Haaretz: Israel, Hamas reach Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange deal, officials say
Israel and Hamas have reached a prisoner exchange deal that will secure the release of abducted Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit, officials at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Tuesday.
Al Jazeera English: Hamas ‘close’ to prisoner-Shalit swap deal
Hamas is “close” to reaching a deal with the Israeli government on swapping Palestinian prisoners for the release of Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier held in the Gaza Strip, an official said.
“We are close to a deal,” a Hamas official confirmed to Al Jazeera.
The details are not fully negotiated but Hamas is “close to receiving 100 per cent” of its demands, the official said.
Reports say the swap will be 1,000 Palestinian prisoners for Gilad Shalit.
ABC News: U.S. Says Iran-Tied Terror Plot in Washington, D.C. Disrupted
FBI and DEA agents have disrupted a plot to commit a “significant terrorist act in the United States” tied to Iran, federal officials told ABC News today.
The officials said the plot included the assassination of the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the United States, Adel Al-Jubeir, with a bomb and subsequent bomb attacks on the Saudi and Israeli embassies in Washington, D.C.
Bombings of the Saudi and Israeli embassies in Buenos Aires, Argentina, were also discussed, according to the U.S. officials. . .
The new case, called Operation Red Coalition, began in May when an Iranian-American from Corpus Christi, Texas, approached a DEA informant seeking the help of a Mexican drug cartel to assassinate the Saudi ambassador, according to counter-terrorism officials.
Not everyone seems to be buying it.
Other than that not much going on.
LOL, yeah no biggie :) these are pretty huge stories.
Oh look everyone, so Israel DOES negotiate with Hamas! Gee, what a surprise…
The Shalit deed is huge (and devastating to so many Israeli story lines), but honestly, it’s the smaller story of the two for me.
In the past, I’ve laughed off talk of either an Israeli attack on Iran or yet another US entangling war there. But now I’m a little concerned.
Why now on Gilad? The 1000 Palestinians demanded by Hamas as trade as not changed. I don’t believe Hamas changed on their demand, so it looks like Bibi caved. Also, very weird Bibi and Hamas are now both on record in the last hour or two that the exchange is a done deal… to be done in stages. I don’t understand why both sides are making statements in public about what is about to happen. Also, weird in that the “official” German or Swiss mediation team having gone nowhere to find a middle ground had called it quits. Bibi recently said the chances were low and Hamas blasted the entire negotiations. Yet, it looks like the talks were between Israel and Hamas directly. And I would bet the talks were more than a simple negotiation, but rather some sort of truce(long favored by Hamas) or understanding to relax the blockade on Hamas.
Why would Israel agree?
1. To undercut Abbas, shove the shiv in his side as payback for seeking UN member status by giving effective representation of Hamas.
2. Egypt’s border control with Gaza is weakening, encouraging talks between Hamas and Israel.
3. The siege of Gaza has been a human rights nightmare and PR nightmare for Israel.
4. Israel, despite what certain hotheads say, needs and wants to agree to strategic(stress strategic)relations with Turkey.
5. Not only does Israel view the PA as a joke, but it understands the corrupt PA no longer controls the reality on the ground. A peace treaty with the PA is not worth the paper, but a cold truce with Hamas is worth much more.
Maybe I’ve had too much caffeine and I’m searching!
Too much Iran in the Zionist-filtered press these past few weeks. That must mean that an attack is unfortunately imminent. Just keep in mind the following:
The ‘American’ hikers recently released turned out to be Israeli citizens (gee what a surprise). This year there have been at least two lawsuits from Zionists suing Iran for responsibility over 9/11 (LOL!). Zionists love to call Hezbollah and Hamas “Iranian terror proxies” which is false. There was at least one report this year claiming Hezbollah was helping South American drug cartels for Iran. Dennis Ross laughably held a position serving as a ‘special’ envoy of sorts for Iran which given his history they rejected him meaning he could spin this anyway he wanted (or something like that).
So take this thwarted Iranian ‘terror’ attack with a grain of salt. Eric Holder is a neocon. Neocons should be removed from any of this sort of thing because it is a conflict of interest.