Shalit talks deadlocked as Hamas hangs on to 'asset'

[IndianaGreen]

Shalit talks deadlocked as Hamas hangs on to 'asset'

By Amos Harel and Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondent

Israel and Hamas have not yet agreed to renew negotiations over the release of kidnapped Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit, despite the completion of the Hezbollah prisoner swap and the relative quiet on the southern front that were supposed to advance talks on a swap with Hamas.

Hamas seems now to be refusing to back down from the list of hundreds of prisoners whose release it demands. However, Israel has only approved 71 names on the list.

Israeli negotiator Ofer Dekel proposed in June to Egyptian mediator General Omar Suleiman to begin intensive talks over Shalit's release, and for the Egyptians to act as intermediaries between Hamas and Israel. The idea was to renew negotiations immediately after the Hezbollah deal went through, taking advantage of the lull in hostilities in the Gaza Strip.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1003177.html

I hope that Gilad Shalit is still alive and not dead, as Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev. Israel paid a very high price in trading a bunch of cold blooded murderers for Goldwasser and Regev. Hizbollah never gave a proof of life, and kept the Red Cross from determining the conditions of the captured IDF soldiers. There is a thin line separating national liberation movements from terrorist groups. Hamas and Hizbollah have crossed that line on many occasions. Those of us on the Left that support a Palestinian state cannot allow our sense of outrage at the horrors of the Occupation from blinding us to the religious extremism and human rights abuses committed by Hamas and Hizbollah.