Sheikh Mohammad Hussein was appointed Mufti of Jerusalem by Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas in 2006. (Photo: Matthew Bell)

Israelis are used to hearing hateful speech from some of their neighbors. On Friday, Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei referred to the Jewish State as a “cancerous tumor.” But a recent speech from another Muslim leader – much closer to the Israeli heartland – has drawn criticism from the highest levels of the Israeli government.

The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem is the top Muslim official for the Islamic holy sites in Jerusalem and the Palestinian areas. That includes the Al-Aqsa mosque, Islam’s third-holiest place. The current mufti was appointed by the president of the Palestinian National Authority, which is dominated by the Fatah party. Last month, Sheikh Mohammad Hussein spoke at a Fatah anniversary ceremony. And he quoted from a well-known hadith, or saying attributed to the Prophet Mohammad.

“The hour will not come until you fight the Jews,” Hussein said into the microphone. “The Jews will hide behind rocks and trees. And the rocks and trees will call out, ‘oh Muslim, servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me. Come and kill him!’”

“The hour” is a reference to the end of days.

So, what was the mufti trying to say exactly, by citing this particular hadith at a political meeting right now? I met with Sheikh Hussein at his home in Jerusalem and asked him to explain.

“The hadith, the statements by prophet Mohammad that I quoted, was a statement that talked about the after-life,” Hussein said. “It was not talking about the practical relationship between Muslims and Jews.”
Hussein said there was nothing wrong with using the quote and he doesn’t apologize for it.

But the Israeli government is taking offense. The mufti is said to be the subject of an investigation and he could be charged with incitement. Government spokesman Mark Regev said the Palestinian Authority should have condemned the speech.

“I would argue that the Palestinian leadership has both a legal and moral obligation to condemn this sort of hate talk,” Regev said in an interview. “If they say they want peace, they shouldn’t tolerate this sort of language.”
“In the signed agreements between Israelis and Palestinians,” Regev said the Palestinian Authority under President Mahmoud Abbas has “a legal obligation to prevent this.”

Palestinian Media Watch, a watchdog group based in Jerusalem, first called attention to the Sheikh Hussein’s speech. Director, Itamar Marcus pointed out that the hadith quoted by the mufti of Jerusalem is the same one found in the charter of Hamas, the Islamic militant group devoted to Israel’s destruction. Marcus says the mufti’s speech is just part of a growing problem of Palestinian incitement against Jews and Israel.

“The mufti’s call for violence is an isolated call from the mufti, but it’s not an isolated call from the Palestinian Authority,” Marcus said during an interview in his office.

Marcus showed me a series of videos on his group’s website. He said they were recorded from the Palestinian Authority’s official TV channel. And they add up, Marcus believes, to a media environment that aims to stoke hatred of Israelis and Jews, and to glorify violence.

Another Israeli who has spent a lot of time studying statements from Palestinians is Matti Steinberg. He worked for more than 30 years with the Shin Bet, Israel’s intelligence agency. He’s also an expert on Islamic fundamentalism.
Steinberg said he probably knows the hadith quoted by the mufti of Jerusalem by heart. It has been used by Islamists going back to the early of the Muslim Brotherhood in 1920s. The fact that the mufti has quoted the hadith again, Steinberg said, is worrisome and dangerous. But it is not surprising.

Steinberg said, the West Bank leadership is opposed to violence. But in the current climate, the Palestinian Authority is utterly stuck. Fatah leaders have been trying to seel the Palestinian public on the idea of a negotiated two-state solution with Israel since the early 1990s. But the peace process is going nowhere.

“It is a sign [of] the total disappointment and frustration of a real political process,” Steinberg said in an interview at his home. “There is a world of difference between, let us say, innate extremism and radicalization, which is caused by the failure of a pragmatic political settlement.”

Steinberg said there is another reason to worry. When pragmatism fails, he said, it becomes much easier for extremists to frame the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in religious terms. And that goes for either side, he added. The problem is, in a religious conflict, there’s no room for political compromise.

Caution: Video contains strong anti-Semitic language.

Margolis family in Bet Shemesh, Israel. (Photo: Daniella Cheslow)

At issue is the treatment, and place, of women and girls in public life. 
The one girl who has put a spotlight on Beit Shemesh is Na’ama Margolis. She is a shy, blonde, second-grader who wears glasses and comes from a religious family. Her parents immigrated to Israel from the US and Canada. Last Friday night, Na’ama appeared in a news report that seized national attention. The 8-year-old talked about how she was scared to walk to school, even while holding her mother’s hand, and despite the fact her school is only 300 yards from her family’s home.

Na’ama is afraid of the ultra-Orthodox men who started showing up at her school a few months ago. The school is a religious one, and the clothes the girls wear tend to reflect that. But for this group of ultra-Orthodox extremists, the girls’ clothes aren’t modest enough.

The men have shown up at the school, shouting nasty names, like whore and slut, at young girls and their mothers. They’ve reportedly spit on them as well.

As a result, tensions between the ultra-Orthodox community and the rest of Beit Shemesh are running high. 
Mira Aaronson, whom I met while pushing her toddler in a stroller near her home, dresses like an observant Jewish Israeli woman: her hair is covered, she wears a long-sleeved sweater and an ankle-length denim skirt. Aaronson said this is sad situation, but in Beit Shemesh, nothing short of hatred has developed between Jews like her and the most extreme members of the ultra-Orthodox community.

A low point, she said, was when her daughter’s classroom was broken into and vandalized. 
“Feces smeared all over the classroom,” Aaronson said. “It was like a stink bomb of dead fish and urine.” 


The tensions in Beit Shemesh are partly about ideals of modesty, according to Shalom Lerner, a former deputy mayor. But Lerner said they’re also about territory.

“We have so many ultra-Orthodox people in Beit Shemesh, and in a certain way they’re trying to change the shape of the city,” Lerner said. “It’s becoming very orthodox, with them trying to change the lifestyles of other people.”

Lerner said Israeli authorities made a mistake years ago when they allowed ultra-Orthodox communities to put up street signs that instructed women how to dress modestly, or not to dawdle in front of synagogues.

