Make It Personal
On Sunday, 06/25/2006, at 05:40 in the morning, a terrorist group of several Palestinians crossed the border south of the Gaza Strip into Israel through a tunnel near Kerem Shalom and attacked an army facility that was within the sovereign territory of Israel.
The force, numbered eight, killed two Israeli soldiers and wounded four, one of which, Gilad Schalit, was abducted by the terrorists as they retreated back to the Gaza strip. Gilad’s abductors were members of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades (the military wing of Palestinian governing party Hamas), the Popular Resistance Committees (which includes members of Fatah, Islamic Jihad and Hamas), and the Army of Islam.
For over 1,000 days Hamas and Israel are in on/off negotiations, brokered by Germany and Egypt, to end this tragedy and bring Gilad home. No agreement has been reached yet but one would most likely involve a massive release of prisoners from Israeli jails in exchange for the one soldier. What apparently the two side can not agree on is who’s on the list.
The fact that these secret talks are stuck for months now raises levels of frustration among Israelis who already swallowed the hundreds-to-one frog. It is also raises false hopes among thousands of Palestinian families hoping their loved ones are among those to be released.
It seems that the only beneficiary from the stalemate is Hamas which cynically abuses Gazans in its internal struggle against Fatah as the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, which makes you wonder – is there any point to these discussions, really? is Hamas genuinely negotiating or is it just a charade?
An interesting talkback on one of the Israeli online papers today suggested an interesting move to create the necessary pressure and bring the situation to closure. There must be 2000-3000 names that Israel has no problem seeing getting out of jail. If this list is made public, rather than be kept a closed secret, Hamas would have no option but show its true face and get down to business.
Tags: Gaza, Gilad Schalit, Hamas, Israel