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Netanyahu Says Swap of Prisoners Is Uncertain
JERUSALEM — Seeking to lower expectations of an imminent deal with the Islamic group Hamas to exchange a captured Israeli soldier for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, (…) Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that no agreement had yet been reached. (…)
His [Benjamin Netanyahu] remarks came as Hamas leaders gathered in Cairo for talks mediated by Egyptian and German officials on the terms of a possible exchange, and may have been partly intended as last-minute brinkmanship by the Israeli side.(…)
(…) While there is a strong public desire to see the soldier, Staff Sgt. Gilad Shalit, return, the prospect of releasing Palestinian prisoners convicted of masterminding deadly suicide bombings and other terrorist acts is repugnant to many and a source of profound concern.
A mass prisoner release credited to Hamas could also have far-reaching implications for regional politics and stability, though it is not clear how dramatic the impact would be.
Should there be such a swap, Mr. Netanyahu said, “We will not be sparing with a public discussion. We will not do it as a fait accompli. We will allow the cabinet ministers and the public in general to discuss the issue.”
(…) Several weeks ago Israel released 20 Palestinian women from its jails in exchange for a videotape of Sergeant Shalit proving that he was alive.
The video was seen in Israel as a sign of progress after years of public campaigning and unsuccessful negotiations for his release.(…)
But the Palestinians are now at a delicate juncture, split between Hamas-ruled Gaza and the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority whose powers are now confined to the West Bank.
A prisoner release orchestrated by Hamas would likely pose a new challenge for the Western-backed authority led by President Mahmoud Abbas. The possibility that a deal could include the release of Marwan Barghouti, a popular Fatah leader, could also shake things up within Fatah.
(…)A leader of Fatah’s so-called young guard, he [Marwan Barghouti] is often touted as a potential successor to Mr. Abbas, who recently declared that he did not intend to run for another term as president.
Reflecting the awkwardness that a Shalit deal might pose for the Abbas government, Salam Fayyad(…) made no direct mention of it in a speech Tuesday at an international conference in (…) Jericho on the rights of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
Yet he called for the “immediate release” of “pillars” of the prisoner community like Mr. Barghouti and Ahmad Saadat (…). And repeating a point often made by Mr. Abbas, Mr. Fayyad said there would be no final agreement with Israel until all Palestinian prisoners were freed.
Ghassan Khatib, a spokesman for the Palestinian Authority government, said the authority “welcomes the release of any prisoner,” but that the emerging Shalit deal was “not something to talk about. There is a great deal of uncertainty and the negotiations are secret, in addition to the fact that they are not being done by the Palestinian Authority,” he said. (…)
(…) Guido Westerwelle, declined to comment on the status of the negotiations during a visit here [West Bank] on Tuesday. “I can simply express the hope that the talks will lead to a good and humane solution” (…).
Earlier on Tuesday, (…)Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, told Army Radio that a prisoner exchange deal was “moving toward completion in the very near future.” Mr. Ben-Eliezer was in Turkey on a mission to patch up Turkish-Israeli relations that deteriorated sharply after Israel’s deadly military offensive against Hamas in Gaza last winter.
