Hamas official: Shalit swap could be sealed by Friday

Israel should offer Israeli citezenship to the terrorists who are holding Gilad Shalit captive, in order that they return him safely home.

I understand those who argue that Israel should have a policy of NEVER exchanging prisoners. But I also understand the anguish of Noam Shalit and the Jewish tradition of redeeming prisoners. Until Israel's politicians adopt a policy of NEVER negotiating for a prisoner's release then they must pretendl Israelis soldiers will be saved if they become a prisoner. So long as Israel's politicians want to maintain the belief that they will do anything they can to rescue Israeli prisoners, especially members of the IDF, then they must act in good faith and pay the price. The original price demanded for Gilad Shalit now seems laughably insignificant, the release of a few hundred women and children held by Israel. Olmert chose a rescue and punitive operation Summer Rains instead. Summer Rains was a failure, Cast Lead did not free or kill Shalit. And now the price which has been rising is extremely high. Israel needs to decide what it will have as a policy. Redemption or abandonment?

ML: "The ONLY thing any intelligent person may conclude from the many signals sent by the Netanyahu government over the last year is that Israel is going to war, no matter what Hamas or Hisbollah does, in Gaza and Lebanon so that it might pull the fangs of Iran before attacking it." Apparently, yes. The fact that previous attempts by the IDF have failed to "pull the fangs" of either Hezbollah or Hamas is something that seems to have escaped Netanyahu's notice. Because every time the IDF is let loose it inexorably turns its attention to attacking civilian infrastructure, and while that's certainly easier to do it's also rather an exercise in pointlessness. Maybe the Israeli politicians need to tell the IDF brass WHY they want the IDF to attack, because without that clear instruction the Generals are left with nothing else to do but to order the troops to drive around in circles. Doing so minimizes IDF casualties, you see....

for the Shalit release . But dhimmedias news about such issue undermine the German intermediary efforts .

Get this boy back as soon as possible. Give the PLO the 450 prisoners. Once he is safe, increase the Gilo housing one more for every day he was captive. Call the housing bayit Schalit. Show Hamas what they have achieved--something permanent.

Israel must deploy different tactic to release Shalit! meanwhile Hamas exploits situation. very sad for Israel and family. situation is beyond prayers. sorry!

Trust works BOTH ways my dear...

Considering the present geopolitical reality in the middle east, a better solution could be a three state solution.

How about "with sanity's help", or with "for the sake of peace help" or just plain old "we don't want to act crazy all the time help".

I think u should not forget.. there is 8500 palestinian prisoners..and they have a childrens..and the palestinian familes wait them..so dont equal between Gelad suffer and thousends suffer..i was in jail and i now exactly how is the suffering..

No operation like what Hamas & Co. pulled off with the capture of Gilad should be even remotely possible under a regular IDF watch, never mind one that was supposedly on a heightened state of alert. If this prisoner deal actually goes through this time, Hamas is already preparing for massive celebrations and their media outlets are being spun up to broadcast their undisputed "victory" over Israel ad nauseum. Many more abductions of Israeli soldiers were planned by Hamas during the IDF's Cast Lead incursions into Gaza but they all failed, much to its chagrin. Imagine what the prisoner exchange demands would be now if Hamas had succeeded in capturing even just a handful of Israeli soldiers then? Both Hamas & Hezbollah know all to well how high a price Israel is willing to pay to bring her sons home and they'll keep trying to shamefully exploit this innate concern because of the dividens it pays.

Sky News in the United Kingdom is quoting him as saying there has been real movement vis a vis Shalit

Hamza just told you he didn't hate you. He said he wanted peace between cousins. Why do you question it? What does he have to say more than that to convince you? I thank Hamza and all who think like him. Between us, one day we will have peace. Let's hope it will be soon.

The Palestinians have been promised their state, Suisse. The Arab world is not under obligation to absorb people who don't want to be absorbed. The Egyptians are not interesting in accepting responsibility for the Palestinians in Gaza. Israel conquered Gaza from Egypt in 1967 but Gaza was not part of the peace deal with Egypt. Gaza is Israel's responsibility until such time as it becomes part of the Palestinian state. Very neat, your reasoning. Shame it has nothing to do with reality.

Peres is doing the daily press briefings. He is managing this in between negotiations with Mubarak and involvment with the Shalit discussions. He is a really busy man. What are Israel,s official leaders doing. Must have figured out no one believes them not that too many believe Peres either and those numbers are dwindling fast. Especially after his "Little man" comment.

it will be possible only when we can FINALLY trust you, when you stop hating us. We want peace and we all want the freedom of Gilad Shalit.

