BARBARA'S TCHATZKAHS

MISSING THEM Missingthem.net is staging an art-inspired protest today at airports around the world calling attention to three missing Israeli soldiers - Ehud Goldwasser, Eldad Regev and Gilad Shalit - who were kidnapped from Israel’s northern border with Lebanon and southern border with Gaza in 2006. More information can be found on the site of advocacy group HaBanim (meaning, “the sons” in Hebrew) including how many days all three have been missing in action - which is at least 560 and counting - and how you can help (donating or signing their petition). As part of the demonstration, volunteers from around the world will wait at airport arrival halls with blank notices. You know how there are always people waiting with signs welcoming their loved ones, seeking clients or assembling groups? Well, although the signs will be symbolically blank, there are plenty of people waiting for these three young men to come home. The website is mostly in Hebrew but there is enough English here and ...

AND WHITHER GOETH GILAD SHALIT? With Goldwasser and Regev most probably dead, hopes for the safe return for Gilad Shalit remain. Barghouthi's ego continues to see his release as the best hope for the Palestinians. I continue to pray for Shalit and his parents. An interview with Marwan Barghouthi in Yedioth Ahronoth ‘The moment that Abbas officially announces his resignation, even if I am in prison, I will put forward my candidacy for President (of the Palestinian Authority) and I will win.’ This is what Marwan Barghouthi said from his cell - number 28, section 3 - during an exclusive interview with Yedioth Ahronoth, later republished in the Al-Quds newspaper as its lead story. The imprisoned Palestinian leader has spent 5 years in an Israeli prison and there are many awaiting his announcement [to run as President of the Palestinian Authority]; not just in Ramallah, Gaza or Nablus, but in wider circles, including within the office of Ehud Olmert, Prime Minister of Israel. Barghouth...