Exclusive: Hamas leader quits Shalit talks over internal feud
Mahmoud A-Zahar resigned two weeks ago after row with Hamas leader who wanted harder line in talks with Israel.
By Avi Issacharoff and Amos Harel Tags: Gilad Shalit Hamas Israel newsInternal strife within Hamas over a deal for a prisoner swap with Israel has led to the resignation of Mahmoud A-Zahar, a senior member of the negotiating team, Haaretz learned on Friday.
Zahar tendered his resignation two weeks ago from the Hamas team working on negotiations which would see Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit released in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.
Prior to his resignation, Zahar was engaged in a row with Hamas political leader Khaled Meshal over the handling of the negotiations.
Zahar was toeing the more moderate line within the Hamas leadership, willing to compromise with Israel. Meshal and Ahmed Al-Jabri, who heads the military wing of Hamas, as well as Nizar Awadallah and Marwan Issa, refused to make any concessions over the group's demands.
Shalit has been in Hamas captivity for three years and eight months already, since he was captured in a cross-border raid on the Gaza Strip border in June 2009.
After a round of dialogues mediated by German negotiator Gerhard Konrad last December, it seemed that a breakthrough was on the way,
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared readiness to show flexibility with regard to compromises offered by Konrad, and the cabinet of top seven ministers passed on a positive message of sorts ("yes, but") to the German proposal.
Since then, Hamas has evaded having to given its own response to the German mediator. It seems the Palestinian movement has tried to avoid the German mediator's accusations that it was to blame for the failure of the deal.
At the source of the rift between Israel and Hamas is the argument over a few dozen Palestinian murderers, senior Palestinian prisoners, most of them members of Hamas.
Israel has declared that it will not release Abdullah Bargouthi, Ibraim Hamed, Abbas A- Sayad and other militants from Hamas' military wing. Israel is also refusing to free Marwan Bargouthi, Fatah's strongman, and Ahmed Sadat, the leader of the Palestinian Resistance Committees.
Israel has also demanded that more than 100 of those prisoners set for release not be allowed to return to the West Bank, but rather be exiled to the Gaza Strip or abroad.
Hamas has agreed to exile a small group of prisoners, on the condition that those included in the group agree to their deportation.
Apparently, A-Zahar had shown intentions to compromise with Israel's demands on both of these issues. But following the failure in the latest round of talks, Zahar quit the negotiating team.
According to Palestinian sources, Meshal and a few associates include A-Jabri pressured Zahar to quit due to the rift in their positions. His resignation was thus not by choice.
On the other hand, this also reflects a deep disagreement between Zahar and other senior members of Hamas.
Intelligences sources both in Israel and abroad assess that Zahar and Ismail Haniyeh, the group's prime minister in the Gaza Strip, are most aware of the crisis that has embroiled the group since the blockade was first imposed in 2007, and have been seeking to find some sort of compromise with regard to the Shalit deal.
The implications for the negotiations are clear. Zahar was the moderate voice on the Palestinian side. Management of the talks now lies in the hands of Meshal and others who refuse any compromise. It is reasonable to assume that Hamas will maintain a hard-line stance in the coming months.
Last week, Konrad had renewed his mediation efforts after a one-month break.
On the Israeli side, the hardened Palestinian position will be received with a sigh (not in public, of course). If only a few months ago it seemed that Netanyahu was determined to resolve the Shalit affair and was ready to make major concessions comparable to those offered by predecessor Ehud Olmert, things have indeed changed.
Netanyahu is occupied with numerous issues, including the regional situation as well as the entanglement he got himself into over the national heritage sites. If Hamas persists in not compromising, Netanyahu is seemingly freed from his obligation.
It is doubtful that this will also be the position of the Shalit family. The family has given Netanyahu a year for maneuvering, mostly because of the trust built between Noam and Aviva Shalit and negotiations coordinator Haggai Hadas. It is very possible that this patience will end soon.