When police removed signs this week, scuffles broke out between officers and crowds of ultra-Orthodox men. 
Zvika Borenstein, who works in a hardware store in an ultra-Orthodox section of Beit Shemesh, said he’s not happy with the men from his community who have tried to intimidate non-ultra-Orthodox women and girls.

“Modesty is something you learn from parents,” Borenstein said. “Shouting at girls isn’t going to accomplish anything.”


Outside the hardware store, another ultra-Orthodox man who gave his name as Mittelman said he hadn’t heard about the incidents at the girls’ school because he doesn’t read secular newspapers or listen to the news.

But Mittleman said the ultra-Orthodox community must remain segregated from the rest of Israeli society, including its Jewish neighbors.

Meanwhile, the Margolis family is getting a lot of public support. On Monday night, the family’s living room was full of news cameras there to film the lighting of the Hanukkah candles. Rabbi Haim Amsalem, who’s also a member of the Israeli parliament, compared ultra-Orthodox Jewish extremists to the extremists in the Islamic theocracy of Iran.

“We don’t want to live here like in Tehran,” Amsalem said, citing examples of women being forced to cover up. 


Na’ama Margolis’s mother Hadassah told me that she sees the conflict at her daughter’s school as an example of a bigger problem in Israel.

“I’m hoping that all over the country we see a difference and we see a change in the way women are being treated at the moment. I want this craziness to stop,” Margolis said.

On Tuesday, thousands of people came out in Beit Shemesh to protest what they see as an attempt by religious zealots to impose their rules on Israeli society at large. Ahead of the demonstration, Israel’s president Shimon Peres urged people to stand up against Jewish extremism, in what he called a fight for the nation’s soul.

The Greek Orthodox monastery of St. George’s is built into a steep, tan cliffside in the Judean desert. The place dates back to the 4th or 5th century. Today, St. George’s is home to 10 monks. One is said to spend most of his time praying – or sleeping – in a cave nearby.

The site is also a popular destination for Christian pilgrims. One of them who gave her name as Dominique, stood in a chapel wearing a loosely-tied headscarf, with her hands folded and tears streaming down her cheeks.

“With the whole of my heart, with the whole of my spirit,” she said. “I am really excited and happy to be over here.”

“I’ve been crying,” she added. “I’m shaking and I can’t explain even that.”

And she’s far from alone. Last year, 3.5 million tourists visited the Holy Land. Two-thirds of them were Christians. The Israeli government, which controls the borders not only to the Jewish State but to the West Bank as well, sees real potential in faith tourism. And it’s reaching out to Christian pilgrims in a big way.

One of the most popular sites for Christians is Qasr al-Yahud. That’s Arabic for “Palace of the Jews.” It’s the spot in the Jordan River where Jesus is said to have been baptized.

The modern-day pilgrimage site sits in the middle of a minefield between the Israeli-controlled West Bank and the Kingdom of Jordan. In recent years, Israeli authorities have spent lots of money removing mines and renovating to make the place accessible to tourists, like Gordon Wong.

Wong is a Methodist pastor from Singapore. After baptizing several pilgrims, he climbed out of the waist-deep, greenish-brown water onto a newly built wooden deck.
“Before you get married, you already fall in love with the person you want to get married to,” Wong explained.

“So, you’ve already started that relationship, you already know. But the wedding ceremony is a public demonstration of that. You’re saying you’re not ashamed to be identified with this person. That’s really what baptism is. They already have this love of Christ. Now, they want to declare it to others and what better place to do it than here.”

The average tourist spent $ 1,700 each last year, according to Israeli statistics. That adds up to billions of dollars for the local economy. In a short interview, Israel’s Minister of Tourism, Stas Misezhnikov said the Jewish State wants to expand the Christian tourism market for financial reasons, obviously. But for another reason as well.

“Every satisfied tourist,” Misezhnikov said. “He becomes the ambassador of good will [for] the state of Israel. It’s very important to us.”

That was evident during a Holy Land recent visit by a small group of American Evangelical pastors and broadcasters. One of the Israeli officials who met with the group was the Minister for Public Diplomacy, Yuli Edelstein.

“We are very glad that you are here and that you can see things and talk about things,” Edelstein said.

Pastor Joseph Davis from High Point Church in Dallas, Texas told me his visit to Israel was not just about faith, but about politics. Davis said he will go back home and tell Americans what he believes is really going on in the Holy Land today.

“It troubles me greatly to hear that Israel is still at the place of talking about giving away land,” Davis said. “I personally don’t believe that giving away more land is going to solve the issue.”

It is next to impossible to completely remove politics from a visit to this part of the world, according to Uwe Graber. He is the head of the German Lutheran Church for Israel, the Palestinian Territories and Jordan.

Graber said the growing number of Christian pilgrims coming to the Holy Land is tremendously good news for pilgrims and for their local hosts. But he said he tends to encourage visitors to focus on the spiritual rather than the political when they visit here.

“There are so-called fact-finding missions and often I have the impression that they have found their facts ahead, before they come and here they just want to reconfirm the facts they found ahead,” Graber said. “That’s not good.”

Visitors should really, make up their minds afterwards.

Graber said he also urges Christian pilgrims to do more than just visit the holy sites. He tells them to actually meet the people who live here, especially people of non-Christian faiths… Jews, Muslims, Druze and Bahai. That, he says, makes for the most valuable kind of pilgrimage.

US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta (Photo: Wiki commons)

And its been getting advice from the Obama administration on how to deal with the uncertainty.

Israel should do more to mend fences with some of its neighbors.

That was part of a message sent by secretary of defense Leon Panetta in a recent speech. Panetta was careful not to blame Israel alone for its increasing diplomatic isolation.

But it’s a problem, Panetta explained. And he urged the Israelis to take bold action to fix it.

When he was asked what Israel should do about the long-stalled peace process with the Palestinians, Panetta said, “get to the damn table.” Panetta repeated the mantra about an unshakable US commitment to Israel’s security. But he also seemed to be asking Israel for more diplomatic effort.

Not just with the Palestinians. But with other regional players, starting with Turkey and Egypt. Israel’s relations with both countries have suffered big setbacks this year.

“I think Israelis are scratching their heads in terms of Panetta’s no doubt well-intentioned but hopelessly naïve and irrelevant admonishment,” said Yossi Klein Halevi, a foreign policy expert at the Shalom Hartman Center in Jerusalem.

