Over the past few days, I’ve been sitting back and listening to the various news reports and opinions on the prisoner exchange between Israel and Lebanon.  I have my views, but it has been hard to articulate them after my trip to Israel.

Just to get this out of the way, let me re-emphasize that I understand why Israel needed those bodies back - for religious reasons and for national closure.  That said, exchanging living terrorists for dead Israeli soldiers and negotiating with a terrorist group — while another terrorist group is holding captive a living Israeli soldier — was stupid.

I finally found a column by Mona Charen that truly articulates what I have been wanting to say.  It obviously comes from a person who loves Israel, yet is unimpressed and actually displeased with the course of action Israel chose to take.  You can go read the entire column yourself, but I wanted to emphasize exactly what sorts of regimes and people Israel is surrounded by and encouraged by the international community to negotiate with.

Via RealClearPolitics.com, regarding the key murderer Israel freed:

This week, Kuntar, dressed in fatigues and sporting a Hitlerian mustache and haircut, walked down a red carpet arrayed for him in Beirut. The government closed all offices and declared a national day of celebration. Tens of thousands of Lebanese cheered, waved flags, threw confetti, and set off fireworks as Hezbollah staged a rally to celebrate their “victory” over Israel. Mahmoud Abbas, the “moderate” leader of the Palestinian Authority, sent “blessings to Samir Kuntar’s family.” PA spokesman Ahmad Abdul Rahman sent “warm blessings to Hezbollah … on the return of the heroes of freedom … headed by the great Samir Kuntar.”

Does that sound like the actions of a viable partner for peace?