The British Journalist was released unconditionally. No exchanges of prisoners were necessary. If Hamas wants to be reasonable rather than merely scoring points, it should also release Shalit immediately. Israelis are rational. They do not want to see people who have kllled innocents walking around to kill again. Shalit killed no one. He was a teenager when he was captured. He was stolen out of Israel. Hamas will now make some more impossible demands. But the only way they can be unshunned is to renounce violence as a political means and to recognize the right of Israel to exist. But would anyone in their right mind hold their breath for that to happen?

You better end this soon release the blessed boy soon let him go. let him go home to his parents. I ask you now in person . pLease , enough is enough let my children go !

"Shalit killed no one. He was a teenager when he was captured." So many of the Palestinian prisoners have also killed no one. And some are much younger than Shalit when they were taken. "He was stolen out of Israel." Umm, and the Palestinian prisoners were stolen out of Palestinian land. Until you understand that the groups of these "terrorists" in Israeli jails have killed less Israeli civilians than Gilad Shalit's group, the IDF, who are seen by Palestinians are terrorists, then he will never be freed. Weeks after he was abducted, Hamas tried to swap him for all women and children in Israeli jails, and Israel refused. So don't talk about "he was a teenager" or "was stolen from Israel" because those are moot points.

Everyone for weeks has known where the kidnappers are - still are - and the IDF does nothing ?

this is was what Shailt's father said lately, as many offers were there but Olmert refused to listen, as long as he stay with the group of theifs around him, nothing positive will happen, and Israelis are sleeeeep.

But I'd also like to add that Ismail Haniyeh is an ass-wipe stumblebum.

They used force to release Jonstone. Several people were killed. I imagine the threats were considerable & of course, believable. I suppose that this is reasonable when dealing with Islamic groups. In other words, it's reasonable to be unreasonable & use force. So, what Hamas is asking us to do is actually unreasonable. I have to say that I'm picking at words because I don't really believe anything Arabs say - they say anything depending on the circumstances & none of it means a thing. But instead of wasting our time with fruitless negotiations or giving in to blackmail, we should have used extraordinary force to get Shalit back.

I suppose,for hamas NEEDING the support of international community,they captured the journalist,psichologicaly tortured the public opinion,and then "in an act of good will " released him. Now,they may keep receiving money,and keep on in this evil novel we have been watching for so long. The same was done with all our soldiers,but ,unfortunately ,in our case ,it seems only the psichological torture will be kept. May G'od make my words wrong and transform it to in agood end.

Oh wait. Hamas ARE Shalit's kidnappers. Perhaps the IDF should go in and surround Haniyeh's office, kidnap and gun down some brothers and cousins as hamas did with the Dughmush clan, and then threaten to erase every Hamas person as Hamas did with the Dughmush clan. Perhaps then this will be over soon.

You should be grateful for having the chance for a good education, high standard of living and other luxuries that your palestinian "brothers" in Palestine don´t have. For you to use your priviledged status to making excuses for terrorists and murderers is disgraceful. You compare an innocent Israeli kidnapping victim with Palestinian murderers. It doesn´t matter whether or not some of them are underaged (vast majority are not), a murderer is a murderer. Even of those that did not directly kill anyone, many were involved in planning suicide bombings and/or training suicide bombers. As for the women... Women can be just as evil as men. And women are just as capable to plot killings as men are. There is no excuse for adult female terrorists. As for Hania, why haven´t they wiped him out already? I´m so sick of watching his fat annoying face on tv.

Hamas, typical of the Arabs, blames the victims of the crimes commited by the criminals. The kidnapping of the 3 Israeli soldiers, was on Israeli soil. The holding of him by Hamas, or some othe group, beyond the kidnapping is crime alone to warrant a massive Israeli retaliation. It's like the mafia negotiating with victims of drug salesman, extortionists, the pimps of prostitutes. Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, etc. are cheap gangsters and worse..they are out to kill every Jew. That said, Israel must NEVER negotiate with them. Being a soldier assumes risks. The retaliation by Israel should be so severe, that this will never happen again. If 1,000 Arabs are killed, that's the minimum. But to be honest, goals are only good if they achieve something. Johnson and Schalit are like apples and oranges., unrelated completely.

