Freedom!

What is the freedom of 1 (one) Israeli sargeant worth?

Apparently the freedom of Israeli Sgt. Gilad Shalit is worth the freedom of 1,027 (one thousand twenty seven) Palestinians.   This number includes people who have been convicted of murder and others convicted of planning suicide attacks.   Click here for the article from the BBC.

This particular prisoner exchange worries me for two reasons :
1) This seems to imply that one Jew is 1000 times more valuable than one Palestinian (and no human's life is worth 1000 other human's lives)
2) Even the slowest member of Hamas (mentioned in the BBC article) can do the math on the benefits of kidnapping Israeli soldiers.

For those of you who might not be aware of it, HAMAS (Islamic Resistance Movement) is included in the U.S. State Departments list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations.       Maybe I'm old fashioned, but making deals with terrorists strikes me as a BAD idea.  

So if you're looking for something to scare you on Halloween, ponder the implications of trading 1 soldier for 1000 terrorists.