Gilad Schalit, Our National Son, Emerging

 

 

In this photo taken Thursday, July 12, 2012, freed Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit attends a Bastille Day event at the French Ambassador’s residence in Tel Aviv, Israel. Nine months after he was freed from Hamas captivity in a massive prisoner swap, Gilad Schalit is emerging from the shadows, showing up at parties, sporting events and in gossip columns. But the shy former soldier remains an enigma. He's refrained from giving interviews and has shared few details about his five and a half years of captivity in a Gaza basement. Unlike former prisoners of war, though, he hasn't vanished from sight either. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

By Aron Heller

Associated Press / July 14, 2012

JERUSALEM—Nine months after he was freed from Hamas captivity in a lopsided prisoner swap, Gilad Schalit is emerging from the shadows -- showing up at parties, sporting events and even writing a newspaper column.

Even so, the former Israeli soldier remains an enigma. He has refrained from giving interviews and has shared few details about his 5 1/2 years of captivity in a Gaza basement. But he hasn't vanished from sight -- quite the opposite.

The slender 25-year-old has morphed into a celebrity from an awkward, anonymous teenager whose plight inspired a nationwide campaign. While he still enjoys widespread public support, some Israelis are beginning to question whether his tragic ordeal has been converted into undue hero status.

Palestinian militants abducted a wounded Schalit from his tank in June 2006 in a brazen cross-border infiltration from Gaza. After years of failed negotiations and mounting public pressure, Israel agreed to free more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners, including hundreds of convicted killers, in exchange for his freedom. Schalit was joyously welcomed home, but the government also faced criticism for agreeing to such a one-sided swap.

The nation embraced Schalit as a symbol largely because most Israelis his age -- men and women -- do compulsory military service. Parents of present, future and past soldiers -- and that is just about everyone in Israel -- empathized with the Schalit family, picturing their own sons in captivity.

Schalit has been recuperating quietly at his home in northern Israel -- and in stark contrast, making public appearances.

He has been serenaded at music concerts, spotted at a Davis Cup tennis match, seated courtside at basketball games and even played in a celebrity game himself. Israel's most popular comedy show based a character on him, and Israeli celebrities have lined up to be photographed with him and then rushed to post the photos online.

Recently he became a high-profile sports columnist for Yediot Ahronot, Israel's largest newspaper, traveling to the NBA Finals and the Euro 2012 soccer championships. On Thursday, he was the guest of honor at Bastille Day celebrations at the French ambassador's home in Tel Aviv, where onlookers snapped photos of him on their cellphones.

The superstar treatment follows him abroad. He attended the NBA All-Star game in Orlando, where he hung with Israeli player Omri Casspi, and the Israeli consul-general's office in Miami posted a picture of him on Facebook interviewing University of Miami star running back Mike James. In Florida, he attended a baseball game and was hosted by the NBA Miami Heat's Israeli-born owner Micky Arison.

Schalit has been named an honorary citizen of Paris, Rome, Miami, New Orleans, Baltimore and Pittsburgh. In the most publicized event, former French President Nicolas Sarkozy ceremoniously feted the dual Israeli-French citizen at the Elysee Palace.

Schalit's family has also been front and center. His father, Noam, who led the media campaign for his son, announced less than a month after the release that he was entering politics and would run as a Labor Party candidate. Schalit's older brother, Yoel, met his girlfriend through the campaign -- she was an activist -- and news of their upcoming wedding made headlines in Israeli newspapers.

Israel's main TV entertainment show covered Schalit's visit to the set of the Showtime hit-series "Homeland," which is based on the Israeli series "Prisoners of War." The theme of the show, about how a released POW returns home to his family, is similar to Schalit's saga in some aspects.

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Schalit is  a die-hard sports fan and has said he gained strength from sports during his captivity, keeping up to date on the rare occasions his captors allowed him to listen to radio or watch TV.

Other than that, he doesn't appear to have any expertise, and his column has been dismissed by critics.

For the most part, the  Israeli media has surprisingly respected his request for privacy and generally portrays Schalit as Israel's "national son" who can do no wrong after losing five years of his life.

