What he's really saying is he's afraid of Muslims rioting in France.

Sarkozy seems to think that the blockade was set up to punish Hamas and keeping it is meant to get Gilad back. Wrong, it is to keep Hamas from transferring him out to Syria or Iran. As long as we know they have him, and that he is alive, they have to keep him that way.

The purpose of the blockade is to prevent rockets from raining down on innocent men, women and children in cities like Sderot. With friends like the governments of the US and France, who are clueless as to the causes of conflict in the region, who needs enemies?

hamas has no intention of giving up iits use of shalit as a propaganda tool

Israel was forced upon the Palestinians. Palestine will have to be forced in Palestine aslo. Noathing else would work, Peace for all.

There is only one thing this President is good in LOOSING. He is good as his Equipe. Go and bring back some dignity to your country.Cule

the leadership in Israel on what will bring Shalit back. I can't help but laugh. The Shalits are French citizens and he hasn't done a thing for them but he is worried about the condition of the Palestinians. What a joke, If you don't want to do a thing for your citizens keep your long French nose out of Israel's business

Ah Mr. Sarkozy words only empty words. I can’t help but wonder what your reaction would be had Shalit not been an Israeli citizen too? A more appropriate reaction would have been that if Shalit is not released to France within 24 hours ALL Palestinians living in France would be labeled “persona non grata” and kicked out of France. But that would take guts and you don’t seem to have any!

was never meant to free gilad shalit, mr. sarkozy. it was meant to keep hamas from obtaining further weapons and missilesith which to terrorise and kill jews in israel. also, there is no such thing as deprivation in gaza. not atall. checked the images of life in gaza lately, mr. sarkozy??? it is in fact 100-500% better than those you europeans ignore in darfur, somalia and the palestinians arab regugees languishing in concentration camps arab nations such as syria, egypt, lebanon built for the palestinians in their countries. no food there, not allowed to work, not allowed to socially integrate with others, not allowed to hold a citizenship, not allowed education in any of these countries. this is not a policy that israel instituted for its arab palestinians in the west bank and in fact, when they were in gaza, israel built schools and even universities there and employed the gaza arab population until the terror started. europe just gave over a billion dollars to hamas to rebuild gaza. the usa just gave 6 million dollars. have you seen any dollar or euro being used for the good of the palestinians in gaza, mr. sarkozy??? no! all that money is in hamas hands to become rich with, to build villas, to travel to europe in expensive planes, fancy suits and to fatten their european bank accounts. note a penny of this money will ever be spent on the gazans. not a single penny. europe and the usa, you are encouraging terrorism by supporting it financially and you are complaining about israel. after all, israel is trying to undo the horenduous damage that you always cause in the middle east. stop funding the terror cells in gaza. stop funding and giving money to terror organizations in the hope they will change their mandate and beliefs. IT WON'T HAPPEN. YOU HAVE NO CLUE WHO YOU ARE SUPPORTING OR DEALING WITH AND IN THE PROCESS MAKE IT HELL FOR ISRAELIS AND THEIR SECURITY ON THE GROUND. mr. sarkozy...ACTIONS, ACTIONS, NOT JUST WORDS BECAUSE AFTER ALL, THE JEWS IN ISRAEL WILL PAY FOR YOUR WORDS AND DEEDS, NOT YOUR CITIZENS IN PARIS. STOP BARKING NONESENSE AND START ACTING LIKE A RESPONSIBLE PERSON TOGETHER WITH YOUR EUROPEAN WIMPS AND LOOSERS. you and your european countries as well as the usa already betrayed the freedom loving green movement people of iran. you betrayed them with your inaction and your silence and with your total ignorance as to the plans and idealism of the most barbaric regimes in the arab and iranian countries. like the arabs say; first the saturday people (the jews), then the sunday people (the christians). who will be left to bark in your place? think about it, mr. sarkozy. you suffer from too much lack of common sense and a huge problem with verbal diarreah. hameed aboughaze, iranian hameed aboughaze, iranian

In that case Monsieur Le President, no need to lift the blockade.

sarkosy is wright even if the all world speak about the marmara without talking about one of the reason of the gaza blokage.I know it's not the solution .The problem even if you give them more they wont free gilad.I think they shoud give them the criminal they asking for

