According to the report, Shalit's transfer to Egypt would go ahead in the first stage of a deal, after 150 Palestinian prisoners are released from jail. With Shalit's return to Israel after one week, 300 additional prisoners would be freed, and after another two months, 550 more ? mostly women and children.
The talks held by Dekel and Suleiman on Thursday are to deal with the prisoners on Hamas' list who Israel refuses to free, said the report, due to their involvement in attacks that have killed Israelis. The Egyptian sources quoted by Al-Hayat blamed Israel for "foot-dragging" because it rejected the names submitted by Hamas.
The talks held by Dekel and Suleiman on Thursday are to deal with the prisoners on Hamas' list who Israel refuses to free, said the report, due to their involvement in attacks that have killed Israelis. The Egyptian sources quoted by Al-Hayat blamed Israel for "foot-dragging" because it rejected the names submitted by Hamas.
1.000 Gevangenen voor een soldaat. Wat klopt hier niet? En hoe kan het zijn dat, omdat Israël een paar terroristen die erg veel bloed aan hun handen hebben, niet wil vrijlaten, Israël en niet Hamas wordt beschuldigd van 'foot dragging' door Egypte? Misschien is Egypte toch niet zo neutraal als het zich graag presenteert. Nota Bene was afgesproken dat Hamas zich, in ruil voor het staakt-het-vuren, flexibeler op zou stellen.
'Vrouwen en kinderen' klinkt sympathiek en geeft ze een aura van onschuld, maar houdt in jongens van 16 en 17 die niet onderdoen voor hun volwassen broeders, en in de tweede intifada speelden vrouwen een niet onbelangrijke rol, juist omdat zij makkelijker door de veiligheidscontroles komen.
Noam Shalit read the speech his wife Aviva had planned to give. "Who would have believed that 731 days have passed and the prime minister who took full responsibility for the matter has not managed to reach an agreement on the return of Gilad? Who would have believed that 731 days have passed and Gilad still does not see the light of day and not even the light at the end of the tunnel."
Shalit called on Olmert to "make a decision, as difficult as it is, to return Gilad home. Gilad was sent by you on a mission and without any hesitation or deliberation he carried it out and was abducted. Gilad paid and is still paying an unbearable price. But the government needs to fulfill its ultimate moral responsibility to a soldier. Here there is nothing taken for granted."
Later Shalit called on Israeli mothers to wake up and cry out, and tell the prime minister clearly that two years of talking is enough.
Shalit called on Olmert to "make a decision, as difficult as it is, to return Gilad home. Gilad was sent by you on a mission and without any hesitation or deliberation he carried it out and was abducted. Gilad paid and is still paying an unbearable price. But the government needs to fulfill its ultimate moral responsibility to a soldier. Here there is nothing taken for granted."
Later Shalit called on Israeli mothers to wake up and cry out, and tell the prime minister clearly that two years of talking is enough.
Het antwoord op Noam Shalits vraag waarom Shalit nog niet thuis is, is simpel: omdat Israël niet langer over zijn lot en vrijlating gaat, maar Hamas. Hoe begrijpelijk de woede, frustratie en pijn bij de familie ook moge zijn, als een soldaat de oorlog in wordt gestuurd bestaat er altijd een risico dat hij niet terugkeert. Het is niet verantwoordelijk als de regering grote aantallen terroristen met bloed aan hun handen vrijlaat om een soldaat vrij te krijgen. De regering moet het landsbelang en de veiligheid van het land dienen, en dat moet in haar daden de doorslag geven, niet de pijn van deze familie.
Israëlische moeders beseffen hopelijk dat hoe meer terroristen voor Shalit worden vrijgelaten, hoe groter dus de beloning voor Hamas en hoe aantrekkelijker het wordt om vaker soldaten te kidnappen: hun zonen.
Ratna
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Last update - 12:19 26/06/2008
Israel to give Egypt new proposals for Shalit swap
By Barak Ravid, Yossi Melman, and Jack Khoury, Haaretz Correspondents and Agencies
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/996293.html
Israel to give Egypt new proposals for Shalit swap
By Barak Ravid, Yossi Melman, and Jack Khoury, Haaretz Correspondents and Agencies
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/996293.html
Israel was to present Egyptian mediators in Cairo on Thursday with new formulas that it hopes will result in progress in the case of the abducted Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit, who has been held captive by Hamas in the Gaza Strip since June 2006.
