"Israel": Time Running Out on Deal for Shalit Release

Source: Al-Manar TV, 7-10-2008
"Israeli" security officials have warned that the time for making a deal for the release of captured "Israeli" occupation soldier Gilad Shalit is running out. The officials told "Israeli" daily Haaretz that the more time that passes, the more things can go wrong and the greater the danger that an opportunity will be missed to bring Shalit home.
Talks are to open Tuesday in Cairo between Hamas and Fatah, mediated by the Egyptians, with an Egyptian-proposed package deal on the agenda that would include the release of Shalit.
In discussions in Tel Aviv regarding detainees who could be released in exchange for Shalit, the names of resistance fighters were mentioned who committed major attacks in the early 1990s.
The officials said they believed Hamas would raise the price it would demand for Shalit as time goes by. A security official also said: "Many possibilities must be taken into account, not all of them under our control. The calm in the Gaza Strip could blow up, the Egyptians could reduce their involvement in the talks to concentrate on domestic issues, one of Gilad's guards could harm him. There could even be complications from a flu that they don't know how to treat property at Shifa," the official said, referring to a Gaza Strip hospital.
Officials said that as far as they know, no option now exists for a military option to release Shalit. Referring to the capturing, an official said, "there was a failure, and now the price has to be paid, even if it means releasing terrorists who are murderers."
The "Israeli" officials said that the decision would soon be put to the prime minister-designate, Tzipi Livni. "When she reads all the material, she will understand that time is not in our favor, and the responsibility for Gilad Shalit's welfare is first and foremost hers."
Livni has avoided making public statements recently about Shalit. In the past she has said she sees the state has having the supreme responsibility of bringing back captives, "all the more so when it is a question of living soldiers."
However, although Livni voted in favor of bringing back the bodies of reserve soldiers Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser in exchange for "Israel's" release of Samir Kintar, she objected to the way the talks were handled, including the fact that "Israel" publicly declared that the two were dead only at the end of the negotiations.
Sources in Livni's bureau said this week that she objects to public calls "to release ["Israeli"] POWs at any price."
However, Livni did support releasing detainees defined as having "blood on their hands" as a gesture to the Palestinian Authority.
Livni reportedly told associates at a closed meeting recently that in the list of detainees Hamas wants released in exchange for Shalit, "there are much more than one Kintar." She also said she expects she will come under heavy public pressure to close a deal quickly, "including demonstrations in front of my house."
Activists for Shalit's release have indeed announced that they will begin to hold permanent vigils outside Livni's house, beginning this Friday. These remarks make it difficult to ascertain where Livni will stand on a Shalit deal as prime minister.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert opposed a massive detainee release in exchange for Shalit, a position also supported by Mossad chief Meir Dagan, who has been in on some of the discussions, although he is not directly connected to the issue. To a lesser extent, Shin Bet security service head Yuval Diskin also objects to an extensive release.
"Israeli" War Minister Ehud Barak and "Israeli" Army Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi represent the opposite position, believing that time is of the essence and that "Israel" should be taking advantage of the ongoing cease-fire in the Gaza Strip to move ahead on a deal to release Shalit, even at a "heavy cost."
Barak said Monday at a memorial service at Latrun: "We will do everything possible and appropriate to bring Gilad Shalit home. We will spare no efforts. That is our duty."
The committee, headed by Vice Premier Haim Ramon, dealing with the Hamas detainee list recently added an additional eight names to the list of prisoners "Israel" is prepared to release, bringing the number to about 150 (according to another version, there are already 200 names on the list). Egypt is pressuring "Israel" to raise the number somewhat, to give it more room to maneuver vis-a-vis Hamas.