Israel Matzav

Hamas to hire the Germans?

As a lawyer, I know that my best referrals always come from satisfied clients. That's probably true in other businesses as well. And given that acting as a 'mediator' in a lawyerly function, it's probably not all that surprising that Hamas is on the verge of deciding to fire their lawyer (Omar Suleiman and the Egyptians) and to hire Hezbullah's lawyers: the Germans. After all, the Germans just got Hezbullah a great deal (live terrorists - including one with 'blood on his hands' in a major way) for two dead Israeli soldiers. Hamas is still holding a live Israeli soldier.

Several Hamas officials have been quoted over the past 24 hours as expressing deep disappointment with the way the Egyptians have been handling the Schalit mediation effort.

"The Egyptians have proved that they are unable to put enough pressure on Israel to accept our demands," one Hamas official reportedly said.

Another Hamas official said his movement was under the impression that the Egyptians "were on Israel's side more than on our side."

"We were expecting our Egyptian brothers to represent the interests of all Arabs in the talks over Schalit. But the Egyptians don't seem to care about us," he said.

For those of you who thought that mediation was

a form of alternative dispute resolution (ADR), or "appropriate dispute resolution", aims to assist two (or more) disputants in reaching an agreement. Whether an agreement results or not, and whatever the content of that agreement, if any, the parties themselves determine — rather than accepting something imposed by a third party. The disputes may involve (as parties) states, organizations, communities, individuals or other representatives with a vested interest in the outcome.

that mediators

use appropriate techniques and/or skills to open and/or improve dialogue between disputants, aiming to help the parties reach an agreement (with concrete effects) on the disputed matter.

and that all parties must view the mediator as impartial, welcome to the Middle East, where everyone gangs up on Israel. But of course, Hamas will never tell you that:

"The main reason why the deal with Hizbullah succeeded was because the German mediator was objective and fair," the Hamas editor wrote. "The Egyptian mediators conducting the indirect talks between Hamas and Israel are not honest. The Egyptians are trying to fulfill Israel's demands by exerting pressure on the Palestinians and exploiting their bad conditions resulting from the siege."

No. The main reason the deal succeeded is that Israel has a weak and inept government in power. And in that respect, Hamas does not have time to reach a deal, because hopefully that government will be gone soon.

And for those who doubted that Wednesday's shameful exchange increased the price for Shalit, consider this:

Hamas was not in no rush to resolve the Schalit case, Hamdan said. "We want a just and fair deal that would give us what we want."

He said the lesson to be drawn from Wednesday's prisoner exchange was that Israel could no longer impose conditions.

"If we remain firm, we will be able to achieve our goals," he said. "We can achieve victory over this enemy."

Asked if Hamas planned to "up" its demands following the Israel-Hizbullah agreement, the Hamas official said: "This deal gives us a chance to ask for more. I can't say that we will up our demands today, but we will certainly not accept anything less than what we have asked for." Hamas is demanding that Israel release 1,000 security prisoners, in stages, in a deal for Schalit.

As far as Hamas is concerned, there's no longer any distinction between those terrorists who have blood on their hands and those who do not. For those of you who thought that this week's spectacle was sickening (and that's probably all of us), there may be much worse ahead.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 7:37 AM