Reply #2: No proof of life yet, per Jesse....and he's been there for AWHILE [View All]

[MADem]

...Jesse Jackson to Hezbollah: Show proof soldiers are alive
U.S. civil rights leader Jesse Jackson on Monday met with Hezbollah officials in Lebanon and called on them to show proof that the two captured Israeli soldiers are still alive.

Jackson's talks coincided with a report in an Egyptian newspaper that Hezbollah refuses to open negotiations on prisoner exchange as long as Israel blockades Lebanon and Israeli soldiers remain in south Lebanon. According to the Monday report in the the Egyptian state-sponsored newspaper Al Hayat, Lebanese sources said that Hezbollah's position was presented to German spy chief Ernest Urlau during his visit to Beirut over the weekend.

Jackson said that if Hezbollah showed proof the soldiers were alive, the move could jump-start negotiations that might lead to the soldiers' release. He said there were indications the two soldiers captured July 12 were alive, but said their continued detention is "becoming a magnet to attract a second round" of war....Jackson has been in the Middle East for a week and half as head of a 10-member ecumenical delegation representing Jewish, Muslim, Roman Catholic and Protestant groups. His mission to gain the soldiers' release has taken him to Israel and Syria, and to Lebanon twice.

Jackson declined to name the Hezbollah officials he met with, but said he was hoping for a response later Monday to his call to prove the soldiers are alive, possibly with video evidence.

"My impression is if Hezbollah shows a sign of life or shows the soldiers, that it will trigger a response," Jackson told said on the terrace of a hotel overlooking Beirut's skyline. "They ought to show signs of life, and video evidence, because it would jump-start a framework to start talks."...