Israel Matzav

No surprise: Hamas 'government' calls for 'prisoner swap'

Calling it 'natural logic,' Hamas is calling for a prisoner swap between the Israeli government and the terrorists holding Gilad Shalit.

According to HaAretz, the Palestinian Information Ministry said it is "natural logic" to carry out an exchange. "This has been exercised by previous Israeli governments with Hezbollah and the PLO, and this is what other countries do in conflict situations," the statement said.

Unfortunately, the Israeli government has carried out prisoner exchanges with Hezbullah and the PLO in the past. If they had not, we might not be in this situation today. Most recently, the government traded 436 terrorists to Hezbullah for drug-dealing philanderer Elhanan Tannenbaum and the bodies of three IDF soldiers who were kidnapped in Lebanon in 2000. While I would not have made that trade, I believe that the government did it because Tannenbaum was a high ranking officer whom the government believed had sensitive security information and they were afraid he would disclose it. That is not the case with Gilad Shalit, and it is certainly not the case with Eliyahu Asheri, who has not even been drafted yet.

The analogy to 'countries in a conflict situation' is an even poorer one. Countries exchange prisoners of war - uniformed combatants - generally as part of a peace agreement or of the prelude to a peace agreement. But Hamas has told us countless times that they have no interest in a peace agreement and no intention of recognizing Israel's right to exist, as if that were a 'right' that is open to question. And there is a difference between uniformed soldiers who fall into the hand of an enemy in conflict, in the first instance, soldiers or civilians who are kidnapped as 'bargaining chips' in the second instance, and terrorists who target civilians in the third instance. Exchanging the first group for members of the first group is legitimate. Exchanges involving either of the latter two groups only encourage more kidnappings and more terror.

The 'Palestinian Information Ministry' statement continues: "The Israeli military escalation can't be the appropriate mechanism for releasing the Israeli prisoner," the government statement said. "The Israeli leadership is going down the wrong path, and is trying to use the Israeli prisoner issue for political goals and to confuse the Palestinian internal situation."

In other words, the Hamas government doubts that gaining Shalit's release is the only goal of the Israeli military action. We can only hope that they are correct. It is certainly legitimate for Israel to use this opportunity to destroy or damage the terrorists' ability to fire Kassam rockets into Israel. But for that damage to be permanent, the IDF would have to remain in Gaza, and Ehud Olmert has been swearing up and down to anyone who will listen that he has no intention of allowing that. After all, if the IDF has to remain in Gaza, Ehud Olmert has to admit that his policy of unilaterally surrendering territory to terrorists is a failure. Ultimately, for Ehud Olmert, staying in power is the only political goal.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 6:17 PM