Much of what you say is true also. However, if Israel wants Egypt's Gaza border closed it is clearly to keep weapons out, not to keep Gaza Arabs in. When thousands of Gaza Arabs breached Egypt's Gaza border during Cast Lead it was Egyptian troops who forced them back into Gaza. I would assume this was done so as not to let extremist Islamists into Egypt who may have further threatened Mubarak's government, already under such threat from within Egypt. There is clearly much in-fighting between many Islamic sects and factions. It should be remembered that no Islamic sect, moderate to extreme, can truly reconcile an independent Jewish entity in Israel. Unless there is a major change in Islamic doctrine, all of Islam will reman basically against Israel, although one faction may use "alliance" with Israel for expediency when combatting another faction. But Israel/Jews contradict the faiths and influence of billions; the cause of huge anti-Israel bias is thus clear and always has been.

so that his familly can be reunited with their son, and also happy to see the families of the thousands of prisoners reunited with their sons, husbands, fathers etc. This is very possible if only our leaders can stop all their stupidities and get to work for a final Peace agreement between cousins.

in the Shalit talks to deflect Israelis from other things that are happening. You know relations with Planet Earth in freefall, lack of a proper budget, IDF imploding, Goldstone, you name it. Then complains about the media to prevent them delving to deeply into government matters. Cannot be any accident that these leaks happen the same weekend the 5+1 meet and further sanctions against Iran don't materialise despite Netanyahu's prediction that they would. The brutal fact is Sha;lit is worth more to Netanyahu's government as a prisoner of Hamas in Gaza than at home with his family.

A lot of what you say is true. It is the Arab League that specifically prevented any Arab country from absorbing the Palestinian refugees. But it did not succeed in throwing the Jews into the sea. In fact it lost even more territory as we all know in 1967. Fine. But Egypt cannot open its border w/ Gaza, because Israel does not want it to. It allows things to go through the tunnels, INCLUDING arms, because it doesn't want the population to completely starve w/out any kind of supplies. Yes. It is insane. Especially now that the militants are reserving the right to retaliate or even initiate, having said a day earlier, that they would silence the rockets.

bloody liers.

It is Hamas, Egypt and the entire giant Arab world's fault. For not absorbing their Arab refugees just as Israel absorbed the Jewish refugees from the Arab world into the one tiny Jewish state. Egypt has a border with Gaza, making the lies of Israel's Gaza siege particularly perverse. Both Egypt and Hamas force Arabs to remain imprisoned in Gaza. This is insane. Islamists and far lefties will lie that if Egypt opens its Gaza border it will violate its peace treaty with Israel. What a sick joke. Meanwhile Egypt violates the peace treaty daily by letting weapons enter Gaza through smuggling tunnels from Egypt, which Egypt refuses to block. Peace treaty, ho ho. It is Egypt, Hamas and the Arab world who have a truly insane disregard for human life. But of course you are not supposed to think about these things.

It's the government. They communicate these rumours to keep us focused away from Goldstone and ever-pricklier relations with our erstwhile allies, to mention just two of the many things we're not supposed to think about.

I hope that this report is true. Hamas will have literally gotten away w/murder. It now holds the Strip. I know what it is to be abandoned and forgotten. So for a family to be able to welcome their son back after years of captivity is something very special. I hope this will go through. Even though the price is steep, even unpalatable.

It is not worth to free one terrorist for Shalit as this will make more hostages and this one terrorist may go on to murder countless innocent people. Free Shalit with no blood on anyone's hands.

so-stop reporting every little move and LET IT HAPPEN.the media causes more trouble than anything

It looks like there may be an exchange just in time for preparations to be completed for Cast Lead II. There are still buildings standing in Gaza. With Hamas swearing off rocket fire, what will the pretext be? A fake tunnel maybe?

The Netanyahu government is leaping towards a war in Gaza. It has spent the last month preparing the public for the 'necessity' of another attack against Gaza. At the same time it is preparing Israelis for the 'need' for another war with Lebanon. And all the time it is telling Israelis that the need for wars with Gaza and Lebanon are just the result of the need for a war with Iran. The ONLY thing any intelligent person may conclude from the many signals sent by the Netanyahu government over the last year is that Israel is going to war, no matter what Hamas or Hisbollah does, in Gaza and Lebanon so that it might pull the fangs of Iran before attacking it.