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Captured IDF soldier Gilad Shalit won't be going home any time soon!!
This is brilliant negotiations on the part of HAMAS I must say. Imagine Israel’s moronic position of not allowing the Palestinian prisoners to go home after they are released. What’s the point of being released if you can’t go home. Screw Israel, I’m happy HAMAS won’t cave in to this outrageous demand. After all, I’m sure Shalit will get to go home, why not the Palestinian prisoners, otherwise it’s not a real release as they will have no freedom.
The best bit is this is causing some major problems for Israel as the young people now are not wanting to join up to the IDF for fear of them being captured and the Israeli government not getting them back. I made a post about this here if interested. Where the Israeli teenagers said this:
A group of Israeli teenagers have sent Prime Minister Ehud Olmert a letter warning that his government's failure to secure the release of abducted Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit has made enlisting for military service more difficult for them.
"We find our enlisting in the IDF much more difficult knowing that Gilad Shalit has been forsaken in captivity and not returned to his parents,"
"When he was abducted, he was a kid, like us," they added. "Most of us are high school students, and we look forward to joining the army and serving our country. As future soldiers, we would like to be certain that if one of us is taken captive, the government will do whatever it takes to bring him back."
And now today's news, the deal fails and notice the last paragraph From the Telegraph today:
Israel-Hamas prisoner swap deal collapses
A prisoner swap deal between Israel and Hamas appears to have collapsed, dashing hopes among both Israelis and Palestinians.
The goal of the negotiations, moderated by Egypt, were to clinch an agreement for the release of Cpl Gilad Shalit - an Israeli soldier captured by Palestinian militants and smuggled into Gaza almost three years ago - in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.
The talks, stepped up in recent weeks, were seen as a last-ditch effort by the outgoing Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert to secure a deal while he was still in power.
Cpl Shalit's family, which recently moved into a protest tent next to the prime minister's official residence to step up pressure for a deal, fears the incoming government of the hardline prime minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu will be less amenable to agreeing to the terms of a prisoner exchange.
Both sides blamed each other for deadlock in the talks.
Mr Olmert's office said that Hamas had made new demands at the eleventh hour despite what they termed as Israel's "generous proposals".
"It became clear during the discussions that Hamas had hardened its position, reneged on understandings that had been formulated over the past year and raised extreme demands," said a statement issued by Mr Olmert's office, after two senior envoys returned on Monday night from talks in Cairo.
Hamas officials rebuffed the criticism, saying it was Israel that had failed to deliver.
"As soon as there is a serious offer from Israel, we will deal with it," said Ossama Hamdan, the Hamas representative in Beirut.
Israeli media said that the key sticking point is a demand by Israel that some of the Palestinian prisoners, once released, would not be allowed to return to their homes in the West Bank and instead would be deported either to Gaza or neighbouring Arab countries.
And in Israel, a country where most Jewish young men and women are conscripted into the army, the story of Cpl Shalit, who turned 22 in captivity, has become something of a national cause.
This one captured prisoner is causing some serious trouble for Israel and gives HAMAS one huge bargaining chip. Good for them! When Israel agrees that ALL Palestinian prisoners can go home, then so can Shalit! Till then, Shalit better get comfortable living in Palestine.
