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Hamas leaders are telling Arabic media that Israel agreed to release terrorists in exchange for Gilad Shalit without a commitment from the terrorist group to stop kidnapping soldiers. Israel tried to get a commitment, but agreed to go ahead without one, according to sources quoted by the pan-Arabic paper Al-Hayat. Hamas also claimed that they managed to extract a promise from Israel not to harm the more than 1,000 terrorists to be released in exchange for Shalit in any way. The report contradicts what Shin Bet head Yoram Cohen said about the planned prisoner release. Cohen told journalists that the...

In a fatal decision made by the Israeli government, unless opponents get the Highest court in Israel to overturn the leadership move, 1,027 terrorists will be freed... It doesn't matter where those terrorists are going to live, but the fact of the matter is that they will continue doing, planning evil, and will not stop until they get the price for their liberty paid in Jewish blood. No matter how many times one has read that the Netanyahu government has reached an agreement under the auspices of Egypt and that they will swap IDF soldier Gilad Shalit for 1,027, reading...

Gilad Shalit, the Israel soldier held captive for five years by Hamas, has been freed today in Gaza in return for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.

On the eve of the terrorist prisoner exchange that will bring home kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Shalit, Arab terrorists are gaining confidence and becoming inspired to increase attacks on the road and in Israeli cities. In at least two locations on Highway 60 in Judea, Palestinian Authority Arabs terrorists attacked Israeli travelers. At about 8:30 p.m. terrorists hurled a firebomb at an Israeli bus as it passed the village of El Aroub south of Bethlehem, just five minutes down the road from Gush Etzion. No one was injured, but the bus was damaged. IDF soldiers launched a search for the...

I posted this breaking video with my unique and controversial comments at Palestinians Now Demand ‘Israel Must Return Every Prisoner’

Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier who's just been released after five years in a Palestinian jail, is relieved to be free. No wonder. To look at him now, compared with earlier photographs, he appears to have lost a good deal of weight. In the press conference this morning he seemed dozy, and his complexion is blanched. He looks as I imagine someone to look who's just emerged from lengthy seclusion in a darkened room. He appears undernourished.

No Equality in Gilad Shalit’s Exchange By Norma Zager “We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly.” Aristotle So many, including Ari, are incensed about Israel’s deal to retrieve Gilad Shalit. Somehow I am not, for I do not see any equality between human life and that of a sub-human species. Perhaps the problem actually lies in believing terrorists are human. I would have to differ with this appraisal. I do not believe they can be classified as even equal to an animal. Animals are way above...

As I watch the unfolding of the Shalit exchange across multiple television news channels, including Israeli, France, CNN, BBC and UK I find the most of the reporting disconcerting. Why? The reporters are either ill informed, intentional in distorting the truth or truly ignorant. There is no other possibility. Let me clarify a point repeatedly, across almost all of these news stations regarding Shalit’s abduction. He was taken on 25 June 2006 by Hamas terrorist from Gaza in a cross-border raid. A Hamas terrorist group attacked a Merkava Tank Mark 3, which was guarding the security fence and an army...

Israel PM Binyamin Netanyahu at Gilad Shalit's homecoming Gilad Shalit, 25, landed at home in northern Israel Tuesday evening, Oct. 18, from five years, four months in Hamas captivity, after hours packed with an emotional welcome by his family and government leaders at Tel Nof air base. Before he set out on the last lap of his journey home by helicopter, a medical team carried out tests to be sure the exhausted soldier was fit to travel. Israel agreed to release 1,070 Palestinian terrorists for his freedom. The first batch was transferred to Egypt and the West Bank as the...

In an apparent about-face, US officials criticized Tuesday evening the deal brokered for the freedom of Gilad Shalit, which set hundreds of terrorists, including those who had murdered Americans, free. The criticism came after it became clear that the released terrorists included those who had murdered Jews with United States citizenship. Earlier on Tuesday, US President Barak Obama had said he was pleased with the deal that set Shalit free despite his own nation’s strict policy of not negotiating with terrorists for the release of its citizens. Obama also expressed the hope Israel and officials in Ramallah would take the...

Amnesty International issued a press release today. Israel-Hamas prisoner swap casts harsh light on detention practices of all sidesGilad Shalit was held captive for five years by Palestinian armed groups The prisoner exchange involving Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit and 477 Palestinian prisoners highlights the need for the humane treatment of all detainees in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), Amnesty International said today. Obviously it wants to show equivalence. God forbid it should criticize only Hamas. It was not a "prisoner exchange". It was an outrageous ransom paid for a hostage. It only mentions the 477 terrorists that were...

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli officials harshly criticized an Egyptian television interview with soldier Gilad Schalit minutes after Hamas militants freed him in a prisoner swap Tuesday, saying the questioning was inappropriate and insensitive. In the interview aired on Egyptian state television, a gaunt, sallow and uncomfortable looking Schalit appeared to struggle to speak at times, and his breathing was noticeably labored as he awkwardly answered questions. The footage, along with earlier Egyptian TV video showing Schalit being transferred to Egypt, were the first images seen of the soldier after more than five years in Hamas captivity. Armed Hamas militants were...

No one denies the long suffering of the Schalit family. Noam and Aviva Schalit and their relatives have endured five years and four months of uninterrupted anguish since their son St.-Sgt. Gilad Schalit was abducted from his army post by Palestinian terrorists and spirited to Gaza in June 2006. Since then, aside from one letter and one videotaped message, they have received no signs of life from their soldier son. There is not a Jewish household in Israel that doesn’t empathize with their suffering. It isn’t simply that most Israelis serve in the IDF and expect their children to serve...

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) -- Hamas has sent a sharp warning to Israel in the form of an animated film about an Israeli soldier it has held in Gaza for nearly four years. The short film appeared Sunday on the website of Hamas' armed wing. .

In 2006 taking advantage of an earlier cease-fire, infiltrated into Israel, killed two soldiers, and captured Cpl. Gilad Shalit.After three long years we finally received evidence that Gilad Schalit is alive. But he is not yet home by a long-shot. Most civilized nations allow the International Red Cross visit prisoners, but Hamas is neither civilized or a nation so it took this long period for Shalit's parents to find out if he survived the attack that killed his two buddies. In a brokered trade, Israel released 19 terrorists for video that he is alive. Below is the video and an...

On Sunday Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will bring the matter of IDF reserve soldiers Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser before his cabinet. The two reservists, who are presumed dead, have not been heard from since they were kidnapped to Lebanon by Hizbullah on July 12, 2006. Olmert will instruct his ministers to vote on whether Israel should release Samir Kuntar and three Hizbullah terrorists from its prisons to secure the return of their bodies. On April 21, 1979, Kuntar and four other terrorists infiltrated Israel from Lebanon. Kuntar entered the Nahariya apartment belonging to Danny and Smadar Haran and their...