1 Hostage for 350 - 1,000 Prisoners

April 9th, 2007 by Michael van der Galien

That’s the deal the Palestinians proposed to Israel: Israel gets Cpl Gilad Shalit back in return she has to release between 350 and 1,000 Palestinian prisoners.

Isaac Herzog, an Israeli cabinet minister, said yesterday that “certain progress has been made compared with how things were until now”.

But he added: “There is still a long way to go. We are apparently approaching the truly difficult stage of the negotiations.”

Egyptian officials mediating with Hamas handed over the list to Israeli officials yesterday, which reportedly includes anything from 350 to 1,000 names,

However, Cpl Shalit’s release is not seen as imminent as Israel is expected to reject some of the names on the list.

One Israeli official described some of the named Palestinians as “murderers” who will not be set free.

Media reports said the list included Palestinian uprising leader Marwan Barghouthi, who is serving five consecutive life terms after being convicted of shooting attacks that killed four Israelis and a Greek monk.

Not exactly an offer Israel cannot refuse, I’d say.

On the other hand, Israel has a history of exchanging Palestinian / Arab prisoners for Israeli hostages:

In 1985, it set free 1,150 Arab prisoners for three Israelis held by a Palestinian group in Lebanon.

In January, 2004, it released 400 Palestinians, 21 Lebanese and 59 Lebanese corpses in exchange for three corpses of soldiers held by Hezbollah and a kidnapped businessman and senior reserve officer, Elhanan Tannenbaum.

The Israeli government should not agree to this. Giving in once again will reinforce the notion that kidnapping Israelis work.

If Israel is holding Palestinians without good reasons, she should be willing to talk about it, review the situation, and, if it is the right thing to do, release (some of) them. But not in exchange for a kidnapped Israeli. Terrorism should not pay.

H/t my good friend and personal editor, Holly.

Cross posted at my own blog.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 9th, 2007 at 12:15 am and is filed under Hamas/Al-Aksa Martyrs/Islamic Jihad, Palestine, Israel. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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