Best news in 2 mths: 800-1 Prisoner swap?

Forever settled in heaven · Sep 3, 2006

first seen at the Straits Times site ... still awaiting confirmation fr other sources ...

it might've come a little too late for those who lost loved ones over the recent conflict, but for others, this prayer may soon be answered: "[SIZE=-1]"Shalu Shalom Yerushalayim."

for those whose relatives have been illegally jailed for too long, it's never too late. they'll welcome the voice of reason n conscience with the hope that the rest of the prisoners wld be released soon.

for those who love to see the destabilisation of the region, or the value of whose gold/silver assets depends on geopolitical conflict, this wldn't be good news.

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Sep 4, 2006
Israel to swop 800 prisoners for soldier
After war fails to secure release, talks begin to get abductees back
By Abraham Rabinovich, For The Straits Times

JERUSALEM - AFTER fighting a bloody war sparked by the abduction of several of its soldiers, Israel said yesterday it was prepared to swop hundreds of Palestinian prisoners for their release. An Israeli official confirmed that the country was ready to release 800 prisoners in return for Corporal Gilad Shalit, according to Israel's largest circulation newspaper Yediot Aharonot.
On the Arab side, Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, of the ruling Islamist Hamas movement, confirmed reports that Egypt was mediating the talks.
'The Egyptians are making a lot of efforts. There are certain things going on to solve this question but there is nothing specific,' Mr Haniyeh said in Gaza yesterday.
'We hope the Egyptian efforts succeed,' he said.

Cpl Shalit was captured two months ago in a cross-border raid from the Gaza Strip into Israel.
His fate is unconnected with that of two other Israeli soldiers captured by Hizbollah in a raid across Israel's northern border on July 12 - an action that touched off the month-long war between Israel and the Lebanese Shi'ite militia.
Negotiations for those two soldiers are being conducted via the head of Germany's foreign intelligence service, Mr Ernst Urlau, who arrived in Beirut last week.
Until now, Israel has not publicly acknowledged readiness for a swop of prisoners for soldiers, noting that they had been captured on Israeli territory and demanding their unconditional return.
The public readiness to talk now reflects the fact that the military option appears not to have worked and key political players are under pressure to secure the soldiers' release.
According to yesterday's report in Yediot, a Tel Aviv daily, 300 Palestinian prisoners would be released simultaneously with Cpl Shalit's release, or a few days later.

Another 300 would be released two or three months later and the final 200 before the end of the year.
The prisoners to be released would consist mainly of women, children and men who have served 20 years or longer.
The Palestinians are also demanding the release of a number of high-profile prisoners captured more recently. But Israel has been firm in resisting the demands for the release of Marwan Barghouti, widely seen as a successor to Mr Mahmoud Abbas as head of the Fatah movement and of the Palestinian Authority.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office declined to comment on the report. However, an official coordinating the rescue efforts, Mr Ofer Deklel, is reportedly in Cairo on a secret visit.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak disclosed to the Al-Aharam newspaper in Cairo on Saturday that negotiations for the freeing of Cpl Shalit are under way and said that Israel is awaiting a Palestinian 'initiative' that spells out its conditions for an exchange.
Since his capture, Israel has been placing heavy pressure on the Gaza Strip, attacking its electricity and road infrastructure and limiting the entry of supplies.

As for the two soldiers being held in Lebanon, Israel refuses to negotiate with Hizbollah. It also refuses to free the man Hizbollah most wants, Samir Kuntar, a Lebanese imprisoned in Israel for the past 27 years for murdering an Israeli man and his young daughter during a terror raid into Israel.
Israel says it is prepared to release all other Lebanese prisoners, including about a score of Hizbollah fighters captured in the recent war, in exchange for the two soldiers, Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser.

Israel currently holds some 8,700 Palestinian prisoners. It has engaged in a number of prisoner exchanges in the past, both with the Palestinians and the Lebanese.
abra@netvision.net.il
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Forever settled in heaven · Sep 4, 2006

good man, Annan. go to it! :thumbs: good to see a start.

Annan to work to free Israeli hostages in Lebanon

By Nadim Ladki Mon Sep 4, 4:16 PM ET

BEIRUT (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on Monday he would appoint a secret envoy to work for the release of the two Israeli soldiers whose capture by Lebanon's Hizbollah group triggered a month-long war.

