We've received many emails asking for our thoughts about the Shalit deal, according to which Israel has agreed to exchange 1,027 Palestinian "prisoners" (and we use the term "prisoners" loosely here, in much the same way the media uses "militants" to refer to terrorists and other assorted killers) in return for one Israeli soldier, who's been held hostage by Hamas for over 5 years.

Gilad Shalit is scheduled to be released tomorrow, after which we will be delighted to comment. In the meantime, however, below is a piece which reflects our general sentiment about making one's enemies think twice before doing anything. We call it the being-too-dangerous-to-mess-with principle, and highly recommend that moving forward, Israel and America base their national security and foreign policies on it.