Israel Matzav

Norway negotiating terrorist exchange for Gilad Shalit

It's been about nineteen and a half hours since I reported that Norway had negotiated the release of the audiotape of Gilad Shalit with Hamas on behalf of his family. It's been nineteen and a half hours since I wrote:

Suppose that next month Beilin and Noam Shalit (whom I had figured as a leftist almost from Day One after his son was kidnapped) go to Oslo and come back with an agreement with Hamas: Israel will release 1400 terrorists and Hamas will release Gilad Shalit. Despite the fact that such an 'exchange' would endanger every Israeli citizen, the pressure on the weak Olmert-Barak-Livni government to accept such an agreement would be enormous. That is why private citizens (and Beilin - who is not in the government - is a private citizen in this regard) should not be interfering with the State's conduct of foreign policy by negotiating with its enemies about anything.

Guess what? Israel's Channel 2 television reported tonight that Norway is negotiating a 'prisoner exchange' between Hamas and Israel. But those of us who don't rely on Ma'an exclusively for our news know that the negotiations were undertaken at the initiative of the Shalit family and not of the Israeli government. And the price?

Yesterday, the Israeli daily Maarev stated that Hamas had demanded the release of 1400 Palestinian prisoners over 4 stages; in the first stage, Shalit would be handed over to the Egyptians, in return for the immediate release of 450 Palestinian prisoners.

Hamas' list was reported to have contained names of Palestinian prisoners who Israel describes as having "hands dripping with Israeli blood", such as Abdullah Barghouthi and Hasan Salama, who were accused of "bearing responsibility for the taking of 120 Israeli lives."

Great. Just great.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:41 AM