Jewish Communities of Russia : Shalit swap is Israel’s victory

The deal to exchange Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier who was captive for over five years, for more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners is a victory for the Jewish state, a spokesman for the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia said on Tuesday. Israel has has shown that the life of one soldier “is worth more than anything else,” spokesman Boruch Gorin said. “I see it first of all as a measure of responsibility that the state takes for soldiers in compulsory military service,” Gorin said. “This is a huge victory, a victory of priorities, a victory over the death cult that rules the enemies of Israel, of the religious life that prevails in the government of Israel,” Gorin added. Shalit, a soldier in the Israel Defense Forces, was captured in June 2006, aged 19, by Palestinian militants in a raid near the Gaza Strip.