He said the Obama administration is failing to grasp what the so-called Arab Spring means for Israel.

“There is nothing more frightening for Israelis when we look around the region and see the rise of Islamist regimes, which may or may not be all kinds of things,” Halevi said. “They may be pro-democratic or anti-democratic, but one thing they all are is hostile, not just to Israel’s policies, but Israel’s existence.”

These are confusing times in the Middle East. And the Obama administration appears to be in a state of confusion itself, said Jonathan Rynhold of Bar Ilan University near Tel Aviv.

In the case of Turkey, for example, Rynhold said the big reasons why its relationship with Israel has changed so much is mostly due to Turkey’s internal dynamics.

“And the same really goes for Egypt,” he added. “I mean, at the end of the day, this is a very deep change in Egyptian politics and there’s not really much that Israel can do on the strategic level.”

On the tactical level, Rynhold said Israel could use carrots and sticks with its potential partners and rivals as the region works through this period of transition. But that’s a long-term process, he said. Most of what develops in the Arab world will not be determined by outside influences.

One former Israeli diplomat has a very different view. He welcomed the speech by Panetta, because he said Israel’s current government is guilty of sitting on its hands at a critical time. The government should not be taking a wait and see approach, he said. Things are not likely to get any easier as time goes on.

Paul Hirschson, spokesman for the Israeli foreign ministry, said he’s heard this criticism before. He said there is an ongoing debate inside Israeli policy circles over whether to reach out or to pull back. At the same time, Hirschon said this might not be the time for Israel to be taking big risks.

“What’s going on in the Arab world right now, what we are calling the ‘Arab Spring’, is not about us. It’s about them,” Hirschon said. “And it’s the Arab populations taking responsibility for themselves. And the truth is that we really do need to sit on the sidelines a little bit and see how it develops.”

Maybe this will turn out to be a time for Israel to engage to its neighbors diplomatically. But if it that does happen, it’s likely to take place carefully and quietly.

And it’s expected to be highly critical of Iranian intentions.

Iran said the leaked contents of the International Atomic Energy Agency report are “fabrications.”

But the episode has already fuelled speculation that the Israelis might consider bombing Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Israelis across the political spectrum have long considered Iran’s nuclear program to be a grave threat. And Israeli leaders have long alluded to the necessity of using military action. But news reports suggest this time, an attack could be imminent. Today, Israel’s finance minister Yuval Steinitz said he hoped the forthcoming UN report would finally bring the gravity of the Iranian nuclear threat into focus for the international community.

“We know it already for 15 years, it is very clear and now it is going to be crystal clear to the entire world. And therefore Iran is producing the most dangerous threat, not just to Israel and the Middle East, but to Europe, the United States and the rest of the world, and it’s up to the world to do its utmost.”

“Israel is trying to convince the world. But the question is, is there anything behind these threats? And I would say, yes,” said Ronen Bergman, a military affairs analyst at the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth.

Bergman said Israel is sending the message that if the world does not prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons, then Israel will take matters into its own hands.

“I would say that Israel, as a last resort, if it is convinced that the world is not going to take serious actions against Iran, the Israeli prime minister – not just Netanyahu – I think any Israeli prime minister would launch the bombers to hit the Iranian nuclear sites,” Bergman said.

The new US defense secretary just paid a visit to Israel. And Leon Panetta said something publicly that was perceived here as a word of caution to prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Panetta said that when it comes to decisions about Iran, things need to be coordinated between the Israeli and US governments. Nicholas Burns is former undersecretary of state who worked on Iran policy under president George W. Bush.

“If Israel were to strike unilaterally, it would almost by definition drag the US into a war. Iran’s going to respond,” Burns said. “I think Iran would like nothing than to get into a war with Israel. We’d have to support Israel. So it’s very important that the US have an agreement with Israel: “we’ve got this one. We’ve got your back. We’ll protect you. But don’t drag us into a war that’s not of our choosing.”

The Israeli public and political leadership is deeply divided on this issue.

A former head of Israel’s Mossad spy agency, Meir Dagan, caused a huge stir when he said early this year, that bombing Iran was, quote, the “stupidest thing” he’s ever heard. Jeffrey Goldberg is national correspondent with The Atlantic.

He said several former Israeli intelligence and military officials fear that prime minister Netanyahu, along with his defense minister Ehud Barak, are ready to strike Iran. And that there’s no one left in the upper echelons of power to advise them against doing so.

“Ultimately, if the prime minister and the defense minister tell the Israeli air force to attack Iran, it will attack Iran,” Goldberg said. “It has plans. It has practiced for this. It believes, like any good air force, that it can do anything. And so, this will happen if the prime minister decides that it will happen.”

Goldberg agrees that some of what’s going on here is public posturing on the part of the Israeli government. This is aimed at getting the US and allies to hit Iran with tougher sanctions. But he adds that the Israeli prime minister is also completely sincere when he talks about the need to stop Iran going from nuclear.

Sergeant Shalit was taken from Gaza to Egypt, and then to an airbase in Israel where he was reunited with his family.

Meanwhile the first of 477 Palestinians to be released have arrived in Gaza and the West Bank, amid jubilant scenes.

Another 550 jailed Palestinian are to be freed next month under the deal between Israel and Hamas.

Shalit, 25, was seized in 2006 by Hamas militants who tunneled into Israel.

BBC Coverage

Gilad Shalit salutes Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after landing in IDF airbase in the center of Israel. (Photo: IDF/Wiki Commons)

Read tweets about Gilad Shalit’s release

Gershon Baskin says the deal he helped broker between Israel and Hamas is the pinnacle of his career, and even more than that. “This is the biggest and most important thing I have ever done in my life,” he said.

Which is funny, because Baskin was never supposed to get involved in the negotiations in the first place. He’s a peace activist, a Long Islander who moved to Israel in 1978. He has a bushy beard and a non-profit think tank, the Israel Palestine Center for Research and Information.

Israeli newspaper reporting that "Gilad is returning home." (Photo: Daniel Estrin)

Still, every time Baskin offered to help with the Shalit case, the official Israeli response was “no, thanks.”

