Netanyahu offers top minister job of point man on Shalit talks

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offered one of his deputies, Dan Meridor, the job of special envoy to the prisoner swap talks for captive Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit, Channel 1 reported on Monday.

If he accepts the post, Meridor, who currently holds the title of deputy prime minister and the minister in charge of the intelligence services, would replace Ofer Dekel.

Dekel supervised the Egyptian-mediated Shalit negotiations with Hamas during Ehud Olmert's premiership. He resigned shortly after Netanyahu assumed power earlier this year.

Last week, Shalit's father, Noam, has urged Netanyahu not to approve measures aimed at easing life in Gaza until progress is made toward the release of his son.

"I don't expect Netanyahu to adopt the position of his predecessor, Ehud Olmert, on the matter of conditioning the opening of the [Strip's] crossings on the release of Gilad; but I do expect him to adopt his saying: 'If they give, they'll get, if they don't give, they won't get,'" Noam Shalit told Haaretz on Saturday.

Shalit made the comments shortly before Netanyahu headed to Washington for a meeting with United States President Barack Obama.

He said he did not expect his son's plight to feature on the agenda of the meeting, but believed that the Obama administration would demand Israel take steps to ease life in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, where his son is widely believed to be held.

The soldier's father said Israel should seek a sign of life from Gilad, the improvement of his conditions and ultimately his release in return for gestures toward the Palestinian population in Gaza. He added that he had made this request in person to Netanyahu.

It should be noted that the Shalit family is still keeping the public silence it has maintained since Netanyahu took office. The family and its supporters plan to renew their campaign for the soldier's release ahead of July 25, the third anniversary of his abduction by Gaza militants in a cross-border raid.