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Tampa Bay Online reported this morning that Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit has been returned to Israel in exchange for more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners. I am overjoyed that this man is reunited with his family. That part of the story is wonderful.

The part of the story that has two sides is the release of more than 1,000 terrorists from Israeli jails. This makes a statement to the world that Israel places a high value on human life. It also may encourage future kidnappings.

The list of prisoners to be released from Israeli jails includes many terrorists involved in the planning of suicide bombings and the killing of Israelis. The list was posted at the Jerusalem Post website on Sunday. There are some aspects of this release that have at least a small positive aspect–Israel no longer will have to feed these terrorists and pay to keep them in jail and the character of these people is such that they may not be an asset to the countries where they will be living.

There is another aspect of this prisoner swap that I heard a former member of the Israeli special forces discuss. He believed that when Gilad Schalit was captured, the Israelis should have began killing jailed Palestinian terrorists until Schalit was either killed or released. While I understand the logic behind this, I am not sure this is the right approach. It definitely would have discouraged further kidnappings, but it would have to be done a few times before the kidnappings stopped, and I doubt any kidnapped victims would have been returned alive. Also, I don’t think that the government of Israel is strong enough to act this forcefully, nor am I convinced that is the proper course of action.

Anyway, I rejoice that Gilad Schalit is home again. I pray that there will be no more kidnappings in the future.