“I refuse to take no for an answer,” said Baskin, in his Jerusalem home. “I will be the persistent pest, and I decided I was going to bring Gilad Shalit home.”

In 2006, right after Hamas kidnapped Shalit and Israel responded with airstrikes, Baskin’s Palestinian friend in Gaza called, saying that they had to find a way to get things back to normal. He put Baskin in touch with the Hamas Deputy Foreign Minister, Ghazi Hamad, and Baskin got Hamad to talk to the Israeli soldier’s father, Noam Shalit.

“Shalit said, ‘I want my son, I want to know that he’s alive,’” Baskin remembered. “Ghazi told him, ‘Your son is well, he’s being taken care of, he will be treated well by the Hamas. We will issue our demands to Israel, and when Israel meets our demands, he will be released.’”

It was kind of like in the movies: Hamas demanded ransom – in the form of a prisoner exchange.

But at the time, Israel wouldn’t talk to Hamas. Baskin wanted to relay the message to the then-Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert. He didn’t know the Prime Minister, but he knew the Prime Minister’s daughter, Dana, was also a peace activist. She agreed to pass messages from Hamas to her father.

“She said, ‘I will, of course I will, but you shouldn’t expect anything from him. He’s not going to listen. He won’t change his mind,’” said Baskin. “I said, ‘Let’s try.’ And as expected, her father’s response was, ‘We don’t negotiate with terrorists.’”

Baskin kept trying – but he got in trouble. Baskin said Israeli intelligence heard Hamas officials tossing around Dana’s name. Olmert was furious – and he let Baskin know.

Still, the peace activist persisted. He faxed a list of Hamas’ demands to the Prime Minister’s official envoy for the Shalit case. The envoy called him.

“He says, ‘You’re out of the picture now. There are official channels, official tracks working now. Thank you for what you did, we don’t need you anymore,’” Baskin recalled him saying.

At that point, the Egyptians had also become intermediaries between Israel and Hamas. Baskin’s contact at the Egyptian embassy told him not to give up.

Baskin recalls him saying, “We need someone who is independent, who will be there, who can pass messages. Just ignore him. Keep doing what you are doing.”

Baskin kept pushing. A new Israeli envoy took on the case; he also wanted Baskin out. But after two years, that envoy stepped down, and in May of this year, current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appointed a new emissary to the Shalit case, former Mossad agent David Meidan.

Gershon with the Hamas document presenting their final demands, and the Israeli document acknowledging his role as an officially recognized Israeli negotiator. (Photo: Daniel Estrin)

“But in the last paragraph, it had the names of the arch-terrorists. The worst. The baddest and the worst. David said to me, in no uncertain terms, ‘Israel will not negotiate on these names,’” recalls Baskin.

Baskin relayed the news to Hamas. “I was very harsh, direct, categorical. They could not expect to get all they wanted. If they were serious about the idea of negotiating, they had to understand, that first thing they had to remove was these names.”
And in the end, they did.

On July 14, Hamas sent Baskin a document outlining their final demands for an agreement. The most senior prisoners weren’t on the list. Baskin immediately faxed the document to David Meidan.

“David called me back, saying, ‘This is exactly what we need. This is a breakthrough.’”

Baskin agreed to help facilitate final negotiations, but Hamas wanted proof that Baskin really represented Israel. So David Meidan typed out a letter, in Hebrew, on a plain white sheet of paper, with the words “private” and “sensitive” on the top.

It’s the document that turned Baskin from a freelance nudge with a fax machine, to an official Israeli mediator.

Since the deal was signed last week, Baskin has received a flood of emails from peace activist colleagues, thanking him for proving that the peace camp is still relevant.

And he was all smiles when Ghazi Hamad from Hamas called him on a recent morning. This deal succeeded, Baskin said, because of their rapport.

“Ghazi Hamad and I are friends. We may not agree on things politically, we don’t see lot of things eye to eye, but we’re friends. And we trust each other. And his happiness today is not just because a thousand Palestinian prisoners have been released. I know that he is sincerely happy because Gilad Shalit is going to be reunited with his family. And that makes a big difference. There’s the human element here which goes beyond everything.”

Ghazi Hamad declined to confirm Baskin’s version of the negotiations, and preferred not to comment on his relationship with the American-Israeli peace activist.

Now, Baskin has his eyes on the big prize: joining the official Israeli Palestinian peace-making team.

“There is no trust between the two parties,” he said. “And I guess, that’s what I have to do, is work on building trust.”

Building trust – one fax at a time.

Mahmoud Abu Tahir was one of the nearly 500 Palestinian prisoners freed by Israel today. He was serving a 10 year sentence for plotting suicide bombings. Speaking to the BBC shortly after his release, he said the Israeli government only understands power. Tahir added that the Palestinian resistance must continue.

“Our land is in occupation,” he said. “We have the right to resist the occupation. This is our right and we will not stop this.”

Without a doubt, today was a victory for Hamas and its ideology, said political science professor Mkhaimer Abusada of al-Azhar University in Gaza.

“Even though the Palestinians, especially in Gaza, have paid a very heavy price over the past five years as a result of capturing Shalit,” Abusada said. “Hamas was able to bring back 1,027 Palestinian prisoners back.”

The second group of about 500 Palestinian prisoners are expected to be released by Israel two months from now. Hamas leaders say they also expect Israel to lift restrictions on the movement of people and goods in and out of Gaza, now that Gilad Shalit is free.

If that happens, it would be seen by many Palestinians as another achievement by Hamas. And it would come at the expense of Fatah, the rival faction of Hamas that controls the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and rejects armed resistance against Israel.

Hussein Ibish of the American Task Force on Palestine said Israel has taken a big risk by striking this deal with Hamas.

“This proves that armed resistance gets results,” Ibish said. “Whereas negotiations, diplomacy and institution building – the policies of the PA and the PLO – don’t get results.”

In the West Bank today, Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas made a very public show of support for the prisoner swap. He even appeared standing next to leaders from Hamas.

Abbas had been riding a wave of popular support following his speech at the United Nations last month in which he called for Palestinian membership at the UN. But Ibish says the Palestinian president is the short-term loser here, and that was precisely the intention of both Hamas and the Israeli government in finally striking a deal.

“It’s clearly a blow directed by both of them at President Abbas,” he said. “An effort to deflate him from his UN success and bring his popularity down to size.”

