At what price

Sherri Mandell speaks about the prisoner exchange in an article titled A mother’s pain. Her son, Koby, and Yosef Ish Ran "were murdered by terrorists 10 years ago when they were 13 and 14 years old. They had been hiking in the wadi near our home when they were set upon by a Palestinian mob and stoned to death."

Cheapening our loved ones’ deaths only enhances the pain. If Israel is willing to free our loved ones’ murderers, then the rest of the world can look on and assume that the terrorists are really freedom fighters or militants. If Palestinians were murdering Jews in cold blood without justification, surely the Israeli government wouldn’t release them.
No sane government would.
...And as a result of prisoner exchanges, the Israeli justice system can only be seen as a joke, a mockery, even a travesty of justice.
It provides no deterrent and no retribution. It’s as if our government says to the killers: Come hurt us again. We’ll be happy to release you one day. We’ll let you go when you demand it.
I want Gilad Schalit home.
We need to protect our own soldiers. But not with a wholesale prisoner exchange. I wish that I could rejoice with the Schalit family. But I can’t.
The price is too high.

I heard Mrs. Mandell and her husband speak at an Israeli hotel a number of years ago. She said that dental records were needed to identify the two boys. I was astounded at how vicious the murderers were. I couldn't believe that so much damage was inflicted on the two teenagers that they ciyldn't be identified except by dental records.
These people are not freedom fighters. They are people brought up on a culture of hate which makes it acceptable to beat two teenagers to death beyond recognition and to rejoice when a three-month-old baby is murdered.

On another note, I just removed my Free Gilad image from the blog. Maybe I should replace it with one for Jonathan Pollard.