trading spaces: Shalit, Hamas and 11,000 prisoners

Yesterday marked the 23rd birthday of Gilad Shalit, an Israeli Staff Sergeant who has been detained by Palestinian forces for over two years during a cross-border operation, and the internet buzzed with calls for solidarity in bringing him home.

According to Ha’aretz, after a long disagreement over prisoner exchange between the Palestinian Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip and the Israeli regime, the two sides are close to reaching a deal.
In exchange for the Israeli soldier, Hamas has demanded the release of 1,400 Palestinian prisoners, including 450 who are serving long-term sentences – a request rejected by Tel Aviv, which views the Shalit’s freedom as a precondition for reopening all border-crossings into the blockaded Gaza Strip.

Those who are unaware of the magnitude of the prisoner situation in terms of the Palestinian side will swiftly assume that such a demand would classify itself as nonnegotiable and cause for simple revocation from the Jewish state,but unbeknownst to a majority of Westerners the situation in terms of Palestinian prisoners goes far past the 1,400 that Hamas is asking for.

As of August 9th,2009 there are currently over 11,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons: men,women and yes – children.For their part, the Palestinians hold one Israeli prisoner,Gilad Shalit.

read more @ political theatrics

and this from the first comment:

We are supposed to believe that the tunnel was built on the spur of the Gazans’ decision to capture a Israeli, but when the logistics of building a tunnel of several hundreds of meters length is reflected on, that it be built without the Israelis noticing from drone aircraft the activity at its entrance, and not noticing the large number of workmen coming and going, and not noticing the large quantity of tunnel supports being brought in that would have to be employed to prevent cave ins, and not noticing the prodigious quantities of rock and earth piling up outside the entrance, and not noticing the tip trucks removing the rock and earth and taking it somewhere, we then realise that as his capture could not have been done via tunnel, then his capture could not have happened at all.