Previous | Next :: Continuing Conflict and Continuing Defiance : First Palestinian Uprising : Gaza | October 18, 2011, 1:27 am

The elaborate machinery of a prisoner swap deal between two bitter enemies swung into motion early on today, as hundreds of Palestinians and one Israeli soldier prepared to return home in one of the most dramatic recent developments in the otherwise deadlocked Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

When it is over, if all goes to plan Gihad Shalit – 19 years old at the time of his capture and 25 now – will be free, ending what for Israel has been a prolonged and painful saga. Israel was forced to acknowledge that it had no way of rescuing Shalit in a military operation, though the soldier was held no more than a few miles from its border. The soldier was snatched by Hamas militants after they had tunneled their way out of Gaza.

Some of the Palestinian Prisoners have been imprisoned for decades having been convicted of terrorist crimes. Some of the most controversial to be released were involved in assisting the suicide bombers that devastatingly struck the restaurants and ordinary lives of Israelis in the armed Palestinian uprising that began in 2000.

The image above I made way back in the day........ in Gaza in the first Infidada (uprising) of 1987........... The cutting is a double page spread from 'Stern Magazine' in Germany ........ Macht Frieden!!!!! Makes Peace??? Obviously they.... like me .... thought a two state solution would have been reached way back then....... before the depressing rise of Islamism and Hamas with its 'from the river to the sea is Islamic land' ........ no compromise........ and the rise of the cult of the Shahid............ with the ultimate nihilism of the suicide bomber. And before the Israeli settlements had hugely increased the size of Jerusalem and taken the most of the best land and water in the West Bank........ making a decent solution........ just so much further away than ever ...........

Cheers Jez XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

www.jezblog.com