Germany caters to Islamic terrorists, deporting TWA flight 847 hijacker and murderer Mohammed Ali Hamadi back to the Lebanon gutter in exchange for the release of a German citizen. Now he has rejoined terror group Hezbollah and his despicable kin.

U.S. officials said they "can't rule out" the possibility that Germany deported Hamadi, after he had served 19 years of a life sentence, in exchange for the release of Susanne Osthoff, a German archeologist taken hostage in Iraq and freed four days after Hamadi's deportation. German authorities have denied any such deal was made…. 

On the second day of the [TWA flight 847] hijacking, Hamadi and his accomplices learned that U.S. Navy diver Robert Dean Stethem was on board. Hamadi and his co-conspirators beat Stethem unconscious, then shot him to death and dumped his body on the tarmac of the Beirut airport. The hijackers later escaped.

In 1987, Hamadi was arrested in Frankfurt, Germany, for carrying explosives in his bag at the airport. He was convicted both on that charge and of Stethem's murder and sentenced to life in prison. Late last year he was paroled by the German authorities and deported to Lebanon.

On Dec. 21, 2005, shortly after Hamadi's return to Lebanon, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters: "I think what I can assure anybody who's listening, including Mr. Hamadi, is that we will track him down, we will find him and we will bring him to justice in the United States for what he's done."… (Fox News)

Why "bring him to justice" when swapping terrorists for decent folk is common business practice throughout the Middle East and other parts of the world? Why enforce a universal sense of justice when Germany unofficially plays host to hostage swap meets? It seems like the U.S. is making a stand against cultural relativism and not respecting "cultural differences."

Ransoming or hostage swapping human beings has been practiced for millenia, but the apparent success of a "productive" swap meet validates the practice to continue, causing more misery and bodies to pile up over the "unproductive" swap meets.

Columbia turned into an absolute disaster when the government decided to appease rebels with land, creating a safe haven from which they do business in illegal drugs, and kidnappings, the number one growth industry in Columbia. Some countries, such as the U.S., take an official position of "we do not negotiate with terrorists" when, in secret fact, they recently negotiated with Gaza kidnappers.

Israel doesn't even bother with secrecy, they unashamedly empty out their prisons in exchange for a few Israeli service men held hostage.

The exchange was hailed by the Palestinian Authority and viewed as a national holiday in Lebanon. In Israel, however, the public was deeply divided over the wisdom of the deal. A Ma'ariv survey found 44 percent of Israeli respondents in favor of the German-brokered exchange while 43 percent opposed the deal.

In October 2003, when initial word of an exchange with Hizbollah came out, the prominent posek [halachic decisor] for the Masorti (Conservative) community in Israel, Professor Rabbi David Golinkin, ruled, along with numerous other prominent halachic authorities, that "Exchanging hundreds or thousands of terrorists for one Israeli encourages kidnapping of Israelis, and frees hundreds or thousands of terrorists who will pick up their weapons and attack Israel. In other words, it endangers the public and should not be done."… (Jewish Virtual Library)

Distilling that point further reveals that in practically no case is ransoming or hostage swapping justifiable for the betterment of society. The despicable person released or who money is paid to will inflict greater harm on others, which is more significant than the false relief over the immediate appeasement of terrorists or kidnappers. Admittedly, this is a hard case to press to a grieving wife or husband who would give anything to get their loved one back.

However, with no consequences to hostage taking and instead rewarding them for their bad behavior, there will be no end to what is still perceived as a horrible wrong.

Consequences should be immediate in the form of an escalating military response aimed at the perpetrators and especially the people and countries that support and harbor them. Prior to and after a military response should be a genuine effort to improve their lot in life largely through educative non-monetary assistance.  

To give away money is an easy matter and in any man's power.  But to decide to whom to give it, and how large, and when, and for what purpose and how, is neither in every man's power nor an easy matter. (Aristotle) 

Anticipate charity by preventing poverty; assist the reduced fellow man…by teaching him a trade or by putting him in the way of business so that he may earn an honest livelihood and not be forced to the dreadful alternative of holding out his hand for charity. This is the highest step and summit of charity's golden ladder. (Maimonides)