Reports Indicate Yet Another Attempted Deal To Swap Shalit For 1,000 Palestinian Prisoners UPDATE: Done Deal!

We've been down this particular path so many times that I've lost count. Gilad Shalit has been held by Islamic terrorists in Gaza for more than five years and has been refused access by the Red Cross and other humanitarian groups. Hamas refuses to release him on humanitarian grounds and sees him as nothing more than a pawn in order to secure the release of hundreds or thousands of Palestinians, including noted terrorists who have Israeli blood on their hands.

That's what the New York Times is indicating in the latest iteration. The Israeli government is apparently working a back channel deal to secure the release of Gilad Shalit in exchange for hundreds of Palestinians.

No good can come from the release of hundreds of Palestinians held by Israel for terror activities and attacks against Israelis. Hamas will use the release as yet another opportunity to crow about the ability to outlast Israel and that Israel will eventually collapse because Israel will be incapable of defending itself from these kinds of attacks and incidents.

Where is the price Hamas will pay for holding Shalit? What would keep Hamas from carrying out more kidnappings to extort still more concessions from Israel? There are none. Yet, at the end of the day, Shalit will likely come home and Palestinian prisoners will get released to adoring crowds of Palestinians cheering the murderers that are released.

That isn't justice. That's lamentable.

UPDATE:
Apparently the Israeli cabinet is going to be meeting to discuss approval of such a deal.

Is the Shalit deal within grasp? Saudi Arabia's Al-Arabiya TV reported Tuesday that Egypt has made a breakthrough in its mediation of a deal meant to secure the release of kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Shalit, and that such an exchange may take place as early as November.

An Israeli official confirmed that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has convened his cabinet to discuss the prisoner exchange deal that would bring the Hamas-held soldier back home.

The prisoner swap would see Shalit exchanged for some 1,000 Palestinian militants held by Israel. A source involved in the talks said the deal would see the prisoners released in a two-stage arrangement, the first involving the release of 450 for the soldier, with the remaining 550 freed at a later time.

UPDATE:
Hamas is already crowing: Hamas officials call Schalit deal a 'historic victory'
Izaddin al-Kassam spokesman claims that Israel has accepted all the demands of the captors.

Abu Obaida, spokesman for the armed wing of Hamas, Izaddin al-Kassam, said that the agreement includes prisoners from east Jerusalem, Israeli Arabs and all females and minors. He also pointed out that two-thirds of the prisoners who would be released in return for Gilad Schalit are serving lengthy terms in prison.

There's no word on whether noted terrorist Marwan Barghouti is among those who will be released. His name had come up repeatedly over the past five years.