Noam Schalit turned down an Associated Press request to interview his son, saying he was not yet ready to face the media -- despite his public appearances and his own media presence.

Those close to Schalit also would not discuss his current state. Henig would not return phone calls, and the editor-in-chief of Yediot Ahronot declined comment, citing his privacy, as did a group that aids former prisoners of war.

"If Gilad chooses to be interviewed, that, of course, is his right," responded Orly Lieberman, secretary of a nonprofit devoted to helping former POW's. "Our choice is to allow him to rehabilitate his life without media coverage."

© Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Terrible plight of girl, 18, raped for FIVE DAYS after being abducted from home (and now her mother claims she wants her killed if she doesn’t get justice)

By Leon Watson

A rape victim's mother has threatened to kill her own daughter rather than face the 'shame' of seeing her attackers go free.
Lal Bibi, 18, was abducted from her home and raped for five days in Afghanistan's northern Kunduz Province.
Her mother said: 'I want the government to help us. If they don't, I'll tell them to come and kill my daughter...'

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Lal Bibi (centre) was abducted from her home and raped for five days in Afghanistan's northern Kunduz Province

Speaking about the abduction, she told CNN: 'They handcuffed my daughter, they tied my hands and my husband's. They were saying they wanted to take my daughter.'
She said Lal Bibi was abducted and over the course of the next five days, was beaten by her abductors and repeatedly raped by one of them.
Five men have been accused in the attack. Authorities say two have been detained and are being held for further investigation.

More...

• U.S. government to use 'drones the size of GOLF BALLS to spy on AMERICAN citizens'
• More than a thousand military personnel to be axed TODAY and another 2,600 to go voluntarily

Both men insist they're innocent and say the incident was nothing more than a tribal settlement to resolve a family dispute.
While killing a rape victim in Kunduz there isn't rare, speaking out about it so openly is.
Officials and family members say one of Lal Bibi's relatives angered a family with close ties to an Afghan police commander.

Five men have been accused in the attack. Authorities say two have been detained

They agree that Lal Bibi's abduction and abuse was in retaliation for a relationship that her cousin had with the daughter of one of the police commander's subordinates.
All of the accused are members of the Afghan Local Police, or ALP, according to authorities.
Trained by U.S. special forces, the ALP was formed to protect civilians in areas of Afghanistan where security forces struggle to fight the insurgency.
However, allegations of corruption, violence and human rights abuses carried out by its 13,000 members are widespread.
Sharif Safi, chief military prosecutor for Kunduz Province, told CNN in addition to the two ALP members already detained, he is pursuing the other three.
'We've sent at least three warrants to the police chief's office to arrest these three men, but so far they haven't,' Mr Safi said. 'I am going to seriously follow this.'
Women's rights groups say that even if the men are sentenced, they'll most probably get off lightly, as decades of tradition have shown.
Fawzia Koofi, an Afghan member of parliament and women's rights activist, said: 'In [this] case I'm sure she cannot go back to her district or her province because of the reputation and prestige of the family.
'Many people still don't regard her as a victim.'
The campaigner said traditional society will say Lal Bibi, who is now in hiding, has brought this on herself


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2158153/Terrible-plight-girl-18-raped-FIVE-DAYS-abducted-home-mother-claims-wants-killed-doesn-t-justice.html#ixzz20TCGYtM1

Jewish Support For Obama Strong

 By Lauren Markoe
Religion News Service

WASHINGTON (RNS) Despite Democratic worries that President Obama could lose Jewish support over his Middle East policies, a new poll indicates that Israel is not the top political issue of American Jews, with only 4 percent calling it the most important factor in their vote.
Like most Americans, Jews are primarily concerned about the economy, the poll found, but they differ from the general public on a number of political and social issues, including their relative willingness to accept Muslims and same-sex marriage.
The findings emerged Tuesday (April 3) from a new survey released by the Public Religion Research Institute, which aimed to identify the religious issues and ideas that Jewish Americans consider most important. The results, said PRRI CEO Robert P. Jones, show a strong Jewish streak for social and economic justice.
"These values resonate with religious Jews as well as Jews who identify as culturally or ethnically Jewish," he said.
Eight in 10 respondents said pursuing justice and caring for the widow and the orphan are important in shaping their politics -- ranking higher than any of the four other "values'" listed on the survey.
Ranking lowest: "seeing every person as made in the image of God," with 55 percent calling it a very or somewhat important motivator of their political beliefs.

