Conservative commentator Pat Buchanan, often a critic of Israel, expressed concern on Sunday that the prisoner exchange that freed Gilad Shalit could lead to the death of more Israelis.
"It's commendable that Israel goes all the way to retrieve their wounded and to get their soldiers, I think it's ideal," said Buchanan during his weekly appearance on The McLaughlin Show on CBS. But Buchanan agreed with other panelists that the release of imprisoned terrorists was dangerous to Israeli civilians. "Some of these guys are mass murderers. Letting them go is going to result in many more dead Israelis." The program moderator, John McLaughlin, produced a 2001 excerpt from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu opposing such exchanges.
Buchanan, a 1996 candidate for president, has been taken to task by fellow commentators and the Anti-Defamation League for his attacks on Israel — he once called Capitol Hill "Israeli occupied territory" — and for comments about the Holocaust.
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