Humans beings as commodities

When live terrorists are exchanged for dead soldiers then Hezbollah is clearly on the winning side, writes the daily Tagesanzeiger: "Under pressure from the soldiers' families, the public and the weight of its own failure, the Israeli government of Ehud Olmert agreed to the exchange. It will gain little for itself from the deal, however. For it is all too obvious that the other side, which is able to welcome even a common criminal as a hero, is the main beneficiary. ...The Olmert government ... will not be able to score any political mileage beyond today. Indeed, it must ask itself why it does not agree to the same kind of deal with Hamas prisoners in order to obtain the release of the [Israeli soldier] Gilad Shalit. Hamas may even be tempted to exact an higher price, because both sides are operating in a market where prisoners are not the subject of legal proceedings but simply commodities to be exchanged."

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