The high price of freeing murderers - Justice devalued, lives demeaned, principles cheapened

...But speaking as victims of Palestinian Arab terrorists ourselves, we see it this way: justice was trampled, lives and sacrifices were demeaned, public opposition was ignored. In turning a deaf ear to the protests of the victims, our politicians threw down onto the negotiating table the cheapest, most disposable, of the cards in its hand. Not for the first time, we find ourselves saying that decisions like this one will be the cause of much long-term regret.

Frimet/Arnold Roth..
This Ongoing War..
27 August '13..

People who have experienced the death of a child by violence or murder - there are thousands of us in this country - are often astonished at how public figures, particularly politicians, can tally up the options facing them, coolly do some sort of calculation of risk to reward, and make a decision that affects people's lives, futures, well-being, rights and so on. Happens all the time. But how they manage to do it leaves at least some of us astounded.

People argue that running a government calls for a certain number of people with these skills. Whether or not that's true, it's hard to say that it's always done wisely, effectively or even morally. (Especially not morally.) That's perhaps why we we feel distant from the politicians who do what they have to do: a necessary task. But we simply ask that they stay far away from us. And that they don't expect us - the people impacted by their decision-making and return-on-investment calculations - to get warm and close to them.

Evelyn Gordon, writing another of her very sharp and perceptive columns in Commentary Magazine today, says better than we can what's wrong with the latest round of decisions of this sort taken by Israel's leadership. Here's a brief extract. It's called "Why the World Thinks Jewish Blood Is Cheap"

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