It is not clear though how much Hamas stands to gain in the long term. Ibish doubts Israel will hand Hamas another easy victory by lifting its blockade of Gaza in any significant way. He said the prisoner swap is also unlikely to shake up the moribund peace process.

“It is moribund and it’s going to stay moribund until after the next (US) presidential election,” Ibish said. “I don’t see any huge change in the strategic equation here in the long run.”

Secretary of state Hillary Clinton commented on the release of Gilad Shalit during her visit to Tripoli, Libya today. She said the soldier was “held for far too long in captivity.”

The United States did not play a significant role in bringing about the prisoner swap. Germany was involved for some of the indirect talks between Israel and Hamas. But it was two regional players – Egypt and Turkey – who finally brokered the deal.

The deal reportedly includes numerous prisoners convicted of murder.

Israelis have mixed feelings about the agreement.

A senior Hamas source confirmed Friday that kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit has been told of his imminent release.

Shalit has been held capitive by Hamas for more than five years but a deal announced this week is supposed to lead to his freedom soon.

That’s sparked celebrations in Israel but some Israelis are questioning the deal between Hamas and the Israeli government.

They said releasing hundreds of Palestinian prisoners accused of violent crimes is dangerous. An Israeli group representing victims of Palestinian attacks petitioned a court on Friday to delay the impending deal.

Few in Israel can forget the suicide bombings of the second Intifada.

One of the most memorable, and horrific, was the attack on the Sbarro Pizzeria in central Jerusalem in the summer of 2001. 15 people were killed.

There’s word that the Palestinian man responsible for that bombing will be released as part of this prisoner swap deal.

The men behind other attacks will also walk free, including the perpetrator of a bus bombing in Tel Aviv that left 16 dead, including an American.

The families of many of the Israeli victims of these attacks have spoken out against this agreement. They sympathize, they said, with the family of Gilad Shalit, but they also said they cannot accept that those who have killed their loved ones will walk free.

Uzi Landau is one of just three of the Israeli cabinet ministers who didn’t back the prisoner swap. “I think that voting for such an agreement would be a tremendous encouragement for future terror,” Landau said. “In the Middle East it will be perceived as a move that simply says terror pays off.”

In another protest against the prisoner swap, an Israeli man was arrested early this morning after a memorial to former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin was vandalized. The suspect’s parents and three of his siblings were killed in a Palestinian suicide bombing.

There is clearly concern about releasing prisoners, especially those “with blood on their hands,” as the saying here goes.

That’s why, according to Israel’s chief rabbi Yona Metzger, many have struggled with this deal.

“This is very, very difficult for us. But for us one soul of one soldier is so important that even this, we have to pay so many,” Metzger explained. “You can understand the difference between us and our neighbors, our enemies. This is our specialty of our heart. Of the Jewish heart. And the responsibility we take for every soldier.”

There are more details today about the 1,027 prisoners who will be set free. Two hundred eighty of them are serving life sentences, including men who have killed and abducted Israeli soldiers.

Some of those released will be allowed to return home to their families in the West Bank. A few dozen will be sent abroad, perhaps to Turkey and Jordan. Others will be deported to Gaza.

At Friday prayers, the leader of the militant group Hamas in Gaza told worshipers that Palestinians have paid “a great price” to see the prisoners freed. “Today we reap the benefits of our resistance, of our perseverance,” said Ismail Haniyeh. “We have paid a high price in martyrs and we have sacrificed much as our enemy has worked to save Shalit,” he said.

In Gaza and the West Bank families are preparing to welcome their loved ones home.

Samira Imshedi’s husband has been in an Israeli jail for more than 30 years, convicted of killing a senior Israeli soldier.

“I say thank you to those who kidnapped Gilad Shalit,” she said. “They need to keep kidnapping Israeli soldiers until all our Palestinian prisoners are free.”

In Israel, where most 18-year-olds are conscripted into the Army, there is much sympathy for what Shalit’s family has gone through.

And soldiers such as Jay Goldberg said the possibility of being abducted is a constant worry. That’s why he thinks this lopsided prisoner swap is fair.

“To see that the country and the people would go so far as to return one of their soldiers is just amazing and baffling and gives me even more inspiration to work harder.”

Goldberg said he and his comrades cannot wait until Tuesday. A party is being planned on their military base to mark the day Gilad Shalit is expected to come home to Israel.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the deal had been reached after arduous talks, and that Sgt Shalit would be back with his family “within days”.

The soldier was captured in a cross-border raid in 2006 and taken to Gaza.

Gerald Steinberg is a professor of Political Studies at Bar Ilan University in Israel.

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Marco Werman: The other big news story today comes from Israel. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his government and the Palestinian militant group Hamas have signed a deal for the release of captive Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

Benjamin Netanyahu: [Speaking Hebrew]

Werman: Netanyahu said he called Shalit’s family to them their son would be home in the coming days. In exchange Israel will free as many as a thousand Palestinian prisoners. Shalit was grabbed by Hamas in a cross border raid more than five years ago. The Israel – Hamas deal was brokered by Egypt and Germany. Gerald Steinberg is an Israeli is a professor of Political Studies at Bar Ilan University in Israel. He says the timing of the announcement is due to a few factors.

Gerald Steinberg: First of all, there has been some change in the Israeli security leadership. The head of the General Security Service like the FBI has, the new one, has said that he thinks that his organization and Israeli capabilities will be able to contain most of the terror that will resolve from the release of a thousand people who have been involved in some very very massive terror attacks against the Israelis. That’s a major change. Up until now, some of the leaders of the security services have opposed this type of agreement. Also I think the changes that are going on in Egypt have led Prime Minister Netanyahu to want to reach an agreement before things become even more chaotic in Egypt. At least now Egypt being the source of the core of this agreement and the only way it can be actually be carried out is to see Gilad Shalit brought to Egypt and then over the next period of time Israel release the Palestinians with it’s holding without having an Egyptian partner. That would probably be impossible to do.

Werman: Is this news related at all to the Palestinian bid for statehood? Is it some kind of PR campaign on either side?

