How did Turkey save Gilad Shalit?

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Interesting:

SMET BERKAN - iberkan@hurriyet.com.tr

There is no one who does not know about Gilad Shalit, the soldier for whose sake Israel turned Gaza upside down, killed thousands of people, including women and children, and turned Gaza into an open-air prison. In fact, maybe he has been the most innocent hero of this long and bloody game, or the victim, since the day he was kidnapped by Hamas.

After Hamas kidnapped Shalit and the Israeli army entered Gaza, only to fail at rescuing the soldier, Israel asked for mediation and assistance from Turkey.

And, even at that time, which was the end of 2006 and beginning of 2007, Turkey stepped in and talks were carried out with Hamas, with some progress achieved. But Israel has a habit; it does the same job together with a few countries. The fact that other countries were also involved did not make the negotiations any easier; on the contrary, they got tougher. Moreover, they became entangled. At this point, Turkey stepped out.

Turkey stepped out but Israel’s effort to save Gilad Shalit did not end until seven or eight months ago.

Some seven or eight months ago, at a time when Turkish-Israeli relations were not at its best, the Israeli government once more consulted Turkey and asked for help to save Shalit because they had reached a certain point in negotiations and once more the talks were deadlocked. Would Turkey help overcome this deadlock?

The subject was referred to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan by Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu. Erdoğan reacted very clearly to this demand: “This is a humanitarian issue; it has nothing to do with our Israeli politics or relations. Let us do whatever we can.”

With this directive, the Foreign Ministry stepped in. They wanted Israel to pass all the information it had to Ankara. Then it was understood that a Western European country’s representative had played a serious role in the negotiations carried out until that time.

That Western European came to Ankara. He met Davutoğlu and top level Foreign Ministry civil servants, conveyed all the information he had and explained the latest stage reached in the negotiations.

From that moment on, a tough negotiation period started with Hamas on one hand and with Israel on the other. The National Intelligence Organization (MİT) stepped in and met with MOSSAD, Hamas and Egyptian intelligence.

This shuttle diplomacy and secret meetings gradually bore fruit, the deadlocked situation in the negotiations ended and an advance was obtained.

On one side of the negotiation was Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal who resided in Syria, on the other side was Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and in the middle were Davutoğlu, the Foreign Ministry and MİT.

The subject on which the negotiations were about to be locked was whether 27 Hamas women were to be released. But later this issue was overcome and a few days ago Mashaal called Davutoğlu from Syria and told him the deal was struck. “If you do not have any objection, we will announce it in a few hours. I wanted you to know first,” he said. Davutoğlu said: “This is a totally humanitarian matter. We thank you for being helpful in this issue. The deal is also appropriate from our point of view.”

And after this talk, both Hamas and Israel announced the deal struck on Shalit.

İsmet Berkan is a columnist for daily Hürriyet in which this piece appeared Oct. 14. It was translated into English by the Daily News staff.

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=how-did-turkey-save-gilad-shalit-2011-10-14

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Egypt wants credit as well:

Israel growing closer to Egypt with Gilad Shalit agreement

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offered Israel’s thanks ‘from the heart’ to Egypt on Oct 13 for helping secure a deal to free a captured Israeli soldier, the day after Defense Minister Barak made a long-anticipated apology for the killing of six Egyptian police officers

Israel’s prime minister has contacted the head of Egypt’s ruling military council to express Tel Aviv’s gratitude over Cairo’s deal to free soldier Gilad Shalit in exchange for imprisoned Palestinians, according to the Israeli Prime Minister’s office.

The “thank you” call to Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi came the day after Israel’s defense minister, Ehud Barak, formally apologized to Egypt for the killing of six Egyptian police officers during a cross-border shootout with militants suspected of carrying out deadly attacks in Israel.

“Your help has warmed the heart of every Israeli citizen,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Tantawi, the statement said, according to an Agence France-Presse report. “He thanked him in the name of the state of Israel for the central role played by Egypt in the deal on the return of the imprisoned soldier Gilad Shalit,” a statement said, adding that the Israeli leader acknowledged Egypt’s “intense” efforts to conclude the agreement. The final deal is expected to see Shalit transferred to Egypt on Oct. 18, as Israel releases a first group of at least 450 Palestinians. A second group of 550 Palestinians is to be freed within two months. Hamas chief Khaled Mashaal met in Cairo with Egypt’s intelligence chief, Murad Mowafi, who was instrumental in securing the swap, the official Egyptian news agency MENA said. Israel’s thanks to Egypt is the latest sign of rapprochement between the two countries after Barak’s apology over the officers’ deaths, between the two countries to their highest level since President Hosni Mubarak was ousted on Feb. 11. which had raised tensions

Meanwhile, speaking to reporters in the Berlin headquarters of the German Intelligence Service (BND), German officials expressed their satisfaction with the completed deal but added that the situations would remain “fragile” until the terms of the deal take place on the ground, daily Haaretz reported. The German officials said they were afraid of an Iranian move to sabotage the deal’s execution, claiming that Iran, who wields significant influence on Hamas, was not happy about the Israel-Hamas agreement. Hamas rulers, meanwhile, rejected the criticism from the Palestinian Authority over the terms of the swap deal regarding deportation and exile of some Palestinian prisoners, saying they only represent a small number and they would be able to return Gaza when they want.

