Local News

The world's ignoring of the Hamas kidnapping of Gilad Schalit is outrageous ...as is the attitude that the whole affair is, somehow, just "local news".

The report from the Financial Times:

Pressure builds on PM over captive Israeli
By Vita Bekker in Tel Aviv
Published: June 28 2010

"Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, faced escalating pressure yesterday to clinch a deal with Hamas on the release of a captured Israeli soldier as thousands of demonstrators pressed the government to step up talks on a prisoner swap.

The family of Gilad Shalit, a conscript captured by militants from the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip in June 2006, set out on a 12-day, 200km march from their community near the Lebanese border to the official Jerusalem residence of Mr Netanyahu along with some 2,500 supporters.

Many marchers donned white T-shirts and baseball caps emblazoned with the slogan "Gilad is still alive", wore yellow ribbons on their wrists or backpacks in the colour of the campaign and waved Israeli flags or banners reading: "It's time to bring Gilad home."

Noam Shalit, the father of the soldier, who has until now conducted a mostly low-key campaign to have his 23-year-old son freed, pledged to camp outside Mr Netanyahu's home until Sgt Shalit was released." -more