"Israeli media is even more even-handed than the propaganda machine in the US." I wonder what would have happened if US was in place of Israel, they might have used their nukes 20 years ago on the whole arabs. What has to happen is for Arabs and Islamics to accept the existence of jewish folks in Israel and Israel as a nation. No body is stopping islamics from visiting the holy sites in Israel and performing their prayers. Arabs have spent up trillions of dollars on weapons to fight Israel and this fanaticism has to end also. Both sides should have approach which is more in concern with the human welfare and development, not war and destruction. Takes 10 years to build and 10 seconds to destroy, does not make sense.
These organizations do not do "even" prisoner swaps. This from the news about the soldier who was first captured in this whole mess: "Three Palestinian militant groups that captured the 19-year-old Shalit issued a statement Monday giving Israel less than 24 hours to start releasing 1,500 [!!!!!!!] Palestinian prisoners." Case in point: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3438697.stm DETAINEE DEAL DETAILS from early 2004 Hezbollah releases: Israeli businessman Elhanan Tannenbaum Remains of three Israeli soldiers Israel releases: 400 Palestinian prisoners 35 Arab fighters Remains of 60 militants So in early '04 Israel gives 495 for 4! So to address your point, no they could not have. It doesn't work that way. We don't expect the US to negotiate with Al Qaeda? You expect the US to kick their ass. Same thing. Terrorists. Additionally, outside of this issue, even if a nation is open to swap with the terrorist organization, it leaves an incentive for the organization to do it again. It teaches them that if they do this they will be rewarded. That is the premise behind the idea of not negotiating with terrorists. It begets more terrorism.
Fanaticism has to end on both sides, said this many times before. US should change its policies in order to not breed AQ to begin with. AQ is a direct result of US sanctions on Iraq that ended up killing 1.5 million people, there was no AQ until 1992 when US sanctions started to slowly commit the genocide on Iraqis. Arguments do not have an end but logic can help in the long run. Fanatic, Evil approach will backfire on both the sides.