Monday, April 9, 2007
Details of just who Hamas wants released before they'll let Gilad Shalit go...the Israelis wouldn't actually do this would they? Notorious Palestinian prisoners demanded in Shalit exchange
The captors of the Israeli soldier, Cpl. Gilad Shalit, have handed over the names of the hundreds of Palestinian prisoners they want released to Israel several days ago, through Egyptian mediators.
Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti, the most senior Palestinian held by Israel, is among the hundreds of inmates the Hamas organization wants in exchange for the release of kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, Palestinian Information Minister Mustafa Barghouti said Monday. The information minister and the prisoner are distant relatives.
Marwan Barghouti, seen as a potential successor to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, is serving five consecutive life terms for his involvement in the murders of four Israelis and a Greek monk, and the demand for his release could complicate the swap as Barghouti's release would require a pardon by Israel's president since he was tried in a civilian, not a military court...
...Additional Palestinian prisoners on Hamas' list include Ahmed Saadat, who headed the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a small PLO faction. In 2001, gunmen from Saadat's faction assassinated an Israeli Cabinet minister, Rehavam Zeevi, in a Jerusalem hotel...
...The list includes, among others, the names of prisoners convicted for their involvement in dozens of suicide bombings inside Israel. The most prominent of these is Abdullah Barghouti, a Hamas leader in the West Bank who is serving out 67 consecutive life terms. Barghouti pleaded guilty to building the bombs that murdered 66 people and wounded more than 500 in a series of suicide bombings.
Hamas is also demanding the release of Hassan Salama, a Hamas leader who in the mid-90's led a wave of suicide bombings. Salama was convicted of murdering 67 Israeli citizens and was sentenced to several dozen consecutive life terms.
Another name on the list likely to cause outrage is Fouad al-Shoubaki. In his capacity as former chief of military financial affairs for the Palestinian Authority under Yasser Arafat, al-Shoubaki orchestrated the arrival of the Karin A weapons ship which was intercepted by the IDF in 2002 while en route from Iran to Gaza. Al-Shoubaki was arrested in March 2006 during Israel's raid on the Jericho prison...
So, what else is new?
Seriously it is annoying when people declare that Israel Does Not Want Peace, then castigate them for trying to defend their citizens, refer to security measures as "apartheid" and react to rocket attacks, shootings, kidnappings, tunnels, arms smuggling - all right on their very vulnerable borders.
The Saudi Peace Initiative is indeed a welcome step, in that for the first time the Arab world seems prepared to accept the principle of Israel (even though the terms are unacceptable as presented). But - even if the deal were acceptable to all state parties and even if everybody signed it - could even the well-meaning governments control the militias?
The experience of the P.A. and the Lebanese governments argues that the militias can't be controlled and that any peace deal that makes Israel more vulnerable to attack will simply result in more and more deadly assaults on her people.
What to do?
I, for one, wish no harm to the Palestinian people and long for the day when Israel can live at peace with her neighbors, long for the day when the Palestinian people also experience peace, security and prosperity. All is possible with goodwill and imagination and hard work.
But the radicals are dead set against this and even a few can wreak havoc. Then everybody suffers.
Meanwhile the voices against Israel grow louder and more strident.
Reason seems to be evaporating.
I actually meant to post this with the article about Hamas, which is reassuring us that they haven't gone soft and do indeed intend to destroy Israel.
But this will do.
Alas.
Meanwhile does anybody have any ideas?
I wish for the Palestinians double of what they wish for Israel.