Israel Will Exchange All 450 Hamas Prisoners For Gilad Shalit: Haaretz

Haaretz:

Israel has agreed to free all 450 of the prisoners demanded by Hamas in exchange for kidnapped Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit, and the dispute now revolves around Israel's demand that some of these prisoners be deported rather than returned home, Palestinian sources in Cairo said Thursday.

Read the whole story: Haaretz

Comments

[skialethia]

Palestinians' lives mean nothing to these people. Actually Israelis treat them like cattle (no, I bet their cattle get food and clean water), herd them into their prisons like cattle (including children) and slaughterthem like cattle (including children).

Hamas needs to grab hold of this opportunity, as there are demonstrations demanding the Israeli gov't negotiate the release of Shalit. They should demand the release of the 450 plus political prisoners, and they open borders completely to humanitarian aid and reconstruction materials.

[nochaos]

You wouldn't be happy unless Israel left the area in exchange for Shalit,would you???

[skialethia]

Hey, I could have added: that Isreal dismantle all the settlements, tear down the wall AND share Jerusalem?

[lennyp]

The big difference here is that Israel is willing to return 450 live Hamas prisoners in exchange for 1 live Israeli prisoner. Hamas, on the other hand, is willing to kill 450 Palestinians in exchange for killing 1 Israeli.

As to the massacre of Palestinians by Israelis, I would suggest checking out the Amnesty International website. If you think Israel is bad, look at what the Palestinians are doing to Palestinians and what their Arab "friends" are doing to them.

Too bad nobody gives an allah damned about the Palestinian people.

[nochaos]

The other Arabs care LESS about them than the Israelis!! Look how many Arab nations have already kicked out the so-called "Palestini­ans"...Syr­ia...Jorda­n, Kuwait...j­ust for starters!!! And Egypt wants no part of them...tha­t's why they closed their border to Hamas!!

[mapleaforever]

This is not a very big picture view they're taking.

[haval2]

Bring Gilad home. Israel values life and doesn't use human shields like the Palestinians. Fair swap.

[msfsi]

right you are:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2003/jan/02/israel1

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3650791.stm

http://www.btselem.org/english/Human_Shields/20060720_Human_Shields_in_Beit_Hanun.asp

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israeli-use-of-human-shields-is-judged-illegal-509907.html

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1065594.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4333982.stm

[Islandtime]

The U.S. support of this circus is embarrassing. Hope the Flat Earth Society is pleased.

[SwingingFromCenter]

I'm against Isra.el in this whole thing, but at least they value life enough to give up a disproportionate amount of people to save one of their own.

[special muppet]

I think you mean they value some people's lives enough... not life. Recent events show that. Any tally of the bodycount will show clearly that Israelis value an Arab's life as several hundred times less than their own.

[nochaos]

Yes....the­y value people's lives who support them MORE than they value the lives of people who wish to exterminate them! Uh..we value our first responders lives MORE than we value the lives of Bin Laden ans Mullah Omar!! Get it yet,Sparky???

[xriv]

How innocent your are!.... You never heard of the massacre of tens thousands of the Palestinians. right?

and "I'm against Isra.el in this whole thing" is a desperate attempt to "balance" your opinion.

[Chazak]

Talk about disproportionate !!!

[HatingTheGame]

Hmmm that makes sense. That's usually the kill ratio isn't it? One Israeli soldier for 500 Palestinian civilians? The exchange rate in the people market.

Another bit of linguistic sleight of hand I like is when they capture Palestinians (whether they are innocent or not), they are taken "prisoner". When an Israeli soldier, that's a soldier -- ie, man of war, is captured its called a kidnapping.

When all weapons of mass destruction and distraction (media) is in the hands of the powerful who act as victims, you can't get a break for even playing their game of war well.

Poor schmucks.

[zukervati]

Thank you for covering the points I was about it, and having done such a good job at it.

[Babysnake]

Yeah, right.
They will just imprison or worse again, as soon as they get their guy back.

[GeorgeP922]

Well I guess this proves that Israel accepts Hamas as a legitmate party representing a state.

There's no WAY Israel just negotiated with Terrorists?

If not, than man am I glad I live in America.

The UN should insist that all those landmines discovered yesterday be removed in accordance with the landmine treaties.

[arvay]

Once again, mighty Prussia-on­-the-Jorda­n displays its weakness. After killing over a thousand Gazans, strengthening support for Hamas and pushing the Palestinian Authority toward an embarrassing unity government with Hamas, they're willing to exchange this large group of fearsome "terrorists" for one guy.

