Noam Shalit gives Jimmy Carter letter to son held by Hamas

Noam Shalit, father of abducted Israel Defense Force soldier Gilad Shalit, passed a letter to his son to former United States president during their meeting on Friday.

Shalit met Carter, who arrived as part of a series of talks in the region, in Jerusalem's Colony Hotel and asked him to do what he could in order to make sure his son will receive the letter.

After the meeting Shalit said that the former president was one of a few Americans with links to Hamas and was hopeful that those connections could be used to secure the release of his son.

Shalit also said that the meeting went well and that Carter committed himself to helping Gilad's cause.

He added that while the government was unable to provide him with goods news recently he was still hopeful that Haggai Hadas, recently appointed to head Shalit talks, would work vigorously toward the release of his son.

The meeting wasn't the first time Carter had been involved in the effort to release the IDF soldier.

A year ago a one-page letter, identified as having been written by Shalit, was received by fax at the Carter Center in Ramallah, and was then transferred to the Shalit family in Israel.

Noam Shalit told Haaretz at the time that in the letter Gilad begged for his life and requested that efforts be made to secure his release as soon as possible. Shalit refused, however, to reveal any more of the letter's contents.

"It's better than nothing, but it does not reassure us," Shalit said.

Last week Shalit met with new chief negotiator Haggai Hadas for the first time. After the meeting Shalit saw Prime Minister Netanyahu for a few minutes in his Jerusalem office.

After the talk with Hadas Shalit wouldn?t disclose any of the meeting's content, except that the two got acquitted with each other.