The big news out of Israel this week is the imminent release of Gilad Shalit, after five years of being kept in a dungeon in Gaza by Hamas, refused access to the International Red Cross or anything mandated by international standards or human decency.
If you have mixed feelings about whether the release of 1,000 criminals for one soldier is worth it, I’d recommend Austen Dutton’s post yesterday. He covers all of the angles and shows the difficulty of the decision that had to be made by Israel’s leaders.
One further point: when Israel’s true king rules, he will not have to negotiate with terrorists. He will not have to wait five years to regain the captives. He will simply speak a word and his enemies will be destroyed.
Zechariah 14:12 — This is the plague with which the Lord will strike all the nations that fought against Jerusalem: Their flesh will rot while they are still standing on their feet, their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongues will rot in their mouths.