Shalit negotiations postponed
Hamas announced on Wednesday evening that negotiations for the 'Gilad for terrorists' exchange have been postponed until after the Muslim holiday this weekend.Earlier on Wednesday, Hamas complained of Israel's refusal to release two particularly vicious terrorists, even if they were sent out of the country: Abdullah (not Marwan) Barghouti and Ibrahim Hamad.
Among other things, Barghouti designed the bombs that ripped through the Sbarro restaurant, as well as in Cafe Hillel, Cafe Moment, and the Hebrew University cafeteria, attacks that all took place at the height of the second intifada. Hamad was head of the military wing of Hamas during the intifada years. Although, the Hamas sources said, Israel has agreed to release other "heavy" prisoners, it has refused to release these two, even if Hamas agrees to send them abroad to live.Does someone in the Israeli government finally get it?
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:15 PM
5 Comments:
I doubt it. I think Israel will finally cave in. And if not now then later when there will another exchange down the road. Hamas is holding the trump card and knows it. Its hard to imagine Israel surrendering to terror if Shalit was not in enemy captivity.
What could go wrong indeed
Ironically, Israel's decision to surrender to every Hamas demand makes an actual deal much harder to make. After all, what's better for Hamas:
1. Make a deal, and get a certain benefit now.
2. Keep Shalit, thus receiving a positive benefit almost daily (being on the news almost daily, an insurance against Israeli strikes, and an excuse for foreign "mediators" to "engage" with Hamas despite it not meeting the Quartet's demands), and in all likelihood get an even larger benefit in the future when Israel caves even more to Hamas demands.
Obviously option "2" is the better one, and Hamas can always make excuses for its refusal to deal by making even more outrageous demands. What does it have to lose? After all, Israel's behaviour has made any demand look reasonable...
Yair...Hamas keeps escalating its demands. We've seen this before. Israel agrees to release terrorists per Hamas demands, Hamas demands the release of other terrorists besides those on the list, Israel balks and it all falls apart. And yes - Shalit is insurance policy for Hamas. Israel is not as inclined to act decisively against Hamas as long as it knows Shalit is alive. Its the best of all worlds for Hamas. Why would they want to give him up?
This young man needs to be freed. We can hold these people to account later. And we should. But this boy should be freed. We are diminished while he is captive.
What utter balderdash. Israel won't (and probably legally can't - the released people get a presidential pardon) "hold these man to account" later. Further, the risk to the lives of other soldiers in this scenario is unacceptable, and far higher than any military action re: Shalit would have had.
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