Steinberg: No, in fact it’s interesting that Fatah, the Palestinian authority Mahmoud Abbas who was just in the UN, the President of the Palestinian I think, they’re not involved in this in any way, manner, or form. Some of the issues that come up is among the prisoners that are going to be released, those who have been involved in terror. Such as Marwan Barghouti who was convicted of some very major terrorist activities. Whether he will also be in this, as a future leader of Fatah or a leader of Fatah, will that be also a part of the agreement and to what degree that will play into the Fatah – Hamas conflict in competition. That, I’d say, is a secondary issue certainly for Israelis. The main issue is Gilad Shalit seeing his parents every day outside the Prime Minister’s house and knowing he was someone who was captured, kidnapped from Israeli soil as an Israeli soldier who has been basically lingering in Gaza for five years. The Israeli public wants to see him out even if there’s a high cost.

Werman: And if this swap happens, what kind of impact do you think it will have on negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians now? And on Israeli public opinion about those negotiations?

Steinberg: If there’s a results of this exchange, of this agreement, there’s a big spike in terrorism, then you will see becoming even more unwilling to take major security risks, but if in the next year or two we do not see any kind of increase in terrorism, then it wont have a negative impact, but it wont necessarily have a positive impact. The deal was being made with Hamas through Egypt and the negotiations take place with an entirely different group of Palestinians, so in reality there’s probably no link between the two.

Werman: For some of the Jewish community in the US who know the precise number of days Shalit has been held by Hamas, this is huge news. Remind us of the significance of Gilad Shalit. Not just for Israelis and Jews, but also why he’s a high value prisoner with the Palestinians.

Steinberg: Gilad Shalit was kidnapped in June of 2006 while he was on guard duty within Israel and whisked across in Gaza and held there. It’s very frustrating for Israelis when you have your soldiers, you have your sons and your daughters to be brought into the army, to have someone who’s kidnapped and being unable to release him and unwilling to pay the price because if you released, the argument has been made over the years and it will be made again tonight by opponents of the agreement. If you allow this agreement to go through, you’re setting [xx] for more terrorist attacks and them more kidnappings to release the terrorists involved. So this is something that has been a very high emotional issue, but because most Israeli families send their sons or daughters or fathers into the army and having him there and not being able to release him has been a source of major frustration. He has become a symbol of basically the most fundamental violation of the human rights of any Israeli and the fact that there’s been a large silence in terms of that, to have him back will be, I think, a significant closing of a circle for many other people, even those who did not know him and the whole family, but seeing him as that symbol.

Werman: Gerald Steinberg, professor of Political Studies at Bar Ilan University in Israel. Thanks so much.

Steinberg: Thank you.

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Huge posters with pictures of Abbas were hung from street lights in Ramallah on Sunday, while crowds of Palestinians stood on the sidewalk to see the president’s motorcade pass by.

Returning from his trip to UN headquarters in New York, one of the first things Abbas did was lay a wreath at the tomb of the late Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat.

But it was clearly Abbas himself who was the man of the hour.

Youth from the West Bank town of Jenin – a hotbed of Palestinian militancy during the last intifada – carried pictures of Abbas and they shouted allegiance to their president and “the revolution” as they entered the Mukataa in Ramallah. The site is both Arafat’s final resting place and the central headquarters for the Palestinian Authority.

Upwards of 5,000 people gathered to welcome Abbas back from what many Palestinians see as their president’s historic trip.

“My brothers and sisters,” Abbas told the crowd, “hold your heads up, you are Palestinians!”

But the president also said, “the diplomatic and political campaign of the Palestinian leadership is just getting started.”

“There’s a long way to go,” he added, “and we need your help.”

Many Palestinians doubted that Abbas would ever defy the United States by asking the Security Council for full UN membership. But by doing just that, and by giving a defiant speech on the floor of the UN General Assembly last Friday, Abbas seems to have come into his own.

Palestinian journalist Bassem Barhoum said the president has finally emerged from the shadow of the late Yasser Arafat, who is still revered by Palestinians and described as a leader with great charisma.

“Now, we [have] started with Abbas stage,” Barhoum said. “We were still living with Arafat’s stage and now, we started with Abbas stage.”

Barhoum said he was not sure what is next for the Palestinian president.

The US has promised to veto the Palestinian bid for UN membership in the Security Council. Abbas is then expected to ask the General Assembly to recognize Palestine as a non-member observer state.

Whatever happens in New York though, university teacher Iman Taher said Palestinians are feeling a newfound sense of dignity and hope. She was attending the rally in Ramallah on Sunday.

Palestinians might not know exactly how to get there, but Taher said Abbas has articulated to everyone where they want to go.

“We need life,” Taher said. “To have life like others, this is [what] people here are looking forward [to] in the future: to have their state.”

For all his newfound success, it is not clear what comes next for Abbas the politician.

The 76-year-old leader is said to be conscious of his legacy. He has said he won’t run in another election. There’s speculation that Abbas is looking to resign sooner than later.

But Alaa Yagui – a member of the president’s Fateh party – says the president should stick around and take advantage of his new political momentum.

“It should be a very good start for the Palestinian politics,” he said. “For the Palestinian future.”

“It wouldn’t be a good step if he’s going to resign.”

But if Abbas is serious about leading the way back to negotiations with Israel, the Palestinian president has not started to move in that direction. Paul Hirschon of the Israeli foreign ministry gave one example; he said Abbas has signaled just the opposite by accusing Israel of the following.

“Occupation for 63 years,” Hirschon said.

“If we’re talking about the Israeli being an occupier for 63 years, then it’s not about the West Bank, it’s not about the Gaza Strip,” he said. “It’s about the existence of a Jewish state.”

If Abbas really wants a genuine two-state solution, with a state of Palestine living side-by-side with the Jewish state of Israel, Hirschon said, “then, we can do a deal.”

But it is tough to see how a deal would be possible anytime soon between Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Palestinian president was just quoted saying that he viewed Netanyahu as the most inflexible Israeli leader he’s ever known. And Mahmoud Abbas has a lot of experience.

Abbas has taken part in negotiations with five previous Israeli prime ministers.

