One reason Shalit looked so ill at ease in his interview (UPDATE)

A number of people have noted how cruel it was to force Shalit to be subjected to an inane interview on Egyptian TV, delaying his release for ten excruciating minutes:

And while we can attribute his hesitation to answer and his discomfort to the idiotic questions, there is another reason for his distress, as can be seen from this photo immediately before or during the interview:

(Getty Images claims this was an interview with Hamas TV before he was released, but no such interview seems to have occurred and the microphone, background wall and chair seem to match those in the Egyptian interview.)

(h/t JSSNews)

UPDATE: AP verifies it was in Egypt:

UPDATE 2: AP wrote about it as well:

Armed Hamas militants were in the area during the interview. One of them stood behind Schalit's chair, wearing a a black face mask, a green headband of the Qassam brigades – Hamas' military wing – and a video camera in his hand.

(h/t David)

via elderofziyon.blogspot.com

Prof. Gerald Steinberg, IBA English News, Shalit and Failure of Human Rights NGOs - YouTube

Gilad Shalit is in Israel

Gilad Shalit to Egyptian television: "I will be very happy if the Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails are released, as long as they don't return to attack Israel."
Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit said Tuesday that he had been treated well by his Hamas captors during the five years he was held hostage, telling Egyptian television in the first interview following his release that he was relieved to finally be surrounded by people.
"I'm very emotional. I haven't seen people in a long time. I missed my family. I missed seeing people, and talking to them," he said.

it is hard to explain... but i never really knew who this kid was and what I can see from the videos is he is an extraordinary human being. I don't just mean because he is on the news... I mean Gilad Shalit is a good person. I can tell this just by his eyes. He strikes me as sincere and real. We were tweeting about him for years and he could of been a brat for all we knew. I'm glad that he is not bullshit. He isn't like a Hollywood star or an athlete. Gilad strikes me as deep... on another level.

Glick - A pact signed in Jewish blood

Regardless of any liberal slant of mine.... I believe that Israel needs a death penalty for terrorism to avoid creating future incentives for Israeli abductions. That said I disagree with Glick and other Conservative pessimism concerning the Shalit deal.

(Caroline Glick) ...Netanyahu's decision to sign the deal with Hamas lacks any political rationale.
WHAT HAS really changed since the deal was first put on the table two years ago is Hamas's position. Since the Syrian people began to rise up against the regime of Hamas's patron and protector President Bashar Assad, Hamas's leaders, who have been headquartered in Syria since 1998, have been looking for a way to leave. Their Muslim Brotherhood brethren are leading forces in the Western-backed Syrian opposition.
Hamas's leaders do not want to be identified with the Brotherhood's oppressor.
With the Egyptian military junta now openly massacring Christians, and with the Muslim Brotherhood rapidly becoming the dominant political force in the country, Egypt has become a far more suitable home for Hamas.
But for the past several months, Hamas leaders in Damascus have faced a dilemma. If they stay in Syria, they lose credibility. If they leave, they expose themselves to Israel.
According to Channel 2, in exchange for Schalit, beyond releasing a thousand murderers, Netanyahu agreed to give safe passage to Hamas's leaders decamping to Egypt.
What this means is that this deal is even worse for Israel than it looks on the surface.
Not only is Israel guaranteeing a reinvigoration of the Palestinian terror war against its civilians by freeing the most experienced terrorists in Palestinian society, and doing so at a time when the terror war itself is gradually escalating. Israel is squandering the opportunity to either decapitate Hamas by killing its leaders in transit, or to weaken the group by forcing its leaders to go down with Assad in Syria.... (h/t Calev Ben Yefuneh)

Does Glick really believe that the only way Hamas can go from Syria to Egypt is by Israel's consent? Schalit would of been tortured for years while the thousands of captives in Israeli jails would of been treated humanely at the expense of the tax payer with Red Crescent visits. These terrorists that are freed are now targets for extermination as opposed to living martyrs in jails. Does Glick really believe that the Palestinians have any shortage of future terrorists? I don't see any mistake on Bibi's part. This deal was a one time offer. Any negotiating partner with Egypt will be gone shortly. Barry Rubin says:

“The number 1000 is impressive but most will be chosen by Israel, meaning they will be prisoners with the lightest sentences and crimes — in other words, people who would have been released anyway during the next year or two. Israel rejected Hamas’s demand to release those being called “arch-terrorists” who were major organizers of attacks or responsible for a larger loss of life….”

It was a good deal. Here is EOZ Agreeing with this. Israelly Cool disagrees. You can read why here: Elder of Ziyon Misses The Point by Israellycool:

From 10million.org:

On the night of January 1, 1970, a group of Fatah terrorists infiltrated Metula from Lebanon and abducted a night watchman named Shmuel Rosenwasser. The terrorists, together with the abduction victim, withdrew to Kfar Kila which is located about two kilometers west of Metula in Lebanon. This was the first abduction attack perpetrated by a Palestinian terror organization inside Israel.
This terror attack was perpetrated to mark the anniversary of the Fatah’s first terror attack (placing a demolition charge at Israel’s national water conduit). January first was also considered the anniversary of the organization’s establishment. The Fatah claimed responsibility for the abduction several days after the attack and demanded that the State of Israel release 100 terrorists incarcerated in Israel while giving first priority to the terrorist Mahmoud Hijazi
Mahmoud Hijazi was a terrorist who served in the Fatah organization. On January 7, 1965 Hijazi commanded the Fatah’s first terror attack. Hijazi’s terror squad, which included 5 additional terrorists, detonated an explosive device at the water institute in moshav Nechusha situated in the Ela Valley in Israel. Hijazi was wounded and apprehended.
He stood trial at a military court which sentenced him to death. Hijazi appealed this verdict in the military appeals court, which ordered a retrial. During the trial, Hijazi demanded to be recognized as a prisoner of war. The court turned down this request and in May 1966, Hijazi was sentenced to 30 years in prison.

