More than 1,000 Palestinian terrorists -- 280 of them serving life sentences for some of the most heinous terror attacks in Israel's history -- were set free this week in exchange for abducted IDF soldier Gilad Shalit, who was in Hamas captivity in the Gaza Strip for more than five years.
Alan Bauer, an American citizen who has been in Israel since 1992, was one of those who opposed the exchange.
Bauer, a son of Holocaust survivors, and his son Jonathan were injured in a suicide bombing in Jerusalem in March 2002. Two Palestinian women serving life sentences for their part in that attack were set free this week as part of a controversial prisoner swap. (One of them was released in Jerusalem where Bauer could conceivably run into her on the street.)
At a press conference this week, Bauer said he was happy for the Shalit family but concerned about the price paid for his release.
He described how he and his family suffered and how the American government -- which, he says, is obligated by law to go after the perpetrators of terror attacks against Americans abroad -- turned a deaf ear to helping keep these terrorists behind bars.