Matthew Bell’s Palestinian Statehood Coverage on The World:
• Palestinian Reaction To UN Statehood Bid
• Israelis who support Palestinian UN Membership
• Palestinians Seeking Public Support for UN Membership
• Israel And US Call On Palestinians To Back Down On Statehood
• More of Matthew Bell’s stories
• Matthew Bell on Twitter

Read tweets about Palestinian Statehood

Lisa Mullins gets more from the BBC’s Kim Ghattas at the United Nations

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LISA MULLINS: I’m Lisa Mullins, and this is The World. Today, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas made it official. He formally asked the United Nations to recognize Palestine as a full member state. Abbas then addressed the UN General Assembly. Here he is speaking through a translator.

PRESIDENT ABBAS: Mr. President, the heart of the crisis in our area is very, very simple and obvious. Either there is those who believe that we are an unnecessary people, unwanted people in the Middle East, or those who believe that there is in fact a missing state that needs to be established immediately.

MULLINS: Later it was Israel’s turn to address the General Assembly. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the delegates that Palestinian statehood must be preceded by new talks.

PRIME MINISTER NETANYAHU: The truth is that Israel wants peace. The truth is that I want peace. The truth is that we cannot achieve peace through UN resolutions, but only through direct negotiations between the parties. The truth is that so far, the Palestinians have refused to negotiate. The truth is that Israel wants peace with a Palestinian state, but the Palestinians want a state without peace. And the truth is you shouldn’t let that happen.

MULLINS: After the speeches, the US and other members of the quartet mediating group seemed to back the Israeli position. In a statement, they urged Israelis and Palestinians to meet within the next month to agree on an agenda for resumed peace talks. The BBC’s Kim Ghattas is at the United Nations. She says Abbas and Netanyahu struck a similar note today.

KIM GHATTAS: They both said they were ready for peace talks. But of course they’re coming at this from very different perspectives. The Palestinian President, who got, I have to say, a very warm welcome at the General Assembly, rousing applause, a full house for his speech. He said that he was ready for peace talks, but it had to be on the basis of a clear timeframe, a clear framework, and it could only happen after Israel stopped building settlements. He was very animated, more energized than I’ve really ever seen him. And he was really able to express the frustration that Palestinians have felt over the last two years, as American efforts faltered in trying to get the peace process off the ground. Now, Mr. Netanyahu, as I said, also said that he was ready for peace talks. He said that he was ready to travel to Ramallah to meet President Abbas. Even better, he said, let’s meet here today, at the United Nations. He said Israel was ready for peace, but he says the Palestinians are still refusing to recognize Israel as a Jewish state. Mr. Netanyahu also said that settlements were not at the core of the conflict, they were a result of the conflict. So there is still quite a big gap between those two sides.

MULLINS: OK, and what happens next?

GHATTAS: Well, now that President Abbas has given his application to the Secretary General, it’s in the hands of the Security Council. They will study the request, and they will determine at the some point in the coming weeks whether this should come to a vote or not. We all know that the Americans have said they will veto this if it comes to a vote, or otherwise they will try to make sure that there are enough abstentions at the Security Council that in essence, a resolution on this just dies on the table. But in the meantime, it’s important to point out that all week long, while the Americans and the Europeans were trying to convince the Palestinians not to go to the UN, they were also trying to make sure that whatever happened at the United Nations, that this could possibly be inscribed in the wider context of resumption of negotiations. They’ve been lobbying very hard behind the scenes, trying to see whether it’s possible to bridge the gap between the two sides. It’s not clear yet whether they’ve managed to pull it off.

MULLINS: All right, the BBC’s Kim Ghattas reporting from the New York, at the United Nations. Thank you.

GHATTAS: Thank you for having me.

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Comprehensive BBC Coverage

On The World: 
• Israel And US Call On Palestinians To Back Down On Statehood
• What Palestinians Want From UN Membership
• Diplomacy Around Statehood Bid

Read tweets about Palestinian Statehood

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LISA MULLINS: Palestinians in the West Bank celebrated events at the United Nations. Thousands of them watched Mahmoud Abbas’ speech on giant outdoor screens, in town squares across the territory. The World’s Middle East correspondent, Matthew Bell, was at one such event in Ramallah. Who turned out for it, Matthew?

MATTHEW BELL: Well, it was a big crowd, Lisa. The people started streaming into Clock Square in Ramallah late in the afternoon. There were several thousand people there, like you said. A big screen where the speech was shown. It was a festive atmosphere. There were families, vendors selling food. There was music, dancing. A couple of speeches, but mostly people were there to listen to Mahmoud Abbas. And there was a real sense that this might be an historic day for Palestinians. I talked to Mustafa Barghouti, who’s a Palestinian legislator about this, and here’s what he had to say.

MUSTAFA BARGHOUTI: What you see today is the rebirth of hope. We didn’t have hope. All these negotiations, they were useless. And with the passage of negotiations every day, things were getting worse. More settlements, more expansion, more land appropriation. Now there is a chance for a change. And people are getting hopeful.

BELL: Again there, Lisa, you heard that message of hope. And there’s sort of uncertainty about where this is all heading. However, there is a real sense at least in Ramallah today, I really felt it, a real sense of an accomplishment already.

MULLINS: An accomplishment which is why this particular date, September 23, 2011, is the one that’s on so many people’s lips there, despite what happens with a vote of Palestinian membership in the UN or not. I mean, this is the day.

BELL: Yes, it was the day. It was the day for Mahmoud Abbas. Here is a 70-something year old politician who Palestinians have known for decades. He seemed to be giving every point that Palestinians talk about, when they talk about how much they despise the Israeli occupation. He talked about settlements, he talked about frustration with the peace process, he talked about Palestinian refugees, he talked about prisoners in Israeli jails. He seems to be a politician with a consciousness of his legacy here.

MULLINS: But how about the present, instead of in the future, and thinking about his legacy? Because we also know he spoke about the rule of law, strengthening the role of women as well. Has he made any progress, has he done anything about those things?

BELL: He does like to talk about institution building and state building as well. He made a point of saying since negotiations have gone south over the last couple of years, he said that the Palestinian Authority has worked hard to build the economy, to build up education, to build up the institutions that would be needed for the state of Palestine, when it comes into being, to survive and to thrive. Another real sense here, Lisa, when I talked to people today, was real frustration, not just with Israel, but with the United States. And with those 18 years of negotiations with the United States, that Palestinians say really haven’t led anywhere. There’s also great frustrations with President Obama himself. Another person I talked to today is Javier Abouid [sp]. He’s a Palestinian negotiator. Here’s what he had to say.

