American Held in Egypt as Israeli Spy Could Be Freed

[King_David]

By ETHAN BRONNER and DAN BILEFSKY
Published: October 17, 2011

JERUSALEM — An American law student from Queens who also has Israeli citizenship and was arrested in Egypt in June, charged there with spying for Israel, is expected to be released in the coming days in exchange for scores of Egyptians held in Israel.

The exchange for the student, Ilan Grapel, 27, who attends Emory Law School in Atlanta, would follow an Egyptian-brokered exchange between Israel and Hamas, set for Tuesday, in which an Israeli soldier, Staff Sgt. Gilad Shalit, was expected to be returned home from Gaza for the first batch of what was expected to be the release of more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.

Representative Gary L. Ackerman, a New York Democrat from Queens, said in a telephone interview that he had been working closely on the Grapel case from the beginning.

“We are extremely close in this complicated deal,” he said. “We are going to be exceedingly happy to get our citizen back.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/18/world/middleeast/ilan-grapel-american-held-in-egypt-as-israeli-spy-could-be-freed-in-new-prisoner-swap.html

[vminfla]

1. A new modus operandi

Kidnappings instead of negotiation. This is what the arab spring has brought us?