Israel Matzav

Hamas mocks Shalit family again

Hamas has once again mocked the Shalit family - this time by setting up an effigy of Gilad Shalit outside its Ministry of Prisoners' Affairs in Gaza (see picture). Hamas has also decided that it can dictate the terms of Shalit's release and that it expects Israel to comply with them. If this sounds familiar, it should. It's precisely the type of 'negotiation' Israel has been having with the 'Palestinian Authority' for years as part of the 'peace process.'

"We want to free [captured IDF soldier Gilad] Schalit but [Prime Minister Ehud] Olmert just doesn't want to free our prisoners," he told La Repubblica in an interview.

"The conditions for an agreement have been known for three years, and the Egyptians know them, too," Mashaal told the Italian newspaper. "They are the release of 1,000 Palestinians in two stages."

"Olmert has now shuffled the cards," he said in the interview. "Out of the 450 first-stage prisoners, he doesn't want to free all of them. So the struggle goes on, but all the while, we are prepared to free Schalit "

Nevertheless, the Hamas leader said that the organization had additional demands.

"The fight is not over. It is continuing over the border-crossings and the blockade," he said. "But Israel is constantly changing conditions. Lately, is has gone back on agreements and added new demands, tricking the Egyptians, too."

He claimed that the group had been forced to deal with "a kind of bluff" with regards to Schalit.

"Olmert is attempting to frighten us about [Prime Minister-designate Binyamin] Netanyahu and about tougher negotiations with an extreme right-wing government," he explained. "But it doesn't matter to us. He is the one under pressure to bring some success without paying the price. We understand that it is all an act."

The odd thing is that here in Israel recently, no one has said anything about 1,000 terrorists. We've only been hearing about 450. Was Olmert trying to fool us because he is afraid of the public outcry of releasing 1,000 terrorists? Was he trying to fool Hamas? Pretty soon, we may never know. But I would bet he was trying to fool us Israelis.

Meshaal has some more demands (and he believes that Netanyahu may try to have him assassinated again - if so please God it should be more successful than the last time). Read the whole thing.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 6:15 PM