JewNewsNet » Gilad Shalit

Report: Gilad Shalit Deal Should Happen Friday

Itamar Kestenbaum — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 04:38:36 +0000

From: Ynet

A prisoner exchange deal securing the release of kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit will be executed this Friday, Saudi network al-Arabiya reported Sunday, quoting sources in the Hamas organization.According to the report, 450 Palestinian prisoners will be released to the Gaza Strip and West Bank in exchange for Shalit’s transfer to Egypt. Shalit was kidnapped into Gaza 1,246 days ago.

The al-Arabiya report added that the Hamas leadership from Damascus would meet with the Hamas leadership from Gaza in Cairo on Monday, to discuss the latest offer submitted by Israel.

Sources in Gaza told Ynet that significant progress had been made over the past few days in the talks for the prisoner exchange deal, and that the last obstacles – related to a number of prisoners from the leadership of Hamas’ military wing – could be removed by Friday, the first day of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha.

Feiglin: Deciding Others' Fate?

Itamar Kestenbaum — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 16:03:46 +0000

Moshe Feiglin

According to Ynet, MK Moshe Feiglin sent Ehud Barak a statement requesting that he not negotiate his release, if he were kidnapped:

“What our betrayed hero who is rotting in his cell understands, must be understood by any Israeli citizens as a free person. We must not buy one person’s freedom in exchange for risking the lives of many and encouraging additional abductions.”

He went on to claim that “this order is the product of a sound mind.” A statement that would be unnecessary unless one actually considered what they’d just said to at least sound insane. Kind of like when you say “with all due respect” and everyone knows that whatever comes next will be offensive.

Feiglin keeps digging himself deeper:

“Since then and to this day, Jonathan has been imprisoned under disgraceful conditions. Israel, which sent him and for which Jonathan sacrificed his life, has done and is doing all in its power to keep him in prison and see him die there.”

That would have been fine – had Feiglin not said just a sentence before, that Jonathan Pollard turned down release deal offers. You can’t possibly accuse a country of not trying to get a prisoner out of prison, when you’re turning down offers for your own release. Feiglin ripping a page right out of martyrism 101. Turn down offers for your release – and you can no longer complain that nobody is trying!

On Gilad Shalit, Feiglin says:

“The Israeli government has refrained from carrying out the simple and most required actions for Gilad Shalit’s release,” he accused. “Hamas, which at first avoided admitting that it was the kidnapper, understood quite quickly that Israel’s leaders would not endanger themselves with international arrest warrants and is no longer afraid to claim full responsibility for this act. Thousands of its detainees in Israel are getting the royal treatment and conditions no Israeli detainee can even dream of.”
This is true. Palestinian terrorists do get treated really well in Israeli prisons. But really, Feiglin? Are you about to argue that Shalit should not be released in return for Palestinian prisoners? What authority do you have? Who died and gave you the power to decide what Gilad Shalit’s life is worth?

“In this situation, the responsible Israeli citizen is faced with one of two choices: One – to come to terms with the described process and wait for the blow that will terminate this historic episode called ‘The State of Israel’. The other option is that, like in past wars, the simple soldiers will know how to save the state from its leaders’ failures, as today, we, the civilians and the simple soldiers order that no negotiations be held for us.”

Oh well, I guess he did go there. And when you take any argument and put the opposite arguement in the place of anti-Israeli thought – you’re hitting below the belt. Releasing prisoners for Gilad Shalit is not anti-Israeli, and is not ‘terminating the historic episode called ‘The State of Israel.’ Feiglin – stop it. You’re sounding more and more ridiculous every time you open your mouth.

And please – don’t make decisions as to what others’ lives are worth.

BREAKING NEWS: Gilad Shalit Video

Itamar Kestenbaum — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 14:44:42 +0000

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDAsGS_gOeI]

Jerusalem – After over three years in which IDF St.-Sgt. Gilad Schalit has been held in Hamas captivity in the Gaza Strip, Israel breathed a sigh of relief on Friday afternoon after it was verified…

Why is #GiladShalit Trending?

Itamar Kestenbaum — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 13:31:31 +0000

From: www.Whatthetrend.com

Gilad Shalit is an Israeli soldier who has been held captive by Hamas for over three years now. He was kidnapped at the age of 19, and is about to turn 23. The Tweet 4 Shalit campaign was initiated to raise awareness about Shalit on the occasion of his birthday.

From Wikipedia:

Gilad Shalit (Hebrew: גלעד שליט‎, born 28 August 1986) is an Israeli soldier who was captured^[2] ^[3] on 25 June 2006 by Palestinian militants in a cross border raid from the Gaza Strip on the Kerem Shalom crossing (in Israel) and has been held hostage by Hamas since. Shalit is believed to be alive.^[4]^[5]^[6]^[7]^[8]^[9] Shalit, a soldier of the IDF’s Armor Corps, held the rank of corporal at the time of the incident but has since been promoted to staff sergeant.^[1]

He became the first Israeli soldier captured^[10] by militant Palestinian forces since Nachshon Wachsman in 1994.^[11] His abduction^[12] and the following cross border raid by Hezbollah, resulting in the abduction of Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev into Lebanon, occurred prior to the conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon during summer 2006. Shalit holds French citizenship, a fact that encouraged France and the European Union to be involved to some extent in the efforts to release him.^[13] Recently, he also received Italian citizenship.^[14] Hamas has barred the International Red Cross from seeing him, and has demanded the release of 450 Palestinian prisoners.^[15]^[16]^[17]

#GiladShalit trends on Twitter! Tweet4Shalit Gaining Momentum!

Itamar Kestenbaum — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 13:14:12 +0000

#GiladShalit is officially trending on Twitter!