No the blockade will not end the captivity of Shalit. Only the exhange of 2,000 Pal prisoners amny with blood on their hands will and the reason for that insane imbalance is thay you and your EU counterparts have chosen to underwite the idea that there is equality in the Israeli and Hamas positions. There isn't and you know it, but you ignore it because you have millions of post-colonial Arab/Muslim citizens and thousands who riot and destroy almost nightky in parts of Paris where even the police dare not walk. Until you, Sarko and your Euroweakling colleagues take a stand for what's right., you leave the rules to Israel and Hamas. Israel's rules are very tough as they are abourt survival and they will enforce with little thought for the pleasantries you'd wish to see.

do with Gilad. HAMAS is firing missles into our cities and towns!

he proved some "politicaly incorrect" concern for Gilad' s fate. PS1: I' m no Sarkozy-follower! PS2: @4 got it right! PS3: Shabbat Shalom!

Sarkozy - where have you been or any other Euro leader for that matter? - Europe's COLLECTIVE silence about the fate of Gilad Shalit is nothing short of ASTOUNDING, i despair i want to know what is going to be done about it - short of an Israeli incursion into the Gaza terror pit to free him and then be condemned with a crescendo from all the despotic dictators and the western world and his wife! It beggars belief how mad all this is. What exaclty are the Israelis supposed to do when they HAVE to DEFEND themselves, what does Israel have to do to make the world happy? I can't help but suspect they want Israel to slit her own throat.. NEVER.

The French know all about liberty unlike the Israelis who only believe in liberty for themselves. Not one country in the world supports the blockade of Gaza by Israel, liberty for one does not come at the expense of the people of Gaza.

sarkozy's argument that the blockade will not free shalit does not prove the converse: lifting the blockade will equally certainly not free him, either. the blockade is in place for one simple, vital reason, to restrict the flow of weapons to hamas, in order to protect the israelis living near the border with gaza. to lift the blockade is to guarantee an increase in the intensity of rocket fire from gaza, and in the size, range, and sophistication of the weapons available to hamas terrorists. hamas' priority is the destruction of israel, not the freeing of gilad shalit, or any of the palestinian terrorists in israeli jails. "lifting the blockade" is a convenient but brainless slogan, so typical of european middle east policy. it allows eurpean politicians to show their humanitarian concerns (at least for the arabs), without giving any consideration whatsoever to the rights of israeli victims of palestinian aggression. it ignores the fact that there is no shortage of goods in gaza, outside of staged paliwood productions, and the fact that the smuggling tunnels might be used for civilian goods if hamas really cared about the people of gaza. to conflate it with gilad shalit's captivity is an exercise in gallic sophistry that non-french people simply cannot grasp.

shalit will be freed, when hamas can no longer afford to hold him. unfortunately, the current israeli strategy of bargaining for him like some cheap rug in the shouq, only makes things worse, by strengthening hamas' image as the "liberator" of palestinian terrorists, and by raising the "price" of israeli captives. the rules of the game must change. the israeli government needs only to look in the torah for a lesson in freeing captives from egypt - to the story of the exodus. it is clear that it was not sufficient to bring nine plagues on the people of egypt, but god had to threaten the life of pharaoh himself, before pharaoh agreed to let the children of israel leave. hamas is more than willing to sacrifice the people of gaza "for the cause", but far less eager "to get to paradise" themselves. if one hamas leader a week were to meet an untimely death until shalit is freed, they might decide that it was too much trouble keeping him in captivity. or not, but in the meantime, there will be a few less terrorists. with their 3,500 year old handbook for "freeing israelites from captivity in egypt" in hand, maybe the government could do better than the current stalemate.

ONly an idiot would ease the suffeirng of the jew killing hamas gaza. Only the lives of the entirety of gaza should be swapped for Shalit. MIllions of gazan lives could not be worth more than the one life of my son. An israeli leader who thinks like that would have shalit long ago. Bibi is like sarkozy: a cynical politician who turns the nations children into cannon fodder to please the 2000 year euro jew killers.

French: they can not control even their soccer / football team, disgrace , mon Dieu

And the palestinians also are where they belong and must be...for always