An act of staggering stupidity and jaw-dropping moral vapidity is the only way to describe Israel’s release of 20 Palestinian prisoners — 14 of whom are guilty of attempted murder — in exchange for a proof-of-life video of captive Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

Any child would recognize the perversity of freeing 14 would-be murderers in return for a videotape. And yet Israeli leaders have taken pride in this supposedly humane decision. What utter nonsense. Exchanging terrorists for a videotape is not kindness — it is cruelty. Not only because it provides perfect incentive for future kidnappings, but also because released terrorists so often return to terrorize and kill again.

You will pardon me if this sounds personal. It is. On September 8, 2003, I sat in Cafe Hillel in Jerusalem for several hours with friends. Twenty-four hours later, a suicide bomber walked in and blew himself up, killing seven civilians. I was down the street when the roar of the bomb shook the ground beneath me. I will never forget that moment. The bomber, Ramez Sali Abu Salim, had been released by Israel just seven months earlier. One of the key planners of the attack, Louei Raad Barghouti, had been freed in August 2003.

Literally hundreds of Israelis have been murdered and maimed by Palestinian terrorists released in “goodwill gestures.” Consider the case of Matsab Hashalmon, who was released in a prisoner exchange in 2004. He promptly recruited two terrorists to blow up a bus in Beersheva, killing 16 people. Or the case of Iyad Sawalha, who was freed in 1998 and went on the mastermind two attacks that killed 31 people and wounded hundreds. In a six-year period during the Oslo “peace” process, 6,912 Palestinian prisoners were freed, and 854 of them returned to terrorism and were re-imprisoned. In a 2004 exchange, 405 Palestinian prisoners were freed in return for one live Israeli and three dead soldiers. Those 405 ex-prisoners went on to murder 35 additional people — so far.

So let us dispense once and for all with the nonsense that releasing terrorists to kill again is somehow compassionate. Many more Gilad Shalits are created with every such exchange.

I do not for a second buy the argument that giving up terrorists is the only way to instill in Israelis the confidence needed to serve their country and know that everything will be done to secure their release if they are captured. As a former Israeli soldier, I would say that precisely the opposite is true. Why would any soldier fight if he knew that appeasement of killers and more terrorism would be the result? I did not guard checkpoints in the West Bank and search suspicious cars for bombs at 3am in order to give in to terrorist demands.

There is nothing praiseworthy or humane about exchanging would-be killers for a videotape. It is a disgraceful sham — the result of fatigue, cowardice, and moral idiocy. The obvious consequences will be more kidnappings and death. The only thing that should be exchanged for a videotape is another videotape. Nothing excuses the release of five Lebanese terrorists (including the unrepentant murderer Samir Kuntar) in exchange for the bodies of two dead Israeli soldiers, as occurred three years ago. Nor does anything excuse the swap of 4,700 prisoners for six soldiers in 1983, or the release of 1,100 terrorists in return for three Israeli soldiers in 1985.

After the Taliban took a large group of South Korean civilians hostage in 2006, Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi vowed to continue abducting foreigners. Why? “Because we found this way to be successful,” he explained plainly. The head of the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah similarly admitted that “the only way to bring about the release of prisoners and detainees” is to kidnap Israelis. Hamas has said the same.

The pain of the Shalit family is unimaginable, but that is no excuse for freeing more than a dozen attempted murderers. It is a statistical fact that more families will lose their sons and daughters because of this decision.

A strong nation would not appease the demands of tin-pot theocratic terrorists. It most certainly would not provide incentives for future kidnappings of its soldiers. Rather, it would fight relentlessly to vanquish this monstrosity. It would stop at nothing until Hamas ceased terrorizing the region.

– David Keyes served in the Strategic Division of the Israeli army and is coordinator for democracy programs at the Adelson Institute for Strategic Studies.