In a meeting in Cairo on Thursday, the Israeli official charged with the negotiations on the prisoners, Ofer Dekel, was to discuss Israel's new proposals to further the deal on Shalit with Egyptian Chief of Intelligence General Omar Suleiman.
Dekel was expected to tell Suleiman that Israel expects Hamas to show greater flexibility regarding the list of prisoners it wants freed in exchange for Shalit.
Suleiman is scheduled to hold a similar meeting with Hamas representatives in Cairo next week.
Intensive indirect negotiations are planned at a later stage, where representatives of Israel and Hamas will be based in the same hotel, and the Egyptian mediators will shuttle between them with proposals and counter-proposals.
Nevertheless, senior Hamas official Osama al-Mazeini said Wednesday that the group is not willing to bend on its demands for the release of its prisoners.
"Israel has been given 350 names, and wants to release only 70 of them," al-Mazeini said. "Until all the names are approved, there is no chance for a deal.
The London-based Al-Hayat daily reported on Thursday that Cairo officials said that if and when an agreement is struck, Shalit would be moved to Egypt for one week, during which his family would be able to see him.
The report also said that Jerusalem told Egypt it would be willing to free prisoners that have killed Israelis, on the condition they are sent to other countries. Cairo reportedly rejected the suggestion.
According to the report, Shalit's transfer to Egypt would go ahead in the first stage of a deal, after 150 Palestinian prisoners are released from jail. With Shalit's return to Israel after one week, 300 additional prisoners would be freed, and after another two months, 550 more ? mostly women and children.
The talks held by Dekel and Suleiman on Thursday are to deal with the prisoners on Hamas' list who Israel refuses to free, said the report, due to their involvement in attacks that have killed Israelis. The Egyptian sources quoted by Al-Hayat blamed Israel for "foot-dragging" because it rejected the names submitted by Hamas.
Shalit family marks two years since Gilad's abduction
Meanwhile, hundreds took part in a rally in the Shalit family's hometown of Mitzpeh Hila on Wednesday to mark the two-year anniversary of Gilad's abduction.
Shlomo and Miki Goldwasser, the parents of abducted soldier Ehud Goldwasser, and Zvi Regev, the father of Eldad, also came to show support for the Shalits, as did the Avitan family, whose son's body was returned from Lebanon a few years ago.
In a special show of solidarity, Hen Arad, the brother of missing navigator Ron Arad, and Ron's daughter Yuval, were also present. For a moment it appeared that there was a resemblance between the two situations and families - and that it was forbidden to let the same thing happen again.
"Ron did not volunteer to be a pilot in order to be a gladiator, and Gilad did not join the tank corps to be a martyr. It turns out our leaders don't believe in anything," said Hen Arad at the rally, describing the country's political leaders as if they were the last of the Roman emperors.
"On my way here I thought of a fantasy, that if Ron had returned he would have stood in my place today with his daughter Yuval and told the families there is someone to rely on to return the soldiers home," said Arad.
During his speech he read part of his brother's last letter, where he asked his family to act to help bring him home.
Many young people came to the rally, including members of youth movements and some of Gilad's friends from school. One read an emotional letter to Gilad: "It is hard for us, Gilad, when we pass your house in our uniforms, when we see your picture in the newspaper and hear your name on the radio. And every time we are truly happy and before we fall asleep, we wonder if you know whether it is already night and whether you are sleeping."
Mordi Cohen of Mitzpeh Hila, who led the rally, called on the cabinet to make decisions and act from strength. "Do not give in to the demands of release, but to decide on releasing; force the Hamas prisoners with blood on their hands to save the life of an Israeli soldier," he said.
Noam Shalit read the speech his wife Aviva had planned to give. "Who would have believed that 731 days have passed and the prime minister who took full responsibility for the matter has not managed to reach an agreement on the return of Gilad? Who would have believed that 731 days have passed and Gilad still does not see the light of day and not even the light at the end of the tunnel."
Shalit called on Olmert to "make a decision, as difficult as it is, to return Gilad home. Gilad was sent by you on a mission and without any hesitation or deliberation he carried it out and was abducted. Gilad paid and is still paying an unbearable price. But the government needs to fulfill its ultimate moral responsibility to a soldier. Here there is nothing taken for granted."
Later Shalit called on Israeli mothers to wake up and cry out, and tell the prime minister clearly that two years of talking is enough.
At the end of the rally, two children set loose a flock of white doves, and amazingly the birds flew due South. One young girl asked her mother where they were going, and she answered: "To say hello to Gilad."