This is better than us just opening Guantanamo and giving out free plane tickets. Throw in the violent ward at the federal prison of your choice.

Basically, this is politics. Israelis live in a fictional universe where they are a powerful force, designated by God as the "Light unto the Nations." It's desperately important for them to belive in their superiority.

In actuality, they are a declining state, totally dependent on American weapons and dollars, hoping that no one pays attention to the "man behind the curtain." The mighty IDF is very apt when it comes to attacking virtually defenseless civilians. When they came up against Hizbollah in Lebanon, however, they got singed.

Like the Lebanese Shiites, the Gazans will learn and improve, aided by the superiority complex of their adversaries.

[nochaos]

Clean the bongwater and get on stronger meds!!

[arvay]

s usual, defenders of israel expose the non-existence of any valid arguments to support their position with name-calling and attempted insults (to be effective, the target has to respect the insulter, so figure it out why I'm smiling) You are helping make my point.

[Horst]

It doesn't sound like you've ever been to the region. You can drive for hours in the West Bank along the border with Jordan and never see a soldier (unlike the US/Mexico border). The Egypt/Israel and Jordan/Israel are basically demilitarized. In Lebanon 400,000 Palestinians are kept in camps....t­he Lebanese have bad memories about the PLO...as do the Jordanians and Egyptians. The Kuwaitis and Saudis kicked out hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. The fatal error that the Palestians made is opting for terrorism - in Eurpe, Afgrica nd of course the Middle East. Many forget it was a Palestinian who killed Robert Kennedy.

[msfsi]

Your post has very little to do with what arvay posted.

[arvay]

This has absolutely nothing to do with my posting, just a repetition of a lot of tired old knocks on the Palestinians. RE: Kuwaitis and Saudis expelling Palestinians. South Africans recently attacked a large group of refugees from Zimbabwe. I guess in your mind this tells us something about these refugees?

Plus some things that we all know, such as the "demilitarized" borders between Israel and Jordan and Egypt. They are not, however, open borders, as any Palestinian who tries to cross them knows. Again, this has nothing to do with what I posted, and doesn't require a visit to the area to verify.

The final line would be funny if it wasn't about an assassination. It's desperate. It's what's known as a non-sequitur. That means "doesn't follow."

Let me explain...

It would be like mentioning at a Hiroshima memorial day that many of the key inventors of the A-bomb were Jewish. One of them, Edward Teller, once suggested the US drop a hydrogen bomb on the moon!

See how this works? The religion of the scientists has nothing to do with the atom bomb.

Hope this helps.

[american-dolt]

Close to the Killing of Palestinian People Ratio 450:1

[MajorKong]

I'm rather surprised they did that.

[chaos4700]

I'd be careful, actually. As the line in my favorite movie goes, "Beware of Romulans bearing gifts."
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3645135,00.html

[baffy]

Olmert has no choice and very little time so Hamas should make opening the border a condition. As usual, Israel wants control over the Palestinian prisoners even after they are released. Perhaps hamas should demand that Shalit has to live in Nahariya.

[nochaos]

Where should the Arab prisoners live??? In Paris with Arafat's widow,Suha?? Or in Damascus with the Hamas leadership??

[bigbluenat4]

How about they receive a fair trial?

[baffy]

How about Palestine, their homeland? The Israelis could move to NY and New Jersey.

[doriath22]

Gilead Shalit is not a "kidnapping" victim. He is a prisoner of war.

[chaos4700]

Too right. As opposed to the Palestinian parliamentarians held in Israeli jails, who actually /are/ kidnapping victims.

[xriv]

Either you are not American or You don't live in America.

[Horst]

I guess you think Sirhan Sirhan is a kidnapping victim as well.

[Spencaa]

So when Hamas captures someone it's POW, but when Israel does it it's kidnapping. How freaking re tarded.

[easarsfield]

Well if he is in fact a prisoner of war, Hamas has not treated him as such. The Red Cross has been denied access to him (violation #1 of international law) and Hamas has been attempting to use him as a bargaining chip and has threatened to kill him if their demands are not met (violation #2).

Now before you start railing on me about how the Israelis treat their Palestinian prisoners (I am fully aware), they are allowed to be visited by the red cross and often times, their families.

There is no tangible proof that this young man is even still alive. Hamas might be returning him to Israel in a box. Some trade off! oh wait, this wouldn't be the first time this has happened!