Tel Avivians Mocked on Shalit Approach

Anonymous person sends out new animation clip on internet depicting 'Tel Avivians' and Facebook users who added Gilad Shalit's picture to their profile as harming effort to secure his release.

VIDEO - The Shalit family's campaign and its supporters has now received a counter-response. An animation clip recently uploaded to YouTube, entitled "Gilad Shalit Waiting for an Operation," presents the supports of a prisoner swap deal to secure the release of the Israeli soldier held in Hamas captivity as playing into the terrorist group's hands.

The Facebook users who chose to show their support for the soldier by adding a badge on their Facebook profile picture are also the targets of ridicule in the animation clip. They, along with characters with "Tel Avivian" characteristics, are also accused of harming efforts to release the soldier.

Representatives of the Almagor Terror Victims' Association sent out a link to the video on Monday, but it remains unclear who is behind the clip itself.

At the end of the clip, its authors wrote, "Like the majority of the Israeli population, we pray for the speedy return home of Gilad Shalit. We are proud of the solidarity being shown by the Israeli public, the massive caring being displayed by the country's residents. This is true proof of the mutual responsibility that characterizes our people and its willingness to take action and provide support in times of crisis."



However, the authors explained, "Each and every one of us must ask himself whether some of this support actually promotes Shalit's return, or whether it merely worsens the situation, pushes off his return, and weakens Israel against the enemy. In order to bring Shalit back, it is necessary that we understand the rules of the game in the Middle East as they really are, and not as we would like them to be."

In conclusion, the animators wrote, "The four long years of Shalit's captivity indeed prove that we must re-examine our course of action until now. However, they do not obligate Israel's surrender, of all things, to those interested in its destruction and receiving all of their demands. Such surrender is liable to be an eternal source of trouble that will cost much innocent blood."

Two weeks ago, Hamas posted a video on YouTube showing two armed and masked men next to images of Gilad Shalit taken from the video clip of the soldier released a year ago.

In the video, one of the men is waving a rifle in his hand, while the other takes some papers and objects out of his bag. At a certain point, the screen goes black, and the words "Will the mission be completed?" are written across the screen. At the end of the clip, the sound of a weapon being cocked and gunshots are heard.



Ynet News

Egypt: Shalit Likely Moved to New Hideout

Cairo sources say recent arrest of senior Hamas operative privy to kidnapped Israeli soldier's location has prompted Gaza Islamist group to order he be moved immediately

The recent arrest of Mohammed Dababish, a top Hamas intelligence officer, in Egypt has prompted the Gaza group to move kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Shalit to a new hideout.

According to Cairo's intelligence services, Dababish is among of a handful of Hamas officials who know exactly where Shalit is being held and who his captors are. His arrest 10 day ago – for allegedly trying to use a fake passport to cross from Egypt to Gaza – is believed to have sparked considerable concern within the Islamist group.

Egyptian intelligence sources ventured that following the arrest, the Israeli soldier's captures were ordered to move him to a new location immediately.

Dababish's arrest, according to several sources, was made possible following information given to Cairo's intelligence services by their Israeli and American counterparts.

It has also come to light that a recent Egyptian warning to Israel about Palestinian militants plan to fire missiles at Israel from Sinai derived from information Dababish gave his interrogators.

Cairo has rejected Hamas' demand to release their operative, who the group claims was on a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia when he was arrested.

Egypt however, believed Dababish was returning from the Strip from Damascus, where he devised a plan to smuggle weapons into Gaza Strip.

Ynet News

Hamas Posts New Gilad Shalit Video

Group shows gunmen flanking kidnapped soldier in latest propaganda clip threatening his death

By Ali Waked

VIDEO - A new video was posted on YouTube by Hamas on Monday, showing kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit flanked by two gunmen on either side. The clip ends with the sound of gunfire.

In the video one of the men holds a rifle while the other removes various items from a case. Between them is the image of Gilad Shalit, as he appeared in a previous video made public one year ago.

After a few moments the screen goes dark, and a phrase appears on the screen: "Will the mission be completed?" it says. Then gunshots are sounded.

The film was not the first to be released by the terror organization responsible for kidnapping the soldier. The previous propaganda clip was posted on a website belonging to Hamas's military wing in June.

It showed an Israeli tank on the border with Gaza, and a drone flying through the air above. Then the tank, in which Shalit is located, blows up. "The illusion is shattered," says the screen.

The website's homepage displays a timeline ranging from June 25, 2006 – when Shalit was kidnapped – until today. Next to 2010 it says, "Four years and Gilad is still ours".



Ynet News

Gilad Shalit - Censor went too far

Hamas figure denounces Shalit 3D video
Mahmoud al-Zahar condemns propaganda video showing aging father of kidnapped soldier waiting for his son's return, says 'we have not killed in past; will never kill captive Israeli soldiers – our morals prevent us from doing so'

Published: 04.27.10, 00:09 / Israel News

VIDEO - Senior Hamas figure Mahmoud al-Zahar on Monday condemned the animation video released by Hamas' military wing, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades. The propaganda video shows Noam Shalit, kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit's father, walking the streets of Israel in another 20 years, clutching a picture of his son, who is still in captivity.

After a meeting between Hamas parliament members and a parliamentary delegation from South Africa, Al-Zahar told reporters that the video "does not reflect Hamas' official stance."

The senior figure denounced the insinuation made in the video, according to which his organization might kill Shalit. "We have not killed in the past and will never kill captive Israeli soldiers," he said, "Our morals prevent us from doing so."

Al-Zahar emphasized that the video is "not a political or humanitarian attempt and does not reflect the faction's position, which objects killing captured soldiers and does not allow it, in order not to justify the Israeli position vis-à-vis Palestinian and Arab prisoners."

Noam Shalit responded to the video's release on Sunday, saying, "It is a shame that Hamas leaders continue to choose psychologically warfare for the who-knows-what time against our family and against the Israeli public instead of addressing and authorizing the German prisoner swap deal that has been on their table for four months with no response."

The elderly man walking in the animation is Gilad's father who at the end is given his son, Gilad, in a coffin. The sole purpose of Hamas's animation is to terrorize his familty through Psychological and Emotional trauma. Hamas, a terrorist organization will go to any level, including making a film of a captured Israeli soldiers father walking the streets as an elderly man still hoping for the return of his son, to demonstrate how callous and terrorist their organization is.

Hamas released an animated film of abducted Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit bearing a grisly message for Israel: If it doesn't meet the Islamic militant group's demands, the Israeli soldier it has held for nearly four years could return home in a coffin.

Hamas is well known for using media and cartoons to indoctrinate children into becoming martyrs. The latest animation of Gilad Shalit demonstrates Hamas is a terrorist organization seeking to exploit Gilad with the intention of inflicting emotional and psychological trauma, hence terrorism, upon his family.

"THERE ARE 1.5 MILION PEOPLE LIVING IN GAZA AND ONLY ONE OF THEM REALLY NEEDS HUMANITARIAN AID. ONLY ONE OF THEM IS LOCKED IN A TINY ROOM AND NEVER SEES THE LIGHT OF DAY, ONLY ONE OF THEM IS NOT ALLOWED VISITS AND IS IN UNCERTAIN HEALTH - HIS NAME IS GILAD SHALIT, AND THIS MONTH FOUR YEARS WILL HAVE PASSED SINCE HE WAS KIDNAPPED." ~Defense Minister Ehud Barak ~