Deal Reached To Free Israeli Prisoner For Hundreds Of Palestinians

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called an urgent cabinet meeting Tuesday evening to approve an agreement reached with Hamas to release kidnapped soldier Sgt. Gilad Schalit.

“If all goes well, Gilad will return to Israel in the coming days, to his family and people,” Netanyahu told reporters, according to the Washington Post.

The deal between Israel and Hamas, which is being mediated by Egypt, may involve the release of 450 specific Palestinian prisoners and up to 550 more.  

On Hamas’ official website, they called on supporters to gather and celebrate the “victory and the expected release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.”

Schalit, 25, was captured by Palestinian militants in a cross-border raid on June 25, 2006. 

Report: Christie Endorsing Romney

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is set to endorse former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney as the Republican party’s presidential candidate, according to a report from Fox News.

The endorsement, which is reportedly set to be made before Tuesday evening’s GOP debate, will come just one week after Christie formally announced that he would not be running for the White House.

According to the latest Gallup poll, Romney leads the GOP field at 20 percent. However, he saw his lead shrink by 4 points from the previous month.

Mexican Presidential Candidate: Social Development Will Stop Violence

By Adrianna McGinley

The U.S. has a responsibility to help Mexico better social conditions in order to halt growing cartel violence, according to Mexican presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

The former Mexico City mayor spoke Tuesday as part of the “Dialogues with Mexico” program of the Woodrow Wilson Center’s Mexico Institute.

Lopez Obrador said the solution to the rising violence, caused by the crack down on drug cartels, is to create equal education and work opportunities for Mexican youth. He cited failed policies and lack of economic and social development in the last decades as the cause of the violence and called on the U.S. to change its approach in combating cartel violence and illegal immigration.

“Bilateral cooperation has focused on security issues without addressing the causes that have led to the violence and the increasing migration of Mexicans to the United States,” Lopez Obrador said. “We will convince and persuade the U.S. authorities that, for the sake of the two nations, a policy of cooperation towards development is more effective and more humane than to insist, as at present, in giving priority to police and military cooperation.”

Lopez Obrador said the 450 million dollars allocated to law enforcement organizations under the Merida Initiative, out of 478 million total U.S. dollars provided to Mexico in an effort to curb cartel violence, has been a failure.

“The problems of economic and social nature are not resolved with coercive measures…and the migratory influx will not stop with the building of walls, raids, or the militarization of the border.”

Lopez Obrador also called on President Obama to fulfill his campaign promise to regularize the immigration status of the estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S.

Occupy D.C. Protesters Arrested On Capitol Hill

United States Capitol Police arrested six people in the Hart Senate Office Building Tuesday afternoon. 

The six are being charged with unlawful conduct for demonstrating inside a Capitol building. The detained demonstrators were participating in a protest announced by Occupy D.C. and Stop the Machine, two groups fighting for economic change.

The protests stem from from the Occupy Wall Street movement that has filled the streets of downtown New York City. 

Cantor On Occupy Wall Street: People "Justifiably Frustrated"

By Mike Hothi

At a briefing today on Capitol Hill, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) said the demonstrators in New York and across the country affiliated with Occupy Wall Street are “justifiably frustrated.”

Cantor went on to say that people are upset about crony capitalism.

“What people are seeing is that if you are close to the halls of power, you’ve got a leg up on somebody else. That’s not fair,” Cantor said.

The Majority Leader was more sympathetic towards the movement today as opposed to last week when he said he was concerned about “mobs” at Occupy Wall Street.

When asked what the distinction was between his support for Tea Party protests and his statement against the Occupy Wall Street protests last week, Cantor stated “the Tea Party were attempting to address their grievances from the government that they elected. The protestors on Wall Street and elsewhere are pitting themselves against others outside government, in America.”

Cantor’s comments come as New York demonstrators take their protests to the posh neighborhoods of Manhattan’s Upper East Side Tuesday.