1000 reasons to kidnap Israeli soldiers

That was my first thought when I read this:

The Palestinian Hamas movement and Israel have reached an agreement with Egyptian mediation to free captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in exchange for hundreds of prisoners in Israeli jails, Hamas officials said. [snip]

The deal was previously reported by Al Arabiya, which said Israel had agreed to free 1,000 prisoners in exchange for Shalit. Musa Abu Marzouk, a senior Hamas official, said reports that an agreement had been struck were true, without giving further details.

Normally this would be one of those small-picture-big-picture things. The small picture is the pain and suffering of soldier Shalit, his loved ones and his friends. I will not pretend I can imagine how awful his captivity has been or how much pain he and his have been through. But the big picture is simply this: By releasing 1000 Hamas thugs from jail, Israel puts dangerous people back into circulation and hugely increases the incentive to capture (or kidnap) Israeli soldiers.

… or do they? On further reflection, does anyone think Hamas thugs need MORE encouragement to capture Israeli soldiers, if they can? Does anyone disagree that, regardless of whether Gilad Shalit is traded, Hamas goons would love to and try hard to capture Israeli soldiers?

So maybe Shalit (finally) being freed would be something we could celebrate. What do you think?