ANALYSIS / Egypt-Hamas tension is jeopardizing Shalit deal

George Galloway, the British parliamentarian who was declared persona non grata Friday in Egypt and forced to leave the country, is old news from Israel's perspective. Veteran intelligence hands remember a younger version of Galloway visiting the Palestinian territories since the late 1970s, issuing passionate calls of support for the Palestine Liberation Organization and scarcely hiding his antipathy toward Israel.

Since then, his pronouncements have only grown more extreme, from asserting his solidarity with Saddam Hussein to his current incarnation as an ardent supporter of Hamas. But it is doubtful whether on each of his visits to the territories the British visitor ever received from Israel the flagrantly hostile treatment he was given by the authorities in Cairo.

Galloway, who organized the aid convoy "Life Line 3" to Gaza, got on Egypt's nerves with a series of provocations over the past few weeks that peaked in recent days with clashes with Egyptian authorities in Cairo and the resort town of El-Arish.

The Egyptians - who have no need for Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman's declarations on "national honor" - dealt with their offender particularly harshly, without even the help of Israel's High Court of Justice or B'Tselem.

After showing Galloway the door, a number of Egyptian lawmakers were dispatched to Arab television stations to protest the disgraceful derision of guests to their country. But it seemed that what really bothered Cairo was the unmistakable fingerprint of the various branches of the Muslim Brotherhood, with its branches from Egypt to Turkey, on the entire aid convoy affair.

The truly grave result of the incident from the perspective of the Hamas leadership in Gaza was Egypt's decision not to allow the convoy into the coastal territory. The tightening of the blockade, in a period in which Hamas is struggling to show Gazans accomplishments, is bad news indeed for the Islamist group.

These are uncomfortable days for Hamas. On Thursday night the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that Israel is unwilling to consider additional concessions in prisoner-exchange talks. Netanyahu reportedly continues to firmly believe that the offer presented to Hamas through a German mediator three weeks ago is the last the group will receive.

Arab media reported that Israel will stick to its plan to expel over 100 freed terrorists from the West Bank, and refuses to release some of the senior operatives Hamas is demanding.

The Israeli negotiating team has struggled to find ways to impress upon Hamas that the situation is dire. The fact that the mediator returned to Israel last week with an official response from Hamas - one characterized by evasions and drawing out negotiations - made Netanyahu's decision to stay the course easier.

Still, a number of difficulties remain - not only that the gap between the negotiating parties' positions is wide, but also that Hamas has yet to realize just how serious Israel is. This should not come as a surprise. The Palestinians have heard so many times from Israel that it does not intend to move another millimeter, only to see it offer more and more, that this time too it believes it can extort a few more concessions.

While all of this took place in recent days, Israel saw a significant spike in rocket fire on its territory from the Gaza Strip. The air force responded with a series of strikes on smuggling tunnels, which took the lives of three Palestinians.

Military Intelligence believes that the rockets are not being launched by Hamas operatives, but members of smaller militant factions. Still, it seems as though given the tension between Hamas and Egypt, the organization is making fewer efforts to clamp down on those smaller factions that are even more radical than itself.

It is now middlemen who are transferring warning messages to Israel and Egypt: Stagnation in prisoner-exchange talks and the continuation of the siege, alongside an Egyptian attempt to build an "iron wall" along the Rafah border, will only lead to a broader confrontation.

Cairo, not for the first time, is refusing to be moved by Hamas' media campaign against the iron wall. Not only did it declare that the aid convoys would not be allowed into Gaza, but also that it intended to build the barrier.

The funeral of an Egyptian soldier killed last week near the border by Palestinian sniper fire was presented almost as a state event. Egyptian newspaper editorials attack Hamas for "treason," and some reports even have Egyptian authorities instructing local imams to speak ill to worshippers about their Palestinian neighbors.