We did it, but the fight is not yet over – we need to keep #GiladShalit trending. We’ve seen what awareness this can bring. #IranElection raised Twitter to a whole new political action level – and now it’s Gilad’s turn!

Tweet4Shalit Starts NOW! #GiladShalit on Twitter!

Itamar Kestenbaum — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 20:12:36 +0000

The Tweet4Shalit campaign on Twitter is underway as of now!

It’s already 8.26 in Australia – so get your tweet on and add #GiladShalit to every one of your tweets!

For a search of Twitter for #GiladShalit click the picture below!

#GiladShalit

Interview: David Appletree of The JIDF on Twitter Campaign Tweet4Shalit

Itamar Kestenbaum — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 17:27:35 +0000

The following is an interview I had the pleasure of having with David Appletree of The JIDF. The JIDF is a non-violent protest group who share concerns about antisemitic online content, as well as content which promotes terrorism on sites including Facebook, YouTube, Wikipedia, Google Earth, Blogger, and other sites and forums throughout the internet.

Itamar: how did The JIDF first get started?

David: Officially, the JIDF took off in May of 2008. However, the JIDF has been many years in the making. There were five important turning points for our organization:

The Start of the 2nd Intifada in September 2000 - The catalyst to the creation of the JIDF was the Second Intifada. While Jews were being terrorized daily in Israel, the propaganda machine of our enemies resulted in reactionary pressure from the U.S. and the international community that forced Israel to enter into unfeasible, unattainable, and impractical concessions of land in exchange for false promises of “peace.” This policy of rewarding terrorism with land concessions (Land for “Peace”) only encouraged additional attacks and worsened the security situation in Israel. This policy resulted in needless loss of life and inspired many of us to begin its email campaigns.

9/11 – On this day, it felt that all of us in the USA were living in Israel. As many JIDF members were living in NYC at the time, to say the attack on 9/11 “had an impact” would be an understatement. Email campaigns continued.

The disengagement from Gush Katif (Gaza) in August 2005 – By 2003, with Sharon’s announcement of his plans for “unilateral withdrawal,” we had enough, and we intensified our efforts online. In 2005, many of us were outspoken against the disengagement from Gush Katif and rallied Jews and non-Jews to support those that have since been expelled from their homes in Gush Katif and North Samaria. We launched web-based campaigns and email campaigns continued.

The war with Hezbollah in Lebanon in July 2006 – During this time, we continued our activities, which became more organized and urgent–especially as we began using Myspace as a way to rally support for the IDF.

The massacre at the Mercaz HaRav and the Facebook groups which went up to honor it in March 2008

The massacre at Mercaz HaRav Yeshiva in Israel made us realize the need for more direct action. We became a more visible entity as the result of the event but ultimately it was the Facebook groups which subsequently sprouted to honor the perpetrator of the massacre that prompted us to be more brazen. The use of Facebook and other social media to blatantly praise acts of terrorism and promote antisemitism demanded an equally blatant response.

Itamar: I remember that in Mid-June or July, there was an attempt at creating a #GiladShalit trending topic one day, but it was not organized enough, and never made it. Did this newest Tweet4Shalit campaign stem from that? Is this a more organized attempt?

David: I believe they were just using the ‘#Gilad’ hashtag. I didn’t learn much about that campaign until after we began the Tweet4Shalit campaign.

We’re hopeful for this campaign, as the JIDF has an online reach of about 150,000 active social media users. We were also fortunate to get the blessing of the Shalit family, all the major organizations representing them, and many other mainstream organizations like AISH, Chabad, the Israeli Consulate of NY, the Zionist Federation of Great Britain and Ireland, and HonestReporting (among others). With all of them helping to get the word out, this is a rather organized attempt to raise awareness.

Note: The day the original #GiladShalit campaign was stomped out because it was the day that Michael Jackson and Farrah died.

Itamar: What is Gilad Shalit’s status as of today? Is he confirmed to be alive? Is he being held for a known ransom?

David: Shalit is believed to be alive. I believe at least one of Hamas’ demands is that Israel release 450 Islamic terrorists.

Itamar: This idea of Tweet4Shalit is a great concept. Has any other non-political non-profit effort like this hit the trending topics? Do you believe we can do it this time?

David: It’s difficult to say whether or not we will succeed, as we don’t know all the trends for that day in which we’ll be competing against. Either way, we will be raising awareness and everyone will be doing their part, thinking and praying for Gilad, which is a great thing.

Itamar: What do you hope to achieve with the Tweet4Shalit campaign?

David: ‘Tweet4Shalit’ is a 24 hour Twitter event in which thousands of supporters will sign onto Twitter to tweet the hashtag ‘#GiladShalit’ with the goal of making Gilad a top ten Twitter ‘Trending Topic’ and thus, we hope to raise awareness of Gilad Shalit’s situation. We want the world to act and we want Gilad Shalit to be free.

Itamar: Do you think that Israel’s current approach in dealing with getting Shalit back is appropriate? What do you think they could be doing better?

David: It’s difficult to comment upon that appropriately, as I’m not privy to the high-level talks and actions regarding Shalit. I’m inspired by the twist that Chabad Lubavitch Headquarters has put onto the Tweet4Shalit campaign. They have asked their readers to bring awareness by doing good deeds or mitzvot in Shalit’s honor, and then tweeting about them. I also believe in the power of davening (prayer). I believe a lot of the answers we’re looking for can be found in Judaism, and I always appreciate when Jewish leaders (especially in Israel) promote ancient (yet still innovative and effective) approaches.

Thanks so much to David Appletree of the JIDF for making this interview possible! We hope to see everybody participating in the Tweet4Shalit campaign by tweeting #GiladShalit in every tweet!

The JIDF also needs major help to stay afloat in these hard times. Please visit http://www.thejidf.org/1990/02/support-jidf.html to make a donation.