Shalit activists hope extension given to Netanyahu will help cause
Head of campaign for captive soldier's release says two-week extension given to Likud leader to forge new coalition offers current government chance to finalize prisoner swap with Hamas; family, activists to mark 1,000th day of Shalit's captivity. Mashaal: We'll have to capture more soldiers
The head of the organization leading the public campaign for Gilad Shalit's release told Ynet on Friday that he hoped the two-week extension given to Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu to forge a new government would help the groups cause.
"The current government has been given another two weeks to resolve the issue and bring Gilad back home," Hezi Meshita said, "I hope that the extension, coupled with the fact that we are marking a thousand days since Gilad's capture, will give the Israeli government an opportunity to work diligently, as it has over the course of the past few weeks, in order to finalize (a prisoner exchange deal with Hamas)."
Meshita spoke at the protest tent set up by the Shalit family outside outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's official residence in Jerusalem. The captive's parents are expected to leave the tent on Saturday following a mass protest rally and return to their home in the northern community of Mitzpe Hila.
The tent's activists were planning to hold a short ceremony Friday night and change the sign counting the number of days in captivity to 1,000. A group of dozens of youths announced that they plan to continue operating the protest tent indefinitely.
The teenagers, who sent a letter to Olmert last week demanding that he exhaust the efforts to release Shalit, urged other youths to continue visiting the tent. They said that they have recruited teachers and intellectuals to deliver lectures and lessons at the tent.
Meanwhile, the head of Hamas' political bureau refused to accept Israeli claims that it was new demands by Hamas that forced the collapse of this week's prisoner exchange negotiations in Cairo.
Shalit family during Shabbat dinner at protest tent (Photo: Gil Yohanan)
Asked by the Sidney Morning Herald how Hamas could demand more than three times as many Palestinians in return for Shalit's freedom, Khaled Mashaal said "The number we are seeking for Shalit is only one-tenth of today's number of Palestinians in Israeli jails.
"The Israelis just don't learn. When they refuse to release Palestinians, it forces the Palestinians to resort to other means to gain their release - and inevitably this includes the capture of more Israeli soldiers," he told the Australian daily.
Earlier Friday, the London-based Arabic-language al-Hayat newspaper reported Friday, quoted Egyptian sources as saying that he crucial decision on a deal aimed at securing Shalit's release will be made before Olmert leaves office.
One of the sources referred to Israel's statement this week that it was halting its Cairo-mediated talks with Hamas as "a maneuver aimed at pressuring Hamas."
Meanwhile, Hamas fears the initiative to worsen the conditions of Palestinian security prisoners jailed in Israel following the deadlock in the talks. "If Israel toughens the prisoner's jailing conditions, Hamas will respond by toughening its conditions in the Shalit deal," a senior group member told Ynet on Wednesday.
He also warned that any such attempt would turn the kidnapped soldier into "a new Ron Arad."