Johnston is and always was pro-Palestinian and it didnt make sense for a Palestinian group holding him, it never had any mileage or advantage. Hamas are terrorist scum but they saw this and saw its damage. Instead of this journalist being a muzzled captive, a negative picture of the Palestinian people, he can go to Gaza again and criticize Israel freely and try to damage her credibility. Unfortunately, Gilad Shalit is of no use to them apart from being a prisoner exchange pawn. He is an Israeli, a Jew and an IDF soldier, they have no incentive to release him. We should continue to pray for his safe return to his family and Medinat Yisrael, sadly I dont think that it will be any time soon.

Since when does Hamas care about the fate of palestinian children and women? They have ony one obsessive disorder: the anihilation of the "Zionist entity' as they call it.

The Journalist is a civilian but Shalit not , how you can say that Shalit didn't kill anyone ... how you know this .. he is a member of a killing machine called the IDF known with killing thousends of Palistinians so how come you can say that he didn't , and if he is a teenager why they let him serve in such age it means they use children too like the Palistinians do sometimes , Shalit sure will not be free free of charge they will ask to release many prisoners for his release , Israel has no problrm to exist ... but how they will live in this area with such politic , how they want peace during they are occupieng another people from the same area , existing is not the problem but to have peace and to sleep deep is the problem , The Israelians will exist but will they live in peace .... can be but after they change their way of thinking and to try to repare the damages they caused in the last 60 years ... there is somthing is brocken has to repared that everybody have peace and to build better future for the next generatins .

The problem is the demand to release prisoners who have killed. I can't speak for the rest of Israel, but personally I am not opposed to a swap of non-violent prisoners for Gilad Shalit. You miss an important distinction. Gilad Shalit is not a criminal. He is fulfilling his civic duty. Army service for him is compulsory. His only crime is being a law-abiding Israeli. I don't know for certain but I presume that he has no blood on his hands. Regardless, he was not targetted for having blood on his hands, rather for being an Israeli. You may view the IDF as criminal if you like. Argue it all you like, I'll disagree, but you're welcome to try. It is nonetheless the military of a country and serving in the military is not in itself an illegal act. Participating in terrorist activity, whether you kill people or merely aid the activity, is a criminal act.

You are unpolite and naive and like you said ... you are sick but not because of Hanya but because of the hate you have inside you ..... and Khalid said the truth which you don't like to axept it because it doesn't suit your black way of thinking , get polite when you discuss an issue with people , Khalid didn't insult you or anothers like you did to him .... and why don't you sell your TV that you don't see Hanya anymore ....

Resistance agaist occpiers is a legal action too like serving in the millitary , the french did this too against the Germans in the 2WW and no body called terrorists .

There were Jews living in Palestine even before the immigration from Europe and Arab countries. Current Israel consists of only 25% of what used to be Palestine. 75% of Palestine became a part of Trans-Jordan, and now belongs to Jordan. Jews now have their tiny little land in Middle-East, and some arabs just can´t come to terms with that. Israelis do not want Palestinians to live in dire conditions in camps. And israelis have done a lot to try to improve their conditions. Here are the results: From June 1967 until Israel passed control to the PA in the mid-1990s, life expectancy had risen from 48 to 72 years (compared to 68 years for all the countries of the Middle East and North Africa). Per-capita GNP in the West Bank and Gaza expanded tenfold between 1968 and 1991, from $165 to $1,715 (compared with Jordan's $1,050, Egypt's $600, Turkey's $1,630, and Tunisia's $1,440). By 1999, Palestinian per-capita income was nearly double Syria's, more than four times Yemen's, and 10 percent higher than Jordan's. Not to mention the NINE universities built and financed by Israel. And there was also this housing project in 1987. During that time Israel gave Palestinians plots for free, to build their own houses. When Palestinian families started moving there, the PLO murdered some of them, and as a result, the plan foiled. I am not saying that the situation of Palestinians is ideal. (It isn´t) But whining and blaming Jews doesn´t help. Instead they should focus on what they have now, and how they can improve the situation. Arabs generally will have much more severe problems when the oil will run out in about 40 years (according to some calculations). I am worried about the possible forthcoming chaos in the Middle East and increasing poverty. Arab lands should concentrate on transforming their undeveloped oil-based economies into those of modern modern industries. As long as radical islamists rule arab countries, they will be depending on oil and in the future, when oil runs out, that will lead to a catastrophe in the Middle East.

