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Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Gilad Shalit Made It Home:

Nadene Goldfoot
Gilad Shalit is finally home after more than 5 years of being held captive after being kidnapped by Hamas.  He showed up thinner and very pale.  His voice was faint and he seemed to have difficulty concentrating.  He shows signs of malnutrition and a lack of exposure to sunlight which would mean having a vitamin D deficiency. 

Before he got home Egypt interviewed him on their TV station which was not part of the bargain.  He was brought by a Hamas gunman belonging to the Qassam Brigade, the military wing of Hamas who was wearing a black face mask and green headband.  I suppose he didn't want to be identified by Israel.   He was carrying his video camera.

The TV interviewer asked a stupid question in that she asked why he only gave one interview while held a captive.  She then ignored the fact that Hamas had barred everyone from visiting him including the Red Cross while he was held.  Unlike Palestinian prisoners, he has been in isolation the whole time.  It was only after this questioning that Gilad got a physical checkup.

Yonit Levy in Israel, an Israeli TV anchor, said she thought the questioning in Egypt amounted to boarderline torture.  Israel will not talk with him about his experiences for the next 10 days.  He deserves a break.

PS:10/18/11 The problem is that Israel is freeing mostly 1,000 murderers for one 19 yr old kidnapped solder of theirs who hadn't done anything except to be a part of the IDF (Israel Defense Force).  Hamas and Fatah are already talking about how they'll kidnap others in order to get back their killers.  It's an imbalanced swap that is liable to cause more harm for other Israelis, but I can understand Israel doing this.  Every mother and father in Israel saw in Gilad their own son or daughter in the service.  Life to Israelis is precious.  They're lucky I was not in charge.  I would have put a chip in every Arab freed, especially the killers.  I would then have some sort of system that would allow me to know when they approached in my vicinity so that I could be prepared and defend myself.  We have chips in our pets so that they can be identified.  It's terrible to free known killers who are anxious to do it again. 

Resource: http://news.yahoo.com/israel-shocked-egypt-tv-schalit-interview-145741250.html
http://www.oregonlive.com/today/index.ssf/2011/10/israeli_prisoner_freed_in_swap.html

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