Cairo says it is waiting for Israel to make the next move on a prisoner swap deal to free IDF Cpl. Gilad Shalit, but according to an Egyptian newspaper, Al-Hayyat, Israel has already sent Egypt a list of Palestinian Authority prisoners it is willing to release in exchange for Shalit’s freedom. 

 

Egyptian officials meanwhile say they are trying to weaken his Hamas kidnappers by strengthening rival Fatah leader and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. Hamas rejected Israel's list because, says the terrorist organization, it does not include prisoners from any of the groups that kidnapped the IDF officer.

 

Meretz Party Chairman Yossi Beilin met Sunday evening in Cairo with Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman and Ossama el-Baz, a political aide to President Hosni Mubarak, to further discuss the situation.

 

“In spite of the crisis in the Palestinian Authority and the severing of ties with Gaza, the negotiations for Gilad Shalit’s release in exchange for prisoners continue,” Suleiman told reporters in Cairo.

 

Egypt said last week it would again try to persuade Israel to release arch terrorist Tanzim leader Marwan Barghouti, serving five life terms in prison for masterminding the murders and wounding of more than two dozen Israelis in numerous terrorist attacks. Barghouti is not on the prisoner release list.

 

Meanwhile, the Israeli government voted Sunday to free 250 convicted Arab terrorists without making the release contingent upon the return of Gilad Shalit. Former Defense Minister Moshe Arens told Arutz Sheva's radio magazine Monday that the government decision to free Arab terrorists now completely lacks judgement.

 

Did Ofer Dekel Meet with Hamas Prisoners about the List?

The Egyptian newspaper reported that Israeli Foreign Ministry official Ofer Dekel traveled to Cairo last week