GILAD SHALIT -- FIVE YEARS OF SOLITARY CONFINEMENT IN GAZA.

SHABBATH MARKED FIVE YEARS OF CAPTIVITY IN SOLITARY CRUEL CONFINEMENT FOR GILAD SHALIT.

Ban Ki Moon -- UN Secretary-General -- is publicly lobbying Hamas to release Gilad Shalit.

Nicholas Sarkozy (President of France) and Angela Merkel (Chancellor of Germany) have jointly and publicly called on Hamas to release Gilad Shalit.

Throughout Israel marches and demonstrations have called for Hamas to release Gilad Shalit.

There are still efforts to press Israel to swap 1000 living murderous terrorists from Israeli jails in exchange for Gilad, even by those mentioned above.

Why is it that this is an acceptable equivalence in the eyes of the world?

Gilad Shalit's captivity -- utterly alone and forbidden visitation by his father, his mother, by even the Red Cross -- is a metaphor for the State of Israel. The humanitarian needs of Gilad Shalit are the humanitarian needs of Israel. Murderous Arabs would do to Israel, what they have done to Gilad Shalit and to every Israeli and Jewish prisoner they have held (which is reason to believe that Gilad Shalit may well already be dead).

AT THIS VERY MOMENT ANOTHER MUCH LARGER SO CALLED "PEACE FLOTILLA" IS TAKING SHAPE UNDER TURKISH AUSPICES TO PROVOKE ANOTHER INCIDENT OF VIOLENCE WITH ISRAEL AND TO TEST ISRAEL'S NAVAL DEFENSES AND POLITICAL ACUMEN.

AT THIS VERY MOMENT ISRAEL'S EILAT BEACHES ARE IN THE MIDST OF CLEAN-UP EFFORTS FROM A MYSTERIOUS DOUBLE OIL SPILL FROM TWO TURKISH VESSELS.

AT THIS VERY MOMENT DELTA AIRLINES HAS ENTERED INTO AN INTERLINE BOOKING AGREEMENT WITH SAUDI ARABIAN AIRLINES. SAUDI ARABIAN AIRLINES DISCRIMINATES AGAINST JEWS AND ISRAELIS AND AGAINST CHRISTIANS AND OTHERS AS WELL.

MAY THE WORLD WAKE UP FROM IT'S SLUMBER AND SEE THE TRUTH FOR WHAT IT REALLY IS, AND MAY THE WORLD CEASE IT'S EVILS -- WHETHER IT IS TURNING A BLIND EYE TO THE TRUTH, OR WHETHER IT IS GIVING DELIBERATE SUPPORT TO TERRORISM AGAINST ISRAEL.

MAY THE ARABS BE INSPIRED BY THE COMPASSION OF GOD AND COMMENCE A TRUE PEACE PROCESS BY UNCONDITIONALLY FREEING GILAD SHALIT TO A SAFE RETURN HOME TO ISRAEL.

OBAMA DOES SOMETHING RIGHT, CALLING FOR B.P. TO ESTABLISH A $20 BILLION ESCROW FUND TO ANTICIPATE PAYMENT OF DAMAGES DUE TO THE GULF OIL SPILL

WHILE THERE IS SO MUCH THAT PRESIDENT OBAMA HAS NOT HANDLED WELL WITH RESPECT TO THE OIL SPILL, THE IDEA THAT B.P. SHOULD ESTABLISH A MULTI BILLION DOLLAR ESCROW FUND IN ANTICIPATION OF PAYMENT OF DAMAGES IS A BRILLIANT IDEA.

This is a win-win idea that British Petroleum should take seriously. In fact according to a NYTimes News Alert, B.P. has agreed to such a fund. At the present time, unless it's financial picture is a house of cards (not impossible given the 21st Century genius of smoke and mirror accounting practices), then British Petroleum already has the financial resources to make such a fund immediately feasible. By establishing such a fund, it should be obvious that the payment of reasonable damages by B.P. then has a tangible and significant opportunity to mitigate the suffering of those in the Gulf in real time. What may be less obvious is that by setting aside an escrow fund, based on the appearance of a reasonable finite number with respect to anticipated damages, should ease stockholder fears of open-ended risk and restore a positive public relations image for B.P. from both the public and the stockholder perspectives.

Kudos to President Obama for this idea. Kenneth Feinberg, who presently is the TARP Special Master, and who previously directed the Compensation Funds Program for Nine-Eleven victims, will reportedly be in charge of the Gulf Compensation Fund. There could not be a better choice to head this fund. Let us hope that the word "tentative" (used by the NYT to describe the agreement for the implementation of the fund) does not imply "temporary for a short term public relations lift, until such time as B.P. may back out of the agreement, leaving Obama and the USA in the lurch."

TODAY IS DAY 1475 IN THE CAPTIVITY OF GILAD SHALIT.