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=israel-growing-closer-to-egypt-with-gilad-shalit-agreement-2011-10-14

Is Germany the West European country suggested in the Turkish piece?

[Pooky 3,828]

Whichever country, or countries, played a hand in making this happen, I suspect the BBC has the answer regarding the timing ...

12 October 2011 Last updated at 07:54 ET

Timing key to Shalit release deal

By Paul Danahar

BBC Middle East bureau chief, Jerusalem

It is clear from the deal struck to release the captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit and more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners being held in Israeli jails that most of these people could have been freed a lot earlier.

Trying to secure Shalit's release has been a priority for Israel's governments for more than five years

There is very little in this agreement that has not been on the table for years. The key sticking point was always the release of high-profile prisoners like the influential Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti and the head of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Ahmad Saadat.

Hamas has always insisted it must win the release of key players. Israel would not budge and so the deal went nowhere.

So what changed?

The Israelis say Hamas stepped up to the negotiating table almost as the President of the Palestinian Authority (PA) Mahmoud Abbas stepped down from the podium in New York last month having delivered his speech calling for UN membership.

Mr Abbas's bid has proved hugely popular with the Palestinian people. For once they were seen to have wrong-footed Israel on the diplomatic stage, an arena where, in the past, they have been woefully inadequate.

Mr Abbas's standing soared and people in the occupied territories felt, perhaps for the first time, real hope that his non-violent resistance to the occupation could bring results.

Falling support

As his and the PA's star ascended, Hamas's dropped. Since it won legislative elections in the Palestinian territories back in 2006, the militant organisation has seen its popularity slowly decline.

Its regular trade of rockets and missiles with Israel has done little to raise local morale. The Israeli blockade made life unbearable for many Gazans.

Israel was forced to ease those restrictions last year after the storming of the ship the Mavi Marmara which was taking part in a Gaza-bound flotilla.

Nine pro-Palestine activists were killed and the international community rose up as one in condemnation of the blockade.

As Israeli officials eased the blockade, they changed tactics and began focusing more on the smuggling of money into the Gaza Strip from Egypt.

The freeing of more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners will be a major propaganda coup for Hamas

A cabinet minister told me privately that Israeli army air strikes were used to kill apparently low-level targets, but they were low-level targets transporting lots of money.

Hamas was running out of cash and attempts to raise taxes on things like cigarettes and fuel alienated them further from the local population. So they bit the bullet and did a deal they had been resisting for years.

The Egyptians became key. Syria's slow meltdown left Hamas' leadership facing the prospect of needing a new home. Egypt would be their least worst option and it was applying pressure for a deal.

Last night Egyptian officials were shuttling between two hotels in Cairo passing on negotiating positions to a delegation from each side.

Hamas won some last-minute concessions from Israel, which is itself trying to adapt to the new realities of the region post-Arab Spring.

One new aspect of the deal was the inclusion of 27 women prisoners - some of whom are notorious figures whose release the Israeli public may find hard to swallow.

It also got Israel to agree for the first time on Israeli Arab prisoners being included in the negotiations.

Short-term success

Soon after the BBC broke the story of the deal and approached the Israelis for comment, Prime Minister Netanyahu hastily arranged an emergency cabinet meeting to get a sign-off on the plan and declare: "I am bringing Gilad Shalit home."

Palestinian politics is a zero-sum game. For now Hamas will bask in the glow of having got more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for one man.

Mr Abbas, while publicly welcoming the exchange, woke up this morning a politically weakened figure.

But when the jail doors open - probably next Tuesday - and people begin going home to their families, it will be clearer that key political Palestinian militants, seen as heroes by many people in the occupied territories, will still be behind bars.

Hamas has just played their only trump card. It has unquestionably won the round. But will it be enough to win them the game?

BBC link

It could just be that Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian Authority's push in the UN, with its populist, non-violent ethos, will win the day, showing the Palestinian extremists that the constant cycle of attack and retaliation between them and Israel can be outdone, and peacefully. We'll have to see.

[luckytxn 2,265]

Shouldn't be too long before Hamas will kidnap another. When you make bargains and deals and give in then you can expect it to happen again.

[Pooky 3,828]

Shouldn't be too long before Hamas will kidnap another. When you make bargains and deals and give in then you can expect it to happen again.

I don't think they will. It would lose them too much international support to be worth it. And Hamas have just been shown that, despite international relations between Israel and Turkey and Israel and Egypt being nowhere near as good as they have been, both governments saw advantage in encouraging a non-violent resolution to the situation.

Who knows? Could the release of Gilad Shalit and over 1,000 Palestinians be the catalyst to move away from continuing violence toward substantive negotiations? Has the climate changed enough to make it happen?

[ready4ONE 5,400]

Lets all just hope so Pooky!

[luckytxn 2,265]