"We give the Zionist enemy until 6:00 tomorrow morning, Tuesday, July 4." This was the message faxed out to news agencies today and posted on the Hamas website. Unless the Israeli government gives into the captors' demands, which include releasing Palestinian prisoners, Israel will "pay the full future consequences." These "future consequences" were not defined but it is clear that the fate of the kidnapped soldier, Gilad Shalit, is on the line.
Ah, just another typical day in Jerusalem at The Media Line. It's hard not to bite my nails when this ultimatum and the invasion into Gaza dominate every headline in site. But at least no one in Israel has the Monday blues. This is probably because the work week starts on Sundays here with the Israeli "weekend" on Friday-Saturday instead of North America's Saturday-Sunday.
In my last post I mentioned that women voted and ran for the first time in Kuwaiti elections. The results of Thursday's election have been disappointing. None of the 28 women won any seats. With women representing 57 percent of the electorate, there was a chance that a woman would sit in the 50 seat parliament. Analysts have said that women probably voted the same way as their husbands which the Media Line reports, "may not have been their personal choice." Well, it's still a victory in my books.
Now I'm working on my own story ideas which I have to say is not easy. The Jerusalem International Film Festival is coming to town next week. Roman Polanski, Kim Cattrall and Geoff Goldblum are attending. I doubt I will see them but you never know…I'm probably going to catch a film called Hothouse about Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, which is relevant to what is going on right now, with that ultimatum I just mentioned. I'm hoping to write a piece based on this film, the festival or related issues. At our weekly news meeting, I was given new subjects to research but I've been told that reporters don't leak ideas before they are published.
I really appreciate the comments that were posted. In response to mjelaca's comment, I agree that Israel is not as dangerous as it is presented in the media and it can be a lot of fun also. I spent Canada Day hiking up north in the Golan Heights and took a nice peak at Syria from a mountain top. And just to clarify for Brian, I wrote that 2/3 of 1.3 million Gazans lost power and not all 1.3 million residents.