Although we aren’t privy to the agreement signed by Olmert and Nasrallah, we can be pretty sure that the swap is on course. Today, the IDF Rabbinate confirmed they have begun exhuming the bodies of fallen Hezbollah fighters from a cemetery near Kibbutz Amiad. The deal is expected to go through very quickly with the culmination in about another week and 1/2.

While it will relieve some of the sadness over having lost these 2 soldiers, this is still a lopsided deal by any measure and does Israel more harm than good in the long run. Yes, I apologize for sounding like a broken record, but the short term ‘benefits’ of this deal will be outweighed by the heartache later when soldiers are executed rather than captured; their body parts to be quibbled over for this or that demand.

The real focus should be on vigilence and protecting against these type of attacks in the first place, not encouraging the terrorists by showing them that no demand is too outrageous. In this case, the risk/reward is very high for them because the state of being of the captured matters little. I certainly hope in the future swaps of this nature will be only bodies for bodies and life for life. Unfortunately I don’t know that Israel can un-ring the bell and lower the raised expectations of every 2 bit murderer in the immediate vicinity. The only thing that will do that is make the costs to the enemy too much to bear and deter them from even considering this as an option. I dont put out much hope for that with the current ‘leaders’.

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