Dead Bodies and Murderers

Unlike my dad, I'm pretty much for any kind of conciliatory gesture from anyone in the Middle East: anything that gets people talking, negotiating, working together. But we completely agree that releasing Samir Kuntar in exchange for the bodies of two Israeli soldiers is nuts. I realize that the politics of this have nothing to do with peace, and everything to do with militarism (we bring our boys home, no matter what). And maybe I just don't have the right militaristic and/or spiritual viewpoint. I mean, clearly I don't. The fetishization of the corpse does nothing for me, spiritually or militarily, and I'm sure I'm not alone in thinking that murderers, especially unrepentant ones, belong in jail. Really, this just boggles the mind. And bodes ill in so many directions. Not that anything in the Middle East bodes well.