By Dell Hill
Would you approve of the United States swapping 1,027 Al Qaeda prisoners - some serving as much as 35 life sentences - for one American soldier?
That’s the question many Israeli citizens are asking as a major prisoner swap, involving
that many Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the release of Sgt. Gilad Schalit. The swap is scheduled for Tuesday and we get the basic of this story from the Associated Press.
Sgt. Gilad Schalit
This week's planned Mideast prisoner swap is unleashing deep anguish in Israel and widespread elation in the Palestinian territories, laying bare the chasm of perspective dividing the two sides.
In Israel, the public is aghast at having to release convicted perpetrators of suicide bombings, deadly shootings and grisly kidnappings, although most understand that's what it takes to win freedom for a soldier captured during a routine patrol inside Israel at age 19.
The Palestinians, with equal vehemence, see the returnees as heroes who fought an occupier at a time of violence and argue moral equivalence between their actions and those of Israel's army.
These diverging narratives have been reflected in reactions to the deal, in which Israel will free some 1,027 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Sgt. Gilad Schalit, captured by Gaza militants in a cross-border raid in June 2006.
I encourage you to click on this link and read the entire report. It’s extremely well written and offers considerable, in depth reporting.
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