Shalit deal a boon for Hamas in upcoming Palestinian elections

US considers prosecuting Shalit deal terrorists

“The US Department of Justice is continuing to ‘examine the potential’ for prosecuting terrorists who harmed Americans and were freed in exchange for kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Schalit, The Jerusalem Post learned on Sunday.”

Omri Casspi and Gilad Shalit

Gilad Shalit is out in public! He is at the Maccabi Tel Aviv-FC Barcelona basketball game.

Yalla Yalla Maccabi! (The one time you will hear me say this. Ever.)

girlactionfigure:

Gilad Shalit Thanks France, Germany for Assistance in Release

Israel - Gilad Shalit on Wednesday handed thank you letters to the envoys of France and Germany for President Nicolas Sarkozy and Chancellor Angela Merkel, for their efforts to secure his release from his Palestinian captors three months ago.

“I want to thank you with all my heart for the unlimited support you have given me and your efforts to bring about my release,” Shalit wrote in a letter addressed to Sarkozy and the French people, Israeli media reported.

Shalit and his father, Noam Shalit, met with French ambassador Christophe Bigot and German ambassador Andreas Michaelis in Tel Aviv.

Gerhard Conrad of Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service is believed to have mediated the negotiations that led to Shalit’s release.

Shalit, who is a dual French-Israeli citizen, spent more than five years in captivity after he was snatched in a 2006 cross-border raid by Palestinian militants. He was released in October in a prisoner swap deal between Israel and the enclave’s Islamist Hamas rulers.

On Monday, Shalit’s father Noam announced that he intends to run for a place on the Israel Labor Party list for the next Knesset.

Noam Shalit, who has been a member of the Israel Labor Party since 1996, informed Israel Labor Party chairperson, Shelly Yachimovich, of the decision on Monday.

Gilad Shalit's father to run as a Labor MK

“The father of former kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Shalit announced Monday that he intends to run as a candidate for the Knesset in the next election, and informed Labor Party chairwoman Shelly Yechimovich that he intends to run for a place on the party’s list.”

Gilad Shalit thanks everyone who prayed, hoped, and supported him while in captivity.

Despite Shalit deal, PA still maintains more support than Hamas

“A new poll carried out by the Palestinian Jerusalem Media and Communications Center (JMCC) reveals that support for Fatah among residents of the Palestinian Authority has not been hurt by the Shalit deal, which was completed between Hamas and Israel last month. And yet, the Hamas-led Shalit deal still receives wall to wall support – 86% of those questioned expressed their satisfaction with the results of the deal – the satisfaction rate is close to that of the Israeli satisfaction rate with the deal.”

eretzyisrael:

Pro-Palestinians see that Gilad was traded for 1,027 prisoners and they think, “Israel values one Israeli more than 1,027 Palestinians.” They’re the ones making it about race and ethnicity.

Zionists see what it really means: that one of Israel’s soldiers’ lives is worth whatever it takes. Let 1,027 terrorists go free, just get our man back. This has a Talmudic basis: “Whosoever takes one life, it is regarded as though he has slaughtered an entire world. Likewise he whos saves on life is regarded as though he had saved an entire world.” Life is paramount in Judaism.

Leave it those people to twist something beautiful into a strike against Israel…

This - Life is paramount in Judaism

(via movedtoanewplace)

Abu Mazen to build homes for freed terrorists from Shalit deal

“According to Saturday’s announcement, the construction of the homes will be financed by the Palestine Investment Fund.”

eretzyisrael:

Mahmoud Abbas: I Will Never Recognize a Jewish State; Capturing Gilad Shalit Was a Good Thing

(via )

Hamas: Israeli disengagement made Shalit kidnapping easy

“Hamas interior minister Fathi Hamad said Israel’s 2005 ‘Disengagement’ from Gaza, ‘helped us conceal Gilad Shalit for five years.’”

Saudi prince ups reward for kidnapping Israeli soldier to $1 million

newsfromjerusalem:

Either way, this means that Saudi Arabia is officially supporting the violation of the Geneva Conventions against taking hostages

Shouldn’t someone be asking Saudi officials about this?

This article was written by Hesham Hassaballah from Chicago, Illinois on Altmuslim, an online Muslim culture community.

WHAT WE [MUSLIMS] CAN LEARN FROM GILAD SHALIT

“As Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier captured by Hamas more than five years ago, was finally released in a vast prisoner exchange, it made me think about the relentless pursuit of his release by Israel. Such a pursuit by one’s family is both natural and understandable. Yet, not only was his family behind him, but the entire nation of Israel was behind him. So many times, Israelis - from government on down - mentioned that they will never abandon one of their own. No matter how one feels about the Arab-Israeli conflict, it must be said that the tenacity of the Israeli people over Gilad Shalit is truly admirable. I even saw someone wearing a shirt saying “Free Gilad Shalit” during the 2011 Chicago Marathon this year. And it begs a very important question: do we as Muslims have this same tenacity over “our people”?

 Sadly, the answer is ‘no.’ In so many places around the world, Muslims are being slaughtered like animals, and the Muslim world hardly lifts a finger for their aid. Ideally, NATO warplanes should not have had to intervene in the Libyan civil war, because it should have been Muslims on the ground and in their air helping their own brothers and sisters defeat a maniacal and murderous madman. Rather than help the people of Bahrain gain more freedom for themselves, the Saudi government sent in its own troops to make sure the people’s voices were not heard at all. Yes, Muslims all over the world rightly decry the injustice being committed against the Palestinian people. Yet, when some Muslims commit the very same injustices against their own people, the cries of condemnation by other Muslims are sometimes not as fierce or loud. 

When Muslims were being massacred by fellow Muslims in Darfur - the silence of the worldwide Muslim community was deafening. And now as the Arab Spring turns into the Arab Autumn and Winter, there does not seem to be a credible response of the Muslim world to the daily murder of people in Syria and other places. Gilad Shalit knew that, no matter what, the entire Israeli nation had his back. Does the Muslim world have the back of its own, as its Lord had commanded it to do? Sadly, the answer is ‘no.’ 

And what’s worse, the response of some Muslims to the slaughter of their fellow Muslims around the world is - in and of itself - horrific and barbaric. A newspaper publishes provocative cartoons about the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), seeking to intentionally provoke Muslims, and some Muslims respond with violence and property damage: the very thing the publishers of the cartoons wanted to show the world. Elsewhere, pitiful bands of misguided ‘holy warriors’ claim to be defending Muslims by committing mass murder and mayhem, causing much more damage and strife to the entire world Muslim community. With ‘friends’ like these, as they say, who needs enemies? Again I ask the question: does the Muslim world have the back of its own, as its Lord commanded it to do? Sadly, the answer is ‘no.’ 

The Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) was reported to have said, ‘Wisdom is the lost property of the believer, so wherever he finds it, he has more of a right to it.’ There is nothing wrong with learning from the good qualities of another people and seeking to make them our own. 

Michael Oren, Israel’s Ambassador to the United States, told NPR: ‘Israel is a democracy that has a citizens army. And when we send our sons and our daughters off to defend our country, they have to know that if they fall captive or, God forbid, anything worse happens to them, that the state will do everything in their power to get them back. And that is the source of our strength.’ We would be all the stronger if we had that same sort of commitment to our own people as Israel had to Gilad Shalit.”

Chabad Rebbe's "Miracle Dollar"

“The late Lubavitch Rebbe wrote Tishrei 20 on a dollar that ended up in the hands of the Shalit family. Gilad was freed on the same date – 21 years after the Rebbe wrote the date on the bill.”