Do you think the Israeli government should have made the prisoner swap?

Sure, I support the prisoner swap -- I just would have done it differently than the Israeli government did (but I do applaud them for their INCREDIBLE restraint in this matter):

"Prisoner # 1, please step forward."

KABLAM!

"Hezbollah, you may now take your man back in the condition you returned our man to us. Prisoner # 2, please step forward ..."

EDIT: Wounded Duck, Lebanon's Al-Manar TV quoted senior Hezbollah official Wafik Safa as saying the bodies were in a "mutilated" shape from injuries they suffered during the raid. I withhold judgement as to the cause of the mutilation (torture vs. injuries) until we know more. But the fact is that the bodies were mutilated.

They played the part as if they were hoping for live soldiers right up to the end. I hope that's true. Either way there has been too much said and asked about these soldiers for so long that some kind of closure was important.

Besides as someone said they make good targets where they are. Had the Jews killed this man that would have started something else.

What will Hexbo do with him now that he 30 years older and a lot fatter for such a short guy. I wonder what kind of friendships he may have made all those years in prison.

Perhaps soon he will go the way of Arafat.

No! I think that Israel should not have had the Prisoner exchange,because they released a rotten stinking Blood Thirsty KILLER ( Alive ) in exchange for the Dead mutilated Bodies of their captives! The World is full of bleeding Hearts for these Hezbollah COWARDS who intentionally kill Women and Children in Israel,but when Israel retaliates and there is accidental collateral damage,the World is quick to condemn Israel for protecting their nation against these Murderous Thugs! I am sick and tired of the inhumane way that Israel is treated!

NO. No one should ever trade the living for the dead. Even more so...they have traded justice for injustice.

"For I have taken all this to my heart and explain it that righteous men, wise men and their deeds are in the hand of God. Man does not know whether it will be love or hatred; anything awaits him.

It is the same for all. There is one fate for the righteous and for the wicked; for the good, for the clean and for the unclean; for the man who offers a sacrifice and for the one who does not sacrifice. As the good man is, so is the sinner; as the swearer is, so is the one who is afraid to swear.

This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that there is one fate for all men. Furthermore, the hearts of the sons of men are full of evil, and insanity is in their hearts throughout their lives. Afterwords, they go to the dead.

For whoever is joined with the living, there is hope; surely a live dog is better than a dead lion.

For the living know that they will die; but the dead do not know anything, nor have they any longer a reward, for their memory is forgotten.

Indeed, their love, their hate, and their zeal have already perished, and they will no longer have a share in all that is done under the sun."

well, first of all reports surfaced when this whole talk began that the army knew the two soldiers were dead, they said there was too much blood at the scene to even hope they were alive.

second of all to answer your question: im torn, i really am. on one hand jewish religion values the body almost (i said almost) as much as the person alive, bc the bosy needs to be buried and treated with respect, etc. however,there is still a soldier who is alive and awaiting his releasing, gilad schalit.so i think israel should have driven a harder bargain for him first before the dead bodies.

the thing is this, the guy that they released is a monster, a ral monster i dont know if you know what he did, but if not, go check it out. now, if israel is willing to release this monster for two dead bodies what do you think theyll be willing to do for one live person (gilad). i was listening to a radio show-steve malsberg on 710 WOR in New York and he had on a journalist living in israel who has ongoing contact with certain terrorist org. he said that he was speaking to one of the terrorist groups leaders who have gilad (three are holding him together) and the leader said that what he and his other freinds (read terrorist groups)learned from this exchange was that in order to get back a live person israel is willing to let even more people and people who have comitted heinous crimes go, so they should continue to kidnap israeli solsiers.

so in conclusion i guess, while im elated that two families got to bury their dead, israel is sending a message to the terrorist groups: if you kidnap an israeli soldier you will ge a lot of ppl who committed heinous crimes (and are looked at as freedom fighters) released. and frankly i think israels first priority should be protecting the living

suzanne-i agree

btw, maybe it is a good thing, bc now israeli will track these terrorists down and kill them, and well they killed suspected terrorists, oops!

Who cares? i'm greater worrying with regard to the thousands of palestinians they killed to coach a element. wish they are investigated for their warfare crimes. Israel are the genuine terrorists right here.

It's a tough question, yes and no.

We should have taken different strategies to begin with.

I would have never stopped the war, I would have cut all electricity and food supply to Gaza until we get all THREE soldiers back.

Under the circumstances which our 25 point IQ president has brought us to I would have to say no as it only invites more kidnapping and dangers our third soldier Gilad Shalit may God have mercy on him, they should have only agreed to make the swap if soldiers are alive.

I would also have to say yes as Judaism requires proper burial of the body and no soldier should be left behind.