Hijazi was only the second person in Israeli history to be sentenced to death, after Adolf Eichmann.
The decision to swap him for Rosenwasser was only a one-to-one swap. However, and in retrospect, that was the decision that emboldened Palestinian Arabs to continue to kidnap Israelis in order to bargain for Israel’s release of other terrorists.
The Rosenwasser abduction was followed by a number of others kidnappings and attempted hostage taking, such as a 1974 attack in Beit She’an where terrorists broke into a family home for the purpose of taking them hostage and negotiating a release of terror prisoners. The 1974 Ma’alot massacre started off as a hostage drama as well. Even though Israel did not capitulate in any of the attacks on Israeli soil and usually killed the terrorists, their incentive to mount hostage-taking attacks did not lessen.
The prisoner-exchange train had already left the building in 1970. It is not possible to turn the clock back. Even if the current Israeli government had publicly announced that Shalit was considered dead and that there will be no negotiations, the public pressure in Israel would not have closed the door and Hamas would have waited for a different government to renew its demands.
For these reasons, I do not accept the argument that it is possible to remove the incentive for kidnappings by refusing to negotiate. The terrorists will continue no matter what.

I should probably also give the other argument... (and also say that I have never disagreed with Glick before... and have full respect for her)

(Princess Pana)
* After his release in 1996, Abbas ibn Muhammad Alsayd was involved in three terror attacks in Netanya, including the Park Hotel Passover massacre on March 27, 2002, in which 31 people were murdered and 155 wounded.
* After his release by the Netanyahu government as a “goodwill gesture” to Yasser Arafat, at the behest of Bill Clinton in 1998, Iyad Sawalha perptrated the June 5, 2002 bus bombing at the Megiddo junction, murdering 17 people and wounding 42.
* Seven months after his release, Ramez Sali Abu Salmim blew himself up in Jerusalem’s Café Hillel on September 9, 2003, murdering 7 young people and wounding over 50.
* Matsab Hashalmon was released from jail as part of the “Tennenbaum deal” on January 29, 2004. Three months later, on August 31, 2004, he masterminded the attack on two buses in Beersheba, that killed 16 civilians and wounded scores of others.(MORE)

as you can see... even I am not sure Bibi made the right decision... I'm not even sure Bibi is sure.

Barghouti and Amina Mona and 1000 others for Gilad Shalit

The_numbers: * 1,027 prisoners will be released in total. * 27 of them are female. * 450 will be released within a week, likely as the actual exchange for Gilad takes place. * The remaining terrorists will be released in two months. * The 450 include 385 terrorists serving life sentences. They are classified as "heavy terrorists," an Israeli term referring to exceptionally brutal individuals serving time for bombings, murders and terror attacks.

Hamas TV and Al Arabiyah is reporting that Israel agreed to trade 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in return for Gilad Shalit and the trade may take place as early as next month. Arab media outlets reported that the deal will includ former head of the Fatah Tanzim Marwan Barghouti, who is serving five life sentences for his role in the murder of Israelis during the al-Aqsa intifada, but a senior Israeli minister denied the report. Amina Mona will be back out there! The exchange would include Amina Mona, a young woman who lured a lovestruck Israeli teenage boy to a Palestinian city over the Internet, only to have him killed by waiting militants Netanyahu stated that a video showing Gilad Shalit alive and "functional" was given as proof of life before negotiations ensued. He referred to the tape as a "insurance policy." Benjamin Netanyahu has confirmed in a statement that a "difficult, but right" agreement has been signed with Hamas to release kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit, who is slated to arrive home in Israel in a few days. Hamas leader Khaled Mashal addressed the Palestinian people Tuesday evening saying: "We should be proud. We are bringing this news to the fathers, the mothers, the children, the families of the prisoners. All who have cried a tear for the prisoners...This is a great achievement. But our happiness is full of pain that we were unable to release all (8,000) of the prisoners." Mashal said it was a "great achievement" to get so many prisoners in exchange for one man. He then sent a message to the remaining prisoners saying, "We will continue our efforts until we release all of you. Someone who agrees to release 1,000 prisoners will agree to release 8,000 in the future...This is a promise, this is our oath."

Vatican Backs Obama’s Global Agenda

"His blood be on us and on our children"

It's an old story... but I think some Conservatives need to be reminded:

Pope Benedict, the leader of 1.2 billion Catholics, had endorsed a “World Political Authority,” a form of world government, in his recent encyclical “Caritas in Veritate.” This world political authority, in the Vatican view, is supposed to “manage the economy,” bring about “timely disarmament,” and ensure “food, security and peace