Hamas: The price for Gilad Shalit will rise the longer Israel waits

No Remorse and Merciless will never bring Shalit to his family. Let Palestinian prisoners return to their families for Shalit now! Enough is enough!

Obviously the language of force has failed everyone. Israel would surely question the language of peace should it come from Hamas, but it is likely that Israel would be warily receptive to peace-oriented rhetoric.

Nancy Pelosi proudly displays her Shalit dogtags. I am ordering a Shalit t shirt and hope my friends like it.

Then they should just go back behind the green line and stay out of West Bank, E. Jeruselam, Gaza, Golan Heights, Pal airspace, Pal territorial waters, and release the 10,000 occupation resistors they have locked up. The Pals have every right to resist an illegal occupation and an illegal blockade. In the 18th and maybe 19th century, a nation could conquer another territory, take over the land, and mistreat the indigenous population. But in modern times, this is against international law.

Nothing amazing abut this, the weak has no choice and has to give in to the strong. In this case, Hamas has the cards, and Israel has no choice but to give it up.

one day europe and the international community will regret it that they did everything in their capacity to demonize and undermine Israel.

were's all the video of the 11,000 palestinian prisoners israel is holding hostage..why is it just talk of 1 israeli..meshal is right in what he is saying ..israel always double talks..we as americans can no longer just look at what the palestinians are doing..but..what israel is doing to these people..i read day after day of israelis killing palestinians..from police to settlers to the military..and its always the palestinians fault even when thier shot in the back..americans are looking passed the headlines and begining to see israel as the real problem in the middle east.

You must negotiate from a position of power, not weakness. It's time to arrange a high-value swap, via a Mossad operation.

Turkey should be shunned by the international community until they throw Erdogan out of power. He is ruining Turkey. They have lost a substantial part of their tourist trade. Have you seen the prices there? Rock Bottom!!

Since Hamas wants the liberation of all Palestinian prisoners and views Gaza as a prison, Shalit's liberation would require the evacuation of all Palestinian Gaza residents. This is definitely a win-win solution.

Amazing. Just amazing. The world sits by while Hamas asks for a 1,000 to 1 trade.

The Jewish tradition (and law) is to pay a great deal for "redemption of captives", but not an unlimited amount. The case of Rabbi Meir of Ruthenburg (13th cent.) is well known; he forbade the payment of an exorbitant amount for his own release and died in captivity after seven years. Netanyahu agreed to the release of even murderous prisoners, but only if the 45 most dangerous (out of 450) will go into exile abroad or to Gaza, instead of being released to their homes in the West Bank. This strikes me as a fair position. The rest is up to Hamas. Note that pressuring Hamas about Shalit's release by imprisoning 1.5 million civilians in Gaza did not work, is immoral as a collective punishment, and according to some legal experts constitutes a crime against humanity. It is time for the Shalit family to turn to pressuring Hamas by trying to shame them in the Arab world as prolonging the imprisonment of their jailed colleagues. Let Noam Shalit give some interviews to this effect to the Arab press and al-Jazeera. This might even work.

If Israel does not know where Shalit is located, let it kidnap a very senior Hamas person, such as Khaled Meshal and exchange Shalit for him. Time to think about such an option, even if 4 years too late. Incidentally, two of the Western hostages in Lebanon in the 80's, Terry Anderson and Thomas Sutherland, waited in captivity some six and a half years to be released, in conditions not better than Gilad Shalit. So the Shalit family should not be so desperate, especially since they received a few communications from their son, including a video. I know they are afraid and heartbroken, but there is also the national interest involved.

Israel must negotiate for Shalit if they genuinely value his life. Give Hamas what they want and then deal with the fall out afterwards. This has gone on for too long.