It's easy to reject it but if it was any of our family members we would have agreed to anything in order to get them back.

What's done is done, right now we need to focus on bringing back Gilad.

How? cutting all supply to Gaza and closing the borders but that ain't gonna happen cause of "human rights" that our enemy has so much respect for.

What's gonna happen is another swap.

After the swap we should bomb the ##&# out of them so they will learn to never try anything similar again but that ain't gonna happen either.

Bibi La Shilton.

That's like asking if the we(America) were right to let some of those terrorists go that we were holding in Guantanamo. We have evidence that a lot of those people went right back to their terrorists ways and killed people. Ask the families of those people who were killed by these thugs whether we should have let these people go.

The Isreali government is weak. Their leaders were once like Churchill. Today they are like Chamberlain. Chamberlain went to Munich, talked face to face with Hitler and compromised and then came back, looked at the crowds, held up the two finger peace sign and said "peace in our time". It was the worse thing he could have done. The only thing that Hitler ever understood was strength. Four months later the world was at war. Similarly, the only thing that these radical Muslims understand is strength. You can't show weakness to a fundementalist islamic.

It's not only the leaders. The people are tired of war and dis-allusioned. They've lost the dream of of zionism. They've lost the dream of having their own nation where they could live in peace free from persecution and anti-semitism.

Similarly, the world is even more anti-isreal than it was 10 years ago. Even America, Isreals one true friend, is turning against Isreal.

The Islamics are becoming more confident everyday that they can destroy Isreal. Not winning total victory in that last war with Hezbollah in Lebanon was a mistake. Thirty years ago the Islamics were broken emotionally. They just didn't think they could defeat Isreal. Today they are confident that they can and it's the Isrealis who are broken emotionally. Today the islamics are more committed than ever to driving isreal into the sea.

I was watching a news clip on TV and they were saying that there are a lot of isrealis that are actually leaving and considering leaving Isreal. They interviewed one man who said he was going to take his family and go to america. They asked him why. He said that in 20 years there isn't going to be an isreal. I wholeheartedly concur with that. Isreal can't survive the way it is going. But Isreal will survive. The bible is clear on that. Thousands of years ago the bible said that isreal would be conquered(they were by the Assyrians and Babylonians in 705AD and 586AD) and scattered around the world but they would come back. But then they would be conquered again(they were by the Romans in 70AD) and scattered again but they would come back a 2nd time(they did in 1948). The bible said that once they came back the 2nd time, they would never leave that land again. That's one reason why I believe the 2nd coming of Christ is near. Isreal can't last another 50 years. One might say "that's just bible prophecy....why should you or anyone believe that". The Bible has the signature of God attached to it in many ways. One of those ways is Bible prophecy. The old testament has 333 prophecies about the first coming of Jesus Christ and 456 specific details about his life(all written between 400 and 2200 years before he was born). The 4 gospels in the new testament(Mathew, Mark, Luke & John) tell the story of Jesus. Had those 4 gospel writers chosen to not write their gospels, we could still have re-created the whole life of Christ just from the old testament(all written before he was born). In fact, that is how the christians preached the gospel in the first 20-30 years after the death of Christ. They preached it from the old testament because the new testament was in the process of being written. The story of Christ is all there in the Old Testament including some details about His life that are not even mentioned in the New Testament. But there is about 500 prophecies in the bible about the 2nd coming of Christ. If the 333 prophecies about His 1st coming all came true(and they did), why would I not believe the 500 prophecies about His 2nd coming?

PS(in answer to your additional details comment)---maybe my Gitmo comparison wasn't a very good one but there is still something I don't understand. If they gave them trials in Isreal, they must have found them either innocent or guilty. If they were innocent, then they can't use them for an exchange because they have no right to hold them in the first place. But if they were found to be guilty then I think it is immoral to use murderers in an exchange. You're setting them free. They're going to go out and kill again. To bring a couple of isrealis safely back to their families, other isreali families are going to lose one of their loved ones. In this case, the isrealis got a couple of coffins back and they probably will lose some more of their citizens in the future as a result of letting these guys go. Additionally, if the terrorists know that isreal will deal in exchanges, that's an incentive to go out and kidnap isreali citizens just to use them in exchanges.

the coffins were not yet opened? Are people in coffins supposed to be alive??????

You know it is a strange thing, because it seems to defy logic. But I have concluded that there must be a good reason to allow this exchange. There MUST be something we don't know.

On the surface sounds like a bad deal for Israelies,

The bodies of 2 soldiers for many more alive convicted terrorists.

Perhaps, this is a good will gesture for a truce?

Only the politicians know why the deal was done. Must have been a good logic for it, or sure hope so.

Hope the Israeli saying does not apply here

"We're thinking like the USA do, but doing like they do in Africa"