The NY Times reports:

When Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg marched arm in arm with Gilad Shalit’s parents in the 2009 Salute to Israel parade in New York, he sported a button demanding freedom for Mr. Shalit, the young Israeli soldier who had been captured by Hamas in June 2006.

When the mayor traveled to Israel in October, not long after Mr. Shalit was released in a prisoner exchange, he presented an American flag to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and asked that it be given to Mr. Shalit’s family as a sign of solidarity. Mr. Bloomberg also vigorously defended Jerusalem’s decision to release more than 1,000 Palestinian soldiers in exchange for Mr. Shalit.

So perhaps it was not surprising that Mr. Shalit would show up at City Hall on Monday, the sixth anniversary of his capture, to visit Mr. Bloomberg for a brief ceremony.

Mr. Shalit is now a sportswriter for the popular Yediot Aharonot newspaper in Israel. He came to the United States to cover the NBA finals, and was passing through New York en route to the European soccer championships, which are being held in Poland and the Ukraine.

Mr. Shalit didn’t say much during the five-minute ceremony, other than to mention that the NBA finals were “not bad,” and he smiled when Mr. Bloomberg said that he wished that a New York team had made the finals.

READ MORE: NY TIMES