No matter how you turn it, Khalid and Nos.15,17 &18 (actually, the same poster), no matter how "nicely" you use your hygenic explanations for Hamas terrorist acts against Shalit and against even their own, Haniyah will keep him ONLY BECAUSE HE IS JEWISH. Haniyah, his terrorists and people like you are ready to do whatever pleases you just to rationalize and just to keep Shalit in his dungeon. Whilst I am truly happy for Johnston, I am also extremely worried about Shalit. Yes, he is a teenager if one takes into account the English language. He was barely 18 when terrorists broke into Israel illegally and kidnapped him into Gaza. Now, this is your greatest exam in life Haniyah ! Are you the man you pose on television or, you are just a fake chicken ? Will you free Shalit like you did Johnston, or Jews, by Hamas standards, have a different treatment ? Why should anyone negotiate with you when you are to blame undeniably ? Why should Israel free any terrorist ? First, show you are a real human being and free Shalit and then, maybe, others will have mercy on your people, too. Not doing this immediately, you will disappoint, sadden and anger simple people like me and millions more everywhere, beyond repair.

Point is hamas kidnaped an inocent reporter, other than reporting bias news about how Israel attacks inocent people in Gaza he did nothing wrong to Hamas, but he was still kidnaped and held for 104 days. Now they let him go so the people like you can say WOW they (hamas) are resonable people. The fact is they are nothing but a terror group perriod. It was predictable that they would of realesed him, other wise they would of proved Israel and the States right. Ask your self and Hamas why he was kidnaped in the first place and held for 104 days with a belt around his waist. These people need to be wiped of the face of the earth period.

This is true. Yet there is a difference between resistance and terrorism. There is obviously a grey area which we can argue about and which I'm sure is ultimately controlled by those who write history and yet I think there is nothing ambiguous about Hamas. It is a terrorist organisation and has more interest in destroying Israel than in procuring a better quality of life for the Palestinians. Furthermore Hamas (and the like) target civilians as often soldiers (if not more). Neither by ideology nor by methodology can it be argued that Hamas is not a terrorist organisation.

Do you concider Irgun as a terrorist group too or not ?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_David_Hotel_bombing Let's see if you have one or two scales for each issue .

Lets see if i understand you, I think what your trying to say is fight terror with terror, is that right # 25? Welcome to Israeli type "terror" but remeber one thing we are much smarter, better equiped to turn of your lights, water, jobs that you want in my country the life style that you claim to hate so much, so remember my dumb arb friend king david hotel and shatela and many more.

You raise a couple good points. You're right that he was merely fulfilling a civic duty, but when arguing this you must take into conisderation the reality of the situation in "Palestine." There is no army there, Palestinians are not legally permitted to have their own army, as Israel does. To me, a Palestinian serving in Hamas is no different than an Israeli serving in the IDF. Both kill civilians, surely the IDF has killed many more, but still, it's done on both sides, regardless of who may claim it's regrettable when it happens. The IDF, the group which Gilad "aids in activity," as you put it, has demolished thousands more homes of families than Hamas has. You say you wouldn't have a problem with releasing non-violent prisoners, but why are they in prison in the first place?! Until you see the IDF as a terrorist group, or at least accept that most Palestinians see them as such, just like you see Hamas as a terrorist group, then unfortunately there will be no swap. Luckily, I see them both as terrorists, Hamas and the IDF.

Hamas didn't kidnap the reporter. The Doghmush clan, who everyone on the streets of Gaza City knows had extremely close ties with Mohamad Dahlan and the Preventive Security force of Fatah, kidnapped him to show the world that Hamas can't keep law and order in Gaza. Hamas killed two members of the gang and threatened to kill one member each week until he was freed, Doghmush was afraid to get slaughtered by Hamas (which in my opinion is what Hamas should do now) and released Johnston thankfully.

Hamas did not kidnap him, the army of Islam (or some other really originally named splinter group did it). Unless it was all an elborate plan, which i would say with his media bias was more likely to have been concocted by Johnston himself rather than Hamas or any other group.

How about Israel start to kill one Hamas prisoner every day until they release Shalit? If its good for Hamas then it must be good for Israel dont you think? Do you still want to play your stupid game now moron?