(Jonathan S. Tobin-Commentarymagazine). Those who will flay Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for being so foolish as to let 1,000 Palestinians, including convicted mass murderers, go free, need to remember that in doing so he is obeying the dictates of Jewish tradition: the ransoming of captives. It is also a fact that no leader of a democratic country can resist the pressure to save hostages, as Ronald Reagan proved in the 1980s when he traded for American captives held by Iran’s terrorist allies. What was true for Reagan is also the case for Netanyahu.....
The concept of pidyon shvuyim, or the redemption of captives, is a religious imperative for Judaism, with deep roots in centuries of suffering. Jewish communities in the Diaspora have traditionally reduced themselves to penury to save hostages and done so with the approval of religious authorities.....
Israelis will rue the price of that ransom, but also take some perverse satisfaction in the fact they value the life of one Jew as being worth that of 1,000 Arab terrorists and killers. It may be the right thing would be for Netanyahu to refuse to agree to such a lopsided trade. But is there any politician in Israel or the United States who would be willing to tell the Shalits their boy must die to uphold a principle? The Israeli public’s conviction that Shalit must be freed no matter what was so strong, no leader could have stood against it.