Israel – The United States is hindering a prisoner swap for abducted soldier Gilad Shalit, his father charged in a speech before Jewish leaders at the Museum of the Jewish Diaspora in Tel Aviv Thursday.
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Noam Shalit used the platform to criticize the Obama Administration, slamming it for expressing displeasure over the deal and hinting to Israeli leaders not to go ahead with it. He also noted that at the same time, some Congress members have been urging President Obama to press Israel to open the Gaza Strip crossings.
The soldier’s father urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to show courage and make a tough decision in approving the swap.
“We need to bring Gilad back home without delay,” Shalit said, stressing that his son was sent on his mission almost four years ago and has been rotting in a Hamas prison ever since then.
The soldier’s father reminded the audience that Gilad Shalit is being completely isolated from the outside world, slamming Hamas for disregarding international law and basic human rights and for prevent the Red Crossing from visiting his son.
Going ahead with the swap is going to kill more Israelis than it saves.
here goes our “favorite president”(tounge in cheek) again mixing into other countries policies even meddeling into prisoner exchange deals
boy guess hes so bored being everything at home is doing exceptionally well economy,healthcare reform,china,iran russia,afgahanistan
only little israel is on his radar screen
obama seems to be turning out a great ohev yisroel..lover of our people
Where did Obama say anything about this swap?
Not trying to be insensitive, but is Gilad even alive?
Why can’t the frum world unite and put pressure on people to push for the release of gilad and other worthwhile causes instead of wasting our time trying to save the life of some convicted murderer?
Obama or not, it’s incumbent upon the State of Israel to do whatever it takes to ensure the return of Gilad Schalit, after four very long years since his abduction. A prisoner exchange at a ratio of a thousand (murderers) for one (Israeli) isn’t a viable option unless Israel has a death wish. If the State of Israel can send a group of commandos 2500 miles away from it’s shores (entebbe) to rescue 100 (plus) people all within the framework of a week then surly they have the intelligence and know how to enable a rescue of 1 soldier right across their border.
Why don’t we create as much noise as we did for Martin Grossman? Does Noam not deserve to go free? Why don’t we start bombarding the PREZ with the same amount of phone calls that went into Governor Christ???
Its Red Cross not Red Crossing . Israel should refuse access to Red Cross/Crescent to Arab prisoners until Shalit gets visited by them.
Umm… I haven’t seen anything about the US making statements about this, nor have the Israelis said anything of the sort. Is Mr. Shalit claiming that he has received “inside” information from the government or is he just another conspiracy theorist? Because if he is getting intel from the government, Netanyahu needs to find the leak in his intelligence agency.
If Israel were to attempt a rescue mission, and in the process his guards were killed, Interpol would be putting out a warrant and the UN would be condemming. Of course no one says anything about Shalit being held as a hostage in violation of every international law.
For a change, Obama is right and any pressure he applies on Netanyahu to block such a deal is in the best interests of both EY and the U.S. Shalit’s parents keep expecting that the government has an obligation to put millions of Israelis at risk to bring their son back. They are having a hard time realizing thats probably not going to happen as Netanyahu rethinks a very bad decision he might have made.
Anash have launched pidyon shevuyim campaigns for Rubashkin, for bochurim imprisoned in Japan, and for a condemned Jewish murderer.
Would it not be time now to campaign in a similar way for Gilad Shalit?
I am sorry that Gilad was captured to begin with. I cannot begin to imagine what upset/stress his parents are feeling. HOWEVER, i doubt anyone believes that there is a soul on earth that can bargain with the arabs or force them do anything they dont want to, when they dont want to. Personally, and unfortunately, I think the arabs will play this ‘release’ card until we are all dead and buried.
There is no Halacha of Pidyon Shevuyim for Shalit. Any terrorist released will kill more Yidden. Is that what Shalit’s family wants? Can they be that selfish that they would rather kill 1000 neighbors because they brought their son home alive.