Israeli officials said Annan's role was to secure the release of the soldiers, not to mediate. Hizbollah gave a cautious response, backing only indirect negotiations to secure an exchange of prisoners from both sides.
"The two sides have accepted the efforts of the secretary-general to help solve this problem," Annan told a news conference in Saudi Arabia. "I will appoint a person to work secretly with the two sides ... I will not announce his name today or tomorrow," he said, according to an Arabic interpreter.
The unconditional release of the soldiers, whose capture by Hizbollah guerillas in a cross-border raid on July 12 sparked a 34-day war, is called for in the preamble to the U.N. resolution that brought about a cease-fire.
The same preamble also "encourages" the settling of the issue of Lebanese prisoners detained in Israel.
Hizbollah, which sits in the Lebanese government, wants to exchange the Israeli soldiers for Lebanese in Israeli jails.
A top Hizbollah official, Energy Minister Mohammed Fneish, said he could not comment on any role for Annan, but added:
"We agree to a basic principle which is to conduct a prisoner exchange through indirect negotiations. Who is the channel is a detail."
"NO NEGOTIATIONS"
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said Israel's official position remained that it would not enter into any negotiations to free the soldiers.
An Israeli government official said: "A mediator is not needed ... The U.N. resolution determines that soldiers will be released unconditionally. The U.N. Secretary-General will assist, and not mediate."
However, Hizbollah and Israel have been involved in prisoner exchanges in the past, and a top Israeli political source said last week that the Jewish state would be willing to discuss freeing Lebanese prisoners for the soldiers if negotiations were conducted through the Lebanese government, not with Hizbollah.
Annan's spokesman Ahmad Fawzi said the precise definition of the role of Annan's envoy was not an issue.
"What we are trying to achieve is the release of the soldiers," he said. "I really don't want to go into the definitions. The main issue is that he has offered his good offices and they have been accepted."
Separately, the Lebanese government agreed to file a complaint to the U.N. Security Council over Israel's air and sea blockade, which remains in place despite the truce. Israel says it has kept its embargo to prevent Hizbollah from rearming.
The government also agreed to ask U.N. peacekeepers to help secure Lebanon's coast, despite reservations by Hizbollah. Germany says it is waiting for an official Lebanese request to contribute naval forces to an expanded U.N. peacekeeping force.
"WITHDRAWAL ON TRACK"
Major-General Alain Pellegrini, commander of U.N. peacekeepers, said a meeting with Lebanese and Israeli officers had put "on the right track" a full Israeli troop withdrawal from Lebanon in line with the U.N. resolution, and the deployment of Lebanese troops backed by the U.N. force.
The United Nations has said the pullout will be completed once the number of peacekeepers, now 3,100, reaches 5,000.
Qatar, which maintains low-level ties with Israel, also said it would send 200 to 300 troops to the expanded U.N. force, becoming the first Arab contributor.
Some 200 French troops left Toulon for Lebanon to join around 900 Italians who landed in south Lebanon at the weekend.
The shipping industry newspaper Lloyd's List was due to report on Tuesday that Israel was now allowing certain ships, mainly tankers carrying petroleum products and ships ferrying aid, to enter Lebanese ports.
Qatar Airways resumed its direct service to Beirut, despite Israel's demand that all such flights pass through Amman, Jordan, for security reasons. The first Qatar Airways plane landed in Beirut with 142 passengers on board.
(Additional reporting by Doha, Jerusalem, Paris, London and Dubai bureau)
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Forever settled in heaven · Sep 5, 2006

but apparently one side still knows nothing about it.

http://today.reuters.com/news/artic...0_US-MIDEAST-SOLDIER-ABBAS.xml&src=rss&rpc=22

Israeli soldier-swap deal reached: paper

Tue Sep 5, 2006 3:11am ET

MANAMA (Reuters) - Israel and the Palestinians have reached an agreement to swap the Israeli soldier held hostage in Gaza with imprisoned Palestinians, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was quoted on Tuesday as saying.
Abbas told Bahrain's Akhbar al-Khaleej newspaper soldier Gilad Shalit would first be handed over to Egypt.
"An agreement has been reached about exchanging prisoners that is based on Egypt taking the soldier as a deposit, and after that the number of Palestinian prisoners-of-war would be announced," Abbas said in the interview.
Israeli media quoted Israeli officials as saying they "know nothing of such a breakthrough".

A senior official said on Tuesday Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert would seek a meeting with Abbas if the gunmen in the Gaza Strip released the soldier.
The gunmen abducted the soldier in a cross-border raid on June 25. Israel subsequently started a major offensive in Gaza to release him which has so far killed more than 200 Palestinians, about half of them civilians.
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Joseph_Botwinick · Sep 5, 2006

It is stupid to negotiate with terrorists. This is is good news though:

As for the two soldiers being held in Lebanon, Israel refuses to negotiate with Hizbollah. It also refuses to free the man Hizbollah most wants, Samir Kuntar, a Lebanese imprisoned in Israel for the past 27 years for murdering an Israeli man and his young daughter during a terror raid into Israel.
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Samir should have been executed for what he did.

Joseph Botwinick

Forever settled in heaven · Sep 6, 2006

Joseph_Botwinick said:

It is stupid to negotiate with terrorists. This is is good news though:
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since both sides look upon each other as terrorists, i'm glad for the intervention of 3rd parties.

