Why should we pay to release this guy?
You will all recall that Egypt is holding 'American Israeli' Ilan Grapel, whom they allege is a Mossad spy. You will also recall that the evidence against Mr. Grapel is... uh... flimsy.... So Egypt is looking to cut a deal to free Mr. Grapel, because the Americans want him freed (Mr. Grapel is a law student from Emory University in Atlanta, and aside from a brief stint with the IDF as an overseas volunteer in 2005-06 apparently has very little connection to Israel). So why is Israel apparently willing to release 81(!) Egyptians being held in Israeli jails in exchange for this moron? And what kind of precedent are we setting with respect to - for example - Gilad Shalit, who is an Israeli resident and was an active IDF soldier at the time of his kidnapping? Egypt wants Israel to free 78 Egyptian prisoners in exchange for Ilan Grapel, an Israeli-American national accused of spying and held by Cairo since June.The other demands are said to be American weapons systems, and presumably Israel's consent to the Americans providing them.
The demand was presented during US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta's visit to Cairo, according to al-Ahram, a newspaper associated with the Egyptian government. In addition, Egypt wants Israel to release three Egyptian minors currently held at the Beersheba prison.
The Egyptian paper reported that Cairo made other demands that are currently being examined by Jerusalem and Washington. If the conditions are accepted, Israel and Egypt are expected to launch direct talks aimed at closing the deal.
This is beyond absurd. Since June, the price for releasing this guy has gone from three to 25 to 81 plus weapons. Israel should announce that anyone who visits Egypt does so at their own risk. We should take the same action with respect to Egyptian tourism that we took with respect to Turkish tourism. It's absurd that we're asked to release 81 prisoners (will 1,000 Hamas terrorists be next?) because some stupid kid decided to go to Egypt on his school vacation. Will they nab a real Israeli tourist next?
What could go wrong?
Labels: Ilan Grapel, Mossad, prisoner exchange, spying
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:18 AM
1 Comments:
An American citizen is being held in an Egyptian prison and the Obama administration is pressuring Israel? How's the outreach to the Muslim world doing Barack?
January 2013 can't get here fast enough.
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