The deal and the balance

[GabysPoppy]

In the autumn of 1997, Israel was forced to release Hamas leader Ahmed Yassin from prison. It was the result of the abortive Israeli assassination of senior Hamas official Khaled Meshal in Amman. The crisis created by the arrest of the Mossad cell in Jordan was solved for the price of releasing Yassin, who was described as sickly and dying.

Yassin recovered and resumed the leadership of Hamas, as well as terrorist attacks against Israel. On Friday, Yassin commented on the release of hundreds of Palestinians and others from Israeli prisons, in exchange for the return of one live citizen and three soldiers' bodies - four who were abducted especially for this purpose. Yassin said his organization will now intensify its activity to kidnap Israelis, to exchange them for prisoners.

This comment sounds so self-evident that it raises no surprise. It contradicts the arguments of Ariel Sharon's cabinet, in its attempts to justify the deal. According to the government, with the help of the army and intelligence leaders, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah "was in distress" and was therefore obliged to make this deal. This description echoes a previous government's arguments in support of contacts with Yasser Arafat during the Oslo process. Then it was explained that Arafat's predicament was so dire that a settlement convenient to Israel could be squeezed out of him. In his public appearances, celebrating, Nasrallah appeared very far from distress, and no closer to it than Sharon. If he had secretly been at a disadvantage, the deal seems to have restored his status and empowered him.

The Arabs, in general, and the Palestinians, in particular, interpreted the deal as it appeared - Israel refuses to release the prisoners it holds until forceful pressure is exerted on it. The operative conclusion reached by Yassin, and many others, both organized or independent, is that it is worth kidnapping Israelis, that killing them during the abduction will not spoil the chances of reaching a deal and that encouragement and assistance may be received from Nasrallah (and his Iranian patrons), not from the moderates preaching for compromise with Israel.


http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/389317.html

[Kundun]

1. Isn't it likely

that there were many negotiations ongoing that shall never see the light of the public?