Israel-Hamas Prisoner Swap

Anchor Marco Werman talks with Akiva Eldar, political columnist for Israel’s Ha’aretz newspaper, about the news that a deal has been struck to release Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. Shalit had been help prisoner in Gaza for more than five years.

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Marco Werman: Akiva Eldar is a political columnist for Israel’s Ha’aretz newspaper. He says there are a couple of reasons this deal was struck now.

Akiva Eldar: Hamas have a clear interest in pleasing the Egyptians and as far as I understand, the Egyptians offered them to move their headquarters from Damascus to Cairo and to operate the political operations instead of Damascus that as you know, is not welcoming these days, Khaled Mashal and the Hamas. And I think that they would rather move elsewhere because they know that they are not safe because of their ties with Bashar al-Assad, and even the leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood, which is you know, the mother of Hamas, is very unhappy with what Assad is doing to his own people. So they have a clear motivation to please the Egyptians. And the other thing is since Mahmoud Abbas our senior president has been on the headlines, the limelights at the UN they have have an interest also in hijacking the headlines to make sure that we keep mentioning Hamas rather than [inaudible 1:13].

Werman: As you say, the deal was brokered by the Egyptians. What was in it for Egypt to try and make this deal happen now and you know, in terms of, especially in terms of what happened in Egypt this year, the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak in the Arab Spring, how did that play into the timing of this?

Eldar: That’s a very interesting question. You know, the Egyptians keep putting out statements that may appear that they were very unhappy with the tap on the attack on the Israeli embassy. They have a clear interest to respect the peace agreement with Israel. What they need more than anything else is international support, economic support, because they are in deep trouble. Mubarak left them with an empty budget and the revolution of the Arab Spring cost them a lot of money because I don’t know many people who travel these days to the pyramids. They are in a great need of cash and this deal put them in the position that they are playing a positive role in the Middle East. They show that even without Mubarak they can still play a major and positive role in this area.

Werman: And what about the larger kind of motion of the Arab Spring, do you think the uncertainty in the region about what comes next has put pressure on both Israel and Hamas to make this deal kind of sooner rather than later?

Eldar: I think the Prime Minister Netanyahu realized that once he decided it’s his interest to bring Gilad back home. He’s not going to get a better deal and there is no use keep this poor kid in jail for a longer time. I just hope that he will be healthy emotionally and physically when he reunites with his family. I think that Netanyahu, when you look at the pulse after our holiday, I’m sure that you will find out that he has added maybe 10% to his approval rating. The other thing is that at least for a while he draws the attention away from the pressure that has been put on this government by the quartet in New York on the 23rd to accept the new formula and to start negotiations with the Palestinians, which for Netanyahu this is much harder things to do, it’s a greater challenge than to bring Shalit back home.

Werman: Akiva Eldar, political columnist with the Israeli newspaper, Ha’aretz, thank you so much.

Eldar: With pleasure as always.

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