Swapping Samir: Lebanese terrorist back in Beirut

Some news passes without much notice and, as far as I can tell, this will probably be another example.
Samir Kuntar, the lowest form of life, was pardoned by Israeli President Shimon Peres and released into Lebanon today in exchange for the bodies of two kidnapped IDF soldiers.
And he wasn't alone.
Four other Lebanese militants were also released back across the border--holdovers from the 2006 conflict between Israel and Hezbollah-controlled southern Lebanon.
The fact that this deal was approved by a huge majority of the Israeli cabinet (including prime minister Ehud Olmert) is absolutely unforgivable.
The Israeli government knew their two missing soldiers were dead, but it didn't matter.
Israel has a well-worn tradition of asymmetrical swaps such as this one, in order that no soldier, dead or alive, is left behind.
The tradition is honorable in theory and wrong-headed in practice.
Samir Kuntar was imprisoned in Israel after a gruesome double-homicide during a cross-border raid into northern Israel in 1979.
Kuntar, during a shootout with police, shot and killed a 31-year-old Israeli at close range and in front of his 4-year-old daughter. He then turned his gun on the child, though he did not pull the trigger.
No, he crushed her skull will the stock of his rifle.
This man is free today, and Arab leaders, including the shameless Mahmoud Abbas (PLO), are celebrating his return.
What's most disturbing is the fact that Hezbollah planned all along to retrieve Kantar in this manner.
Time Magazine reported Hezbollah's intentions two years ago:

It is this man, Samir Kuntar, the sole surviving member of the cell, that Hizballah leader Hasan Nasrallah promised to liberate this year from an Israeli prison by kidnapping Israeli soldiers to hold as a bargaining chip, an act Hizballah pulled off two weeks ago, precipitating the current fighting across the Israel-Lebanon border.

Had the Israelis made the swap sooner, they could have received the prisoners alive--now that's a tragedy.
Instead, they get this in the Arab press straight from Beirut:

"I promise my people and dear ones in Palestine that I and my dear comrades in the valiant Islamic resistance are returning." --Samir Kuntar quoted in Al-Jazeera

In a column in the Jerusalem Post today, Herb Keinon tried to explain the lop-sided deal to baffled non-Israelis like me:

No other country in the world would have made such a deal, critics of the exchange have said. And they are right. But no other country in the world bears the scars that Israel does, nor the almost absolute knowledge that there will be other wars to fight in this generation, other sacrifices to be made, and that people we all know will be called upon to make them.

And while I appreciate his flowery prose, he's effectively put a soft justification for bad geopolitical business.
This policy, and others like it, virtually ensures the prospect of a violent future for Israel.
He went on to say that no matter how inconceivable the deal was, Israel must adhere to the policy of leaving no one behind.
"This is what they tell their soldiers," he writes. "And it is essential for future confrontations that their soldiers believe them."
I believe what is essential for future confrontations is to do everything in your power to avoid them.
Hizbollah is stronger today than they were yesterday, and they have Ehud Olmert and his lost boys to thank.
David Ben-Gurion just rolled over in his grave.

What this means

--The price for kidnapped Israeli soldiers just spiked. Expect Hezbollah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and their ilk to respond in kind.

--If two dead soldiers are worth a cause celebre like Kuntar, four militant and 190 bodies, what might a living soldier fetch for Israel's enemies? More to the point, why even be greedy when a dead soldier is worth so much?

--Here's a guess: In 1985 the return of three living soldiers cost Israel 1,100 Lebanese and Palestinian prisoners.