Haaretz reports:
That sentence confuses me. He will be paid NIS 22,684 for the whole year, or that is what the remuneration stands at currently, which would mean about $5 grand a month? Either way, it sounds like the job is basically a volunteer position, and Hadas will have his work cut out for him, despite Joe Klein’s bizarre claim this week that “the release of the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit is a triumph of diplomacy.” Shalit remains in confinement under God knows what kind of conditions and at the mercy of a terrorist group, and both Hamas and the Israeli government have denied reports that a deal for his release has been struck. In fact, Hamas has refused to provide even proof that Shalit is alive or allow him a visit with the Red Cross. When the Bush administration refused Red Cross access to illegal combatants they were pilloried by the left, but Hamas denies these rights to a uniformed combatant and Klein didn’t even bother to ask Khaled Meshaal about the kid when he interviewed him earlier this month. Haaretz does have an interesting write-up of where things stand now in the negotiations for the release of Shalit. According to the paper, there has been some progress, but “it will probably still be a long way before tangible achievements are at hand, and this is especially true with regard to Gilad Shalit.”