JAVIER ABOUID: One of the banners you have now here in the square says in 2010, President Obama promised Palestinians a state. In 2011, President Obama promised Palestinians a veto. And today, what you have all over there, not only in Palestine, are reactions of a lot of anger. Because we see that the role of President Obama, unfortunately, has switched from what we thought was going to be an honest broker, to basically just continue the historic US policy of being biased only on one side.

BELL: So you hear there the frustration with President Obama himself. And Palestinians also have a sense that when they heard the President speak the other day, and gave his support for the revolutionary movements in the so-called Arab Spring, they said wait a minute, where’s your support for us? We’re doing the same thing, trying to establish independence, trying to get a state of our own.

MULLINS: All right, The World’s Matthew Bell speaking to us from Ramallah, in the West Bank. Thanks for the update.

BELL: Good to talk with you, Lisa.

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(Photo: Matthew Bell)

Ramallah (Photo: Fouad Abu Ghosh)

The United States is planning to veto the move at the Security Council. Israel is officially against it, too.

But at least some Israelis are not. This week, a poll showed that 69 percent of Israelis thought that if the UN were to recognize a Palestinian state, Israel should accept the decision. The poll was conducted jointly by Hebrew University in Jerusalem and the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research in Ramallah.

The World’s Matthew Bell attended a rally in Tel Aviv in support of Israeli recognition of a Palestinian state.

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The text below is a phonetic transcript of a radio story broadcast by PRI’s THE WORLD. It has been created on deadline by a contractor for PRI. The transcript is included here to facilitate internet searches for audio content. Please report any transcribing errors to theworld@pri.org. This transcript may not be in its final form, and it may be updated. Please be aware that the authoritative record of material distributed by PRI’s THE WORLD is the program audio.

Marco Werman: I’m Marco Werman, this is The World.  Today it was full-on diplomacy at the United Nations.  American and European officials are feverishly trying to come up with a new Mid East negotiation framework.  They’re working against a tight deadline.  Tomorrow, Palestinian officials plan to present their official request for full UN membership. The United States is planning to veto the move at the security council.  Israel is officially against it too.  But at least some Israelis are not.  This week, a poll shows that 69% of Israelis thought that if the UN were to recognize the Palestinian state Israel should accept the decision. The poll was conducted jointly by Hebrew University in Jerusalem and the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research in Ramallah.  The World’s Matthew Bell attended a rally today in Tel Aviv in support of the Palestinian president’s effort to win membership at the UN. Matthew, who as at this rally and what was the message you were hearing?

Matthew Bell: The rally, Marco, was only about 100 people, but it was an interesting mix of academics and public figures.  Generally, these were people who support the two state solution and they’ve lost faith in both their government for making this happen.  There was also a lot of disappointment with Barack Obama’s speech yesterday at the United Nations. Marco, one of the people I talked to today was Ilan Baruch, a former Israeli ambassador to South Africa.  I asked him if he agreed with experts who say that it’s actually too late to realize a two state solution, and he said no, absolutely not.

Ilan Baruch: I think we can walk back and build an architecture of a two state solution in spite of everything that was done to undermine it so far.

Bell: And if the Palestinians do get recognition or membership at the United Nations, you think this will help?

Baruch: I think that the peace cause after that will be in a quality of way different to the stagnation that took its course up to now.

Werman: Ilan Baruch, former Israeli ambassador to South Africa there clearly supporting the Palestinian initiative.  He was speaking with The World’s Matthew Bell.  Matthew, what else were you hearing at the rally today?

Bell: Well, as I said, there was a lot of disappointment with President Obama’s speech yesterday.  People pointed out that here was the American president who came into office talking about setting a goal of bringing about the two state solution as one of his top priorities, and then yesterday going to the United Nations and essentially saying that the Palestinians should be blocked. Another person that I talked to at the rally was Tal Harris, he’s the director of an organization called the One Voice, it’s an Israeli advocacy group that sponsored the rally, and they stand to support the two state solution.

Tal Harris: Right now we are calling Israel to use this as an opportunity, engage with the Palestinians, phrase the basis for an agreement that would serve the peace and security of everyone here.

Werman: So, Tal Harris there also in support of the Palestinian effort to get statehood at the UN.  Matthew Bell, how widespread is that opinion?

Bell: It’s interesting Marco, because over the years there’s been very steady large support in the Israeli public for the two state solution, and that is the creation of an independent Palestinian state.  That’s been steady.  On the other hand, in recent years also there’s been a lot of skepticism and a huge lack of faith in the Israeli public that the Palestinians are actually ready to create a state that would be willing to live in peace with Israel and to end the long grinding deadly conflict with Israel. So, basically, there’s support for it, but then there’s a feeling among a large percentage of the population that the Palestinians just aren’t ready and now is not the time to do it.

Werman: Matthew, one last question, the Palestinian bid for statehood at the UN has been headline news all over the world this week.  How big is this story in Israel itself?

Bell: It’s been huge.  The past weeks and months you had Israeli officials like the defense minister, Ehud Barak, months ago saying that Israel might face a diplomatic tsunami in September.  September, just the word itself, has been code in the Israeli media for this big event here of the Palestinians going to the United Nations and looking for membership in the world body. So it has been a big story and one question in recent days has also been what’s going to happen after everything gets finished this week at the United Nations, that is what happens after the diplomatic maneuvering is over, especially in the West Bank?  There are concerns about violence, there are concerns about the Palestinians expectations being raised to a point where there’ll be more frustration than ever. Just yesterday, Marco, there were some incidents of rock throwing.  There were some clashes between Palestinian demonstrators and Israeli soldiers.  So that’s been a real concern here too.

Werman: The World’s Matthew Bell in Tel Aviv at the sight of a rally held earlier today where Israelis called for recognition of a Palestinian state.  Matthew, thanks a lot.

Bell: You’re welcome, Marco.

Copyright ©2009 PRI’s THE WORLD. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to PRI’s THE WORLD. This transcript may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior written permission. For further information, please email The World’s Permissions Coordinator at theworld@pri.org.