Samir should have been executed for what he did.

Joseph Botwinick
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true, but one side seems to get away all the time with calling what they did "executions."

Joseph_Botwinick · Sep 6, 2006

The last execution Israel administered was Eichman according to a friend of mine from Israel.

Joseph Botwinick

Joseph_Botwinick · Sep 6, 2006

Eichmann was hanged a few minutes after midnight on June 1, 1962, at Ramla prison, and remains the last and only civil execution ever carried out in Israel.
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The last and only execution in Israel.

Joseph Botwinick

Forever settled in heaven · Sep 6, 2006

fwiw, more good news n sanity ...

Israel to lift Lebanon blockade

Israel has been enforcing Lebanon's isolation since mid-July

Israel says it will lift its air and sea blockade of Lebanon on Thursday, at 1800 local time (1500 GMT). The restrictions have been enforced since the start of its conflict with Hezbollah guerrillas in July.
International pressure has been building on Israel to lift the embargo, which has remained in place despite a three-week-old ceasefire.
Israel has been insisting that steps must be in place to stop Hezbollah getting more weapons.
Correspondents say the lifting of the blockade means Lebanon can begin rebuilding much more quickly following Israel's massive bombardment of the south, as well as resuming normal trade and travel arrangements.
German deployment
A statement from the Israeli prime minister's office said international forces would replace the Israelis at "control positions" over Lebanese sea and air ports.

A copy of the statement, quoted by the Associated Press news agency, said German experts would begin monitoring Beirut airport on Wednesday.
German naval forces are also expected to arrive within two weeks to deploy off the Lebanese coast, the statement said, and until then Italian, French, British and Greek troops would carry out their task.
About 3,250 international troops are now in Lebanon under the UN banner, and UN officials says that figure could reach 5,000 troops next week.
UN Resolution 1701 calls for a force of up to 15,000 peacekeepers to help police the border with Israel along with a similar sized Lebanese force.
More than 1,100 Lebanese and about 160 Israelis died in the conflict, sparked by the capture of two Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah.
Airlines returning
Lebanon had vowed to break Israel's blockade unless it was lifted within the next two days, just as the air blockade appeared to be crumbling.
Two airlines had previously been granted permission to operate regular commercial flights to Beirut, Lebanon's Middle East Airlines and Royal Jordanian, on condition they stopped at Amman.
But Qatar Airways resumed direct flights between Doha and Beirut on Monday, and other airlines were expected to follow suit, with or without Israeli permission.
British Mediterranean Airways (B-Med), a franchise partner of British Airways, announced it was breaking the air embargo by flying directly Beirut on Wednesday evening.
B-Med said it had sought clearance from the Lebanese authorities and the UK Foreign Office, but not from Israel.
Lebanese media reported that Air France and Germany's Lufthansa had also requested to resume flights to Lebanon.

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Forever settled in heaven · Sep 6, 2006

Joseph_Botwinick said:

The last and only execution in Israel.

Joseph Botwinick
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excluding the extrajudicial ones, of course:

http://www.imemc.org/content/view/17772/1/

Eyewitnesses: Palestinian leader Obayat was shot 'execution-style' by Israeli forces George Rishmawi-IMEMC & PNN - Monday, 03 April 2006, 10:59

In the Monday morning assassination of resistance leader Raed Obayat by Israeli special forces, eyewitnesses describe a scene of a badly beaten Obayat, and his companion Ra'ed Sulaiman Abu Joura, being dragged down four flights of stairs while crying out "I am injured! I am injured!", after which Israeli forces shot the two in an 'execution-style' assassination.
Palestinian Parliament member Issa Qaraqie issued a strong condemnation of the assassination, and demanded a full immediate international investigation.
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http://www.merip.org/mero/mero021703.html

http://www.fpif.org/commentary/2004/0404yassin_body.html

http://www.jmcc.org/research/reports/assassin.htm

http://www.pwhce.org/golda.html

http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/ENGMDE150292004

http://mparent7777.livejournal.com/3772929.html

http://www.biu.ac.il/Besa/david.pdf#search="israeli assassination execution"

http://www.forusa.info/news/jake3.html

n loads more ...

Revmitchell · Sep 7, 2006

Forever settled in heaven said:

since both sides look upon each other as terrorists, i'm glad for the intervention of 3rd parties.

true, but one side seems to get away all the time with calling what they did "executions."
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How Hezzbollah looks at anyone is irrelevent. They are terrorists Israel is not. Hezzbollah needs to be destroyed.

Forever settled in heaven · Sep 7, 2006

Revmitchell said:

How Hezzbollah looks at anyone is irrelevent. They are terrorists Israel is not. Hezzbollah needs to be destroyed.
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n, pray tell, how does that make ur viewpoint or Israel's or anyone else's "relevant."

:sleeping_2:

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