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Tuesday, July 04, 2006

'Army of Islam' says 'Islamic law' guides them not to kill Gilad Shalit

Say what?

The 'Army of Islam,' one of three groups that kidnapped IDF Corporal Gilad Shalit, has just announced, some four hours after their ultimatum to start releasing 'Palestinian' prisoners terrorists expired that 'Islamic law' guides them not to kill Shalit.

A spokesman for the group said "There are those who believe we will kill the soldier, but the principles of Islam command us to treat prisoners with respect and not to kill them."

What's going on here?

You will recall that I reported this morning that London-based Arabic newspaper al-Hayat is reporting that negotiations are ongoing between Israel and the 'Palestinians.' According to al-Hayat, a deal is close at hand.

According to al-Hayat, Shalit would be returned to Israel, via Egyptian or French mediators. There would be some quid pro quo in terms of releasing 'Palestinian' prisoners terrorists, but it's not clear what that quid pro quo would be. The Jerusalem Post has it as "in exchange for Palestinian prisoners," while YNet has it as "tangible guarantees prisoners will be released," and Egypt and France "would vouch for an Israeli commitment to free Palestinian prisoners." Now keep in mind that this is based on 'Palestinian sources' speaking to al-Hayat and then al-Hayat being translated by the Israeli media, so I may be losing something in the translations.

Additionally, according to the Jerusalem Post, in exchange for the IDF halting its operations in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian organizations would apparently agree to stop rocket attacks on Israel. YNet is reporting a much more comprehensive arrangement in which Israel would "halt its activity in the Gaza Strip and withdraw its forces from the area. Israel will also be required to remove its embargo on Gaza and put an end to targeted killings."

Apparently, the arrangement would not include Hamas fulfilling the international conditions for restoring aid to the 'Palestinian Authority' and thus it is not clear to me what 'removing Israel's embargo on Gaza' means beyond opening the crossing points (which would presumably be closed in the event of another terror attack).

What is clear from all this is that Hamas is scared. They are essentially looking for another hudna. They apparently realize that they bit off more than they could chew. Whether this will have any kind of lasting long-term effect (and whether Hamas can control the terror generally and the Kassam fire specifically even if they want to) is less clear.

I also see this as Hamas coming to the realization that Olmert's convergence consolidation realignment surrender and expulsion plan for Judea and Samaria will never go through under the current circumstances, and since it is definitely in the 'Palestinians' interest to get more land to use as a terror base, they now have an incentive to stop the terror temporarily. That incentive will go away once Olmert's plan is, God forbid, carried out. If this deal with Hamas and its flunkies goes through, it becomes much more likely that Olmert's plan will be carried out. Israelis tend to have short memories and it's NotInMyBackYard.

1 Comments:

At 2:48 AM, Blogger Lance said...

What's going on here?

More tricks.

Islamofascists feel their sympathizers slipping away, so they're trying to appear as the good guys again.

We all know anything they say has a hidden agenda. In this case, they're trying to turn the tide that's building against them.

Their goal is to once again have appeasement. But I think they're a day late and a dollar short on this one.

Hooray for Israel!

 

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