[extropy-chat] RE: Near East: The mother of all crappy deals

[Anders Sandberg]

David Lubkin said:
> Israel has done
> lopsided deals for many years, but they've generally involved getting back
> live POWs and they have never been this one-sided. More typical might be 3
> POWs for 100 prisoners. And, in this case, the parents of one of the dead
> soldiers don't want Israel to do the deal.

Here is my guess: it is a necessary signal to the Israeli army that the
government is willing to do much to get kidnapped soldiers back, and that
it will leave no man behind. Given the increasing resistance within the
army to patrol the occupied areas, and the close ties between it and the
government (if you look at the background of Israeli prime ministers you
will find that most have ties to just a few military units; a certain
collegiality is quite plausible) it is likely that a gesture is needed. It
also looks good outwards internationally without really compromising any
of the key goals.

Just like the Israeli abassador's attack on the artwork here in Stockholm
two weeks ago, it only makes sense when viewed in a political context. A
rather *peculiar* context, I would say.

-- 
Anders Sandberg
http://www.nada.kth.se/~asa
http://www.aleph.se/andart/

The sum of human knowledge sounds nice. But I want more.