 

More Jews (46 percent) named a "commitment to social equality" as the factor most important to their Jewish identity, followed by 20 percent who said "support for Israel" and 17 percent who said "religious observance."
As for Jewish views on Muslims, 66 percent agree that American Muslims are an important part of the U.S. religious fabric -- markedly higher than the 54 percent of all Americans who hold this view.
On the issue of same-sex marriage, 81 percent of Jews (compared to 51 percent of all Americans) believe it should be legal in all or most cases. The Reform movement, the largest and most liberal strain of American Judaism, allows same-sex marriage, along with parts of the Conservative movement.
The poll also showed Jewish voters' strong support for Obama. Twice as many said they would vote for Obama over a GOP candidate. That level of support is nearly unchanged from the same point during Obama's first presidential run.
Kenneth Wald, a political science professor who studies Jewish voting patterns at the University of Florida, said he has heard the political chatter that U.S. Jews are so upset with Obama's treatment of Israel that they will move away from their traditionally Democratic leanings and vote for a GOP challenger -- but the survey doesn't find evidence for that.
"About three out of four American Jews voted Democratic in 2008," Wald said. "Something relatively similar is likely to occur in 2012."
Jews also expressed a strong preference for diplomacy over military approaches in U.S. foreign policy, preferring diplomatic means by a more than two-to-one margin. But there are significant partisan differences on this issue, with 81 percent of Jewish Democrats choosing diplomatic tactics, compared to 35 percent of Jewish Republicans.
The survey of 1,004 American Jews, which was one of the few studies of Jews conducted by a non-Jewish organization, has a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percentage points. It was funded by a grant from the Nathan Cummings Foundation.

Lance Corporal Nicole McCoy Wants Soldiers Who are Found Guilty of Rape to Register as Sex Offenders

Lance Corporal Nicole McCoy wants soldiers who are found guilty of rape and sexual assault in the military to be identified as sex offenders. 
It's time that women who serve our country be treated with dignity and respect. MFB
 I  served as a Lance Corporal in the Marines for over three years. During that time, I was raped twice and sexually assaulted twice more. It happened so often that I assumed it must be normal.
After I left the Marines, I learned that some studies estimate that one in three women who serve in the US military are raped during their service. But according to current military law, military rapists are not required to register as sex offenders in a national database or to list their crimes on their discharge papers.
I don't think it's right that some convicted sex offenders get to wipe their records clean when they leave the military.
That's why I started a petition on Change.org asking the Department of Defense to create a mandatory national database for convicted military sex offenders -- and to make sure they register at the local level too.
Click here to add your name to my petition.

When I tried to find out why some military sex offenders don't have to disclose their crimes, I was told it would take too long to create a national database, and even that the military is trying to "go green," and it takes too much paper to add an extra checkbox to discharge papers.The truth is that most military sex offenders never have to pay for their crimes. Studies say that only 14% of rapes in the military are reported, and only 8% result in a court martial. And because there's no central listing for those who are convicted of sexual assault in military courts, communities and employers (even the Veterans Administration) have few ways of identifying them.
When I tried to report what happened to me, I was led through a maze of questions and excuses. It felt like no one wanted to hear what happened to me. Instead of getting justice, I was ostracized and humiliated. But I'm not going to stand by in silence anymore. I know that if enough people sign my petition, the Department of Defense will be forced to address this issue.
Click here to sign my petition demanding that the Department of Defense require soldiers convicted of sexual assault in military courts to register on a national database, as well as register in their local state registry.
Thank you,
Lance Corporal Nicole McCoy