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Gaza should be warned that if any harm befalls Shalit Gaza will be razed to the ground with incendiary bombing. A place only fit for wild dogs to roam on. Kidnapping was absolutely wrong in the first place, and Israel has been forced to negotiate his release against all civilized norms of conduct.
israel's "license to kill indiscriminately" in gaza is currently suspended, and its renewal is under review pending an internal investigation of its last killing spree. apparently the world has caught on to the fact that its ruse about being the victim is just a sorry-assed excuse for its overindulgence in bloodletting. i'm truly sorry if you're disappointed in this development, but to again overlook israel's propensity for disregarding human life would mean a return to the permissive situation that led to its overindulgent killing in the first place. oh...and p.s.-i'm really not sorry that you're disappointed.
There is no proof that Hamas is holding Shalit captive. Hamas and another group captured him. Hamas almost surely knows where he is. But Hamas holding Shalit? The last I read of it, the other group had him.
"The family has given Netanyahu a year for maneuvering". It is totally unclear what the above sentence means. It was dropped out of the sky into the last paragraph and is seemingly meaningless. Mike
I hope shalit is using this opportunity to learn arabic.
I have it on good authority that the reason that a-Zahar says that he is resigning is that he needs to be out of sight for a while in order to get the left side of his nose fixed. After the healing process, he'll be able to do clandestine work (perhaps in Dubai) and nobody will recognize him.
Gaza should be given ultimatum for Schalits release and then daily bombing should begin.
israel has thousands with no trail no real defense
found guilty in the court of law as murderers. You see, some Islamists are indeed murderers, if you were not aware of it up to now, after hundreds of thousands of lives that they have taken all over the world - today in Kabul! - including in the Land of Israel.
His captors could chop off a few of his fingers and send them to Tel Aviv, with a note requesting more experienced negotiators (from the Israeli side). Or they could just wait...
Netanyahu should make sure that Shalit is back before he disappears in the casbahs of Teran like Arad.
"At the source of the rift between Israel and Hamas is the argument over a few dozen Palestinian murderers, senior Palestinian prisoners, most of them members of Hamas." Palestinian murderers huh? Very objective and unbiased article...
No one is happy about the fact that Gilad Shalit is deprived of his liberty. But he is too valuable a captive -- both in terms of his exchange value AND world opinion -- for Hamas to mistreat him. If he is ever freed as the result of negotiations, the last thing Haniyeh and Meshal want is for Gilad Shalit to say he was mistreated. But as time goes by, Israel may indeed gain actionable intelligence about Gilad Shalit's whereabouts and it is only human that some of his captors have been lulled into complacency by the passage of time. The Israel that could rescue hostages at Lod Airport or Entebbe may one day soon free Shalit... and deprive Hamas of their bargaining chip. Imagine the impact on Hamas standing in the palestinian community if they blow their chance to free thousands of palestinian prisoners in Israel. Israel should redouble it's efforts to locate Gilad Shalit. And Hamas would be advised to cut a deal before Israel succeeds in doing so.
Heartless to the core ! They can do nothing but to differ among themselves & kill each other !
The Islamist forces such as Hizballah and Hamas have perfected the trade in human bodies: live, dead, body parts and information about such parts. Now, as in any trade, these thugs can't agree about the price of a human body - let us hope he is still alive, but of course we can't know until and unless the Red Cross visits him, which the Red Cross refuses to press for this Jewish soldier - and the "deal" as the traders call it stuck. This too is the face of Islam, the religion of peace...!!
The story is right there in black and white and you are blind to see it. Even Zahar sees it. He has seen a good deal to get hundreds of Palestinian prisoners released fall apart because of the animal instinct of Meshal in Syria. Esther...please realize that this is the same Hamas leadership that would be needed to negotiate a peace agreement between Hamas and the Israel. Look to the future into who and what you would be dealing with.
... things are not going to get better for Shalit, only worse... if not for one reason, then for another...