In a meeting in Cairo on Thursday, the Israeli official charged with the negotiations on the prisoners, Ofer Dekel, was to discuss Israel's new proposals to further the deal on Shalit with Egyptian Chief of Intelligence General Omar Suleiman.
Dekel was expected to tell Suleiman that Israel expects Hamas to show greater flexibility regarding the list of prisoners it wants freed in exchange for Shalit.
Suleiman is scheduled to hold a similar meeting with Hamas representatives in Cairo next week.
Intensive indirect negotiations are planned at a later stage, where representatives of Israel and Hamas will be based in the same hotel, and the Egyptian mediators will shuttle between them with proposals and counter-proposals.
Nevertheless, senior Hamas official Osama al-Mazeini said Wednesday that the group is not willing to bend on its demands for the release of its prisoners.
"Israel has been given 350 names, and wants to release only 70 of them," al-Mazeini said. "Until all the names are approved, there is no chance for a deal.
The London-based Al-Hayat daily reported on Thursday that Cairo officials said that if and when an agreement is struck, Shalit would be moved to Egypt for one week, during which his family would be able to see him.
The report also said that Jerusalem told Egypt it would be willing to free prisoners that have killed Israelis, on the condition they are sent to other countries. Cairo reportedly rejected the suggestion.
According to the report, Shalit's transfer to Egypt would go ahead in the first stage of a deal, after 150 Palestinian prisoners are released from jail. With Shalit's return to Israel after one week, 300 additional prisoners would be freed, and after another two months, 550 more ? mostly women and children.
The talks held by Dekel and Suleiman on Thursday are to deal with the prisoners on Hamas' list who Israel refuses to free, said the report, due to their involvement in attacks that have killed Israelis. The Egyptian sources quoted by Al-Hayat blamed Israel for "foot-dragging" because it rejected the names submitted by Hamas.
Shalit family marks two years since Gilad's abduction
Meanwhile, hundreds took part in a rally in the Shalit family's hometown of Mitzpeh Hila on Wednesday to mark the two-year anniversary of Gilad's abduction.
Shlomo and Miki Goldwasser, the parents of abducted soldier Ehud Goldwasser, and Zvi Regev, the father of Eldad, also came to show support for the Shalits, as did the Avitan family, whose son's body was returned from Lebanon a few years ago.
In a special show of solidarity, Hen Arad, the brother of missing navigator Ron Arad, and Ron's daughter Yuval, were also present. For a moment it appeared that there was a resemblance between the two situations and families - and that it was forbidden to let the same thing happen again.
"Ron did not volunteer to be a pilot in order to be a gladiator, and Gilad did not join the tank corps to be a martyr. It turns out our leaders don't believe in anything," said Hen Arad at the rally, describing the country's political leaders as if they were the last of the Roman emperors.
"On my way here I thought of a fantasy, that if Ron had returned he would have stood in my place today with his daughter Yuval and told the families there is someone to rely on to return the soldiers home," said Arad.
During his speech he read part of his brother's last letter, where he asked his family to act to help bring him home.
Many young people came to the rally, including members of youth movements and some of Gilad's friends from school. One read an emotional letter to Gilad: "It is hard for us, Gilad, when we pass your house in our uniforms, when we see your picture in the newspaper and hear your name on the radio. And every time we are truly happy and before we fall asleep, we wonder if you know whether it is already night and whether you are sleeping."
Mordi Cohen of Mitzpeh Hila, who led the rally, called on the cabinet to make decisions and act from strength. "Do not give in to the demands of release, but to decide on releasing; force the Hamas prisoners with blood on their hands to save the life of an Israeli soldier," he said.
Noam Shalit read the speech his wife Aviva had planned to give. "Who would have believed that 731 days have passed and the prime minister who took full responsibility for the matter has not managed to reach an agreement on the return of Gilad? Who would have believed that 731 days have passed and Gilad still does not see the light of day and not even the light at the end of the tunnel."
Shalit called on Olmert to "make a decision, as difficult as it is, to return Gilad home. Gilad was sent by you on a mission and without any hesitation or deliberation he carried it out and was abducted. Gilad paid and is still paying an unbearable price. But the government needs to fulfill its ultimate moral responsibility to a soldier. Here there is nothing taken for granted."
Later Shalit called on Israeli mothers to wake up and cry out, and tell the prime minister clearly that two years of talking is enough.
At the end of the rally, two children set loose a flock of white doves, and amazingly the birds flew due South. One young girl asked her mother where they were going, and she answered: "To say hello to Gilad."
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