of ‘releasing terrorists’ why doesn’t Israel ‘stop creating terrorists’ by ending the occupation and oppression of the Palestinian people?

terrorists are not to be freed

Hamas benefits from the exchange as well, deriving some degree of recognition as legitimate rather than the murderous terrorists they usually show themselves to be. Let the terrorists go; they are worth less than Gilad's safety, and as you point out, there is no shortage of terrorists to replace them anyway. I do not believe that the majority of Palestinians support the terrorists. None of those I know personally do, at least.

-To end all "rights" of arab security prisoners -To threaten the lives of every Hamas member and their families -To reintroduce the death sentence for all terrorist attacks committed against the Jewish people. -To release one or two prisoners for Gilad

All of your points are valid: 1. there is no shortage of potential terrorists, it is not like the "swamp" is made up of these 70, certainly far from it; 2. motivation to attack & kidnap is always high, release will simply not increase motivation; 3. the national catharsis and boost in morale in having gilad walk our streets once again will provide us with a mini victory, something like we achieve from a daring military operation or something similar. 4. gilad should not be the victim of a failed policy of appeasment. military operations like cast lead are the surest way of preventing attacks and kidnappings.

It is so easy to kidnap one Israeli soldier in order to get back so many prisoners, albeit with blood on their hands. Preventing kidnappings means not relaxing for one minute. The same goes for car accidents. If we could prevent all hardship and suffering, would there be any hardship and suffering? But Gilad is alive and has been sitting far too long with our enemies. He belongs with us. Bring him home already.

because the soldier is alive this time. And anybody in Israel could be Guilad Shalit. But the deal must stop as stop as soon as these criminals are free, it means that Israel must do its best to search them and to kill them. It is not an amnesty, it is a deal under terror theat. They must hide, they dont have to enjoy their freedom. 2nd thing, terrorist who kill people are not simple murderers, they deserve death penalty, like eichman, and in the futur abduction (be sure there will be another), Israel won't have problems with prisoners with blood on their hands.

You HAVE made your point, Hanoch Daum. G-d bless you.

Freeing these murderers only shows weakness in the eyes of the murderers. Capital punishment of these nightcrawlers would enrage the Arab Muslim world on the outside, only. We all need to remember, the idea that their false god allah, and their false prophet muhammed, gives them invincible motivation is a lie. Look at how they cower behind their PR campaign. They are in no hurry to "go to allah". Their beliefs are not real to them. They know that they have no more hope after death than the atheistic communists have. They know that the real God has said that he won't share his glory with anyone. That includes those who don't exist, like allah. So, both Israel and the U.S. need to do what they are not doing at present. Show strength, and be bold. The murderers will either die or melt away. World opinion be damned.

should never send our police or army to capture these killers, Hey, after all that will only cause our enemies to take hostigess and demant their release, so to avoid the latter, let them kill us once, not twice...RIGHT ?

Every country loses its most eager warriors early in a war. After that it scrapes the barrel deeper and deeper to get soldiers. Releasing the terrorists gives the Palestinians back the people most threatening to Israel. It is stupid.

There should not be any prisoners in the first place. It provides motivation to attack. It provides political ammunition against Israel. It is a financial drain on the economy Thus far it has done nothing but provide victory for the enemy. The prison life is an upgrade for many of these foul people. (at our expense.) Immediately, move capitol punishment forward. Immediately (and permanently) eliminate every service Gilad Shalit is not granted. Serve nothing but pork to inmates until they are executed. Start some public discussion about chemical neutering of terrorist inmates. I think you will find that Hamas will quickly run out of recruits to fill our prison.

Instead of making lists of murderous terrorists to free, Israel should be making lists of terrorists to execute till Schalit is freed. We should execute atleast one terrorist each day till Scalit is freed. That would strongly discourage potential terrorists and, of course, save lives since dead terrorists commit no atrocities. Upon capture, terrorists should be debriefed (for information to prevent other crimes) and immediately executed.

"Serve nothing but pork to inmates (terrorists) until they are executed... Start some public discussion about chemical neutering of terrorist inmates". My friend, THAT is how Israel should deal with terrorists. My only suggestion is that no more than three days should pass between the capture of terrorists and their execution.

Muslim terrorists but "Matty Groves" insists that it is we, Israelis, which have caused it. "Matty's" view can only be considered perverted. If we were to compare it to women beaten and abused, as an analogy, the men normally responsible say it's because the women fought back and defied them. Had they only obeyed and suffered in silence, abuse would have been significantly less. And we are expected to buy this tripe, that we "created" terrorists just as the abused women created their own damage, so it is our fault that they exist? This is called "blaming the victim". At one time, "Matty" presented some sense of intelligence regarding the whole conundrum in the Middle East, now he has reduced himself to ignorance and stupidity.

political office, I will be at your side and assist you. In the main, what you say makes perfect sense. I would stay away from pork products, however.

You release those ' 70 despicable terrorists' and they release Shalit, and next month they'll take five Shalits. Terror pays, they know it, this release proves it. Your collective choice is to constantly pay the extorted price, or hit them so hard it rivals extermination. Israel doesn't have the will to do the latter, so Israel becomes the victim. Law of the jungle, you can't play without claws.