JERUSALEM – Hamas leaders raced to Egypt on Monday amid signs of progress on a deal to swap hundreds of Palestinian prisoners for a captive Israeli soldier held by the Islamic militant group for more than three years.
The exchange could boost Hamas at the expense of its key rival, Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, in part because one of the prisoners to be freed is Marwan Barghouti, his main challenger.
Officials on both sides cautioned against exaggerated optimism that a deal is about to be concluded. Even so, conditions for a deal appear to be ripening on both sides. Israel and Hamas have been locked in on-again, off-again talks since Gaza militants tunneled into Israel and captured Sgt. Gilad Schalit in a 2006 raid that killed two other soldiers.
Until recently, the Egyptian-mediated talks had made little progress.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is eager for a breakthrough. Bringing Schalit home would give him a huge domestic boost and provide an important diplomatic victory at a time when much of the international community is criticizing him for not doing enough to promote peace.
James Morton
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2 comments:
I've never liked this policy. What ever happened to never negotiating with terrorists?
And I wish the world would actually follow up on the Goldstone report that discovered War crimes and possible crimes agains humanity.
Of course we would not want to upset our "ally" Israel... Funny how we want to get to the bottom of what happened in Afghanistan but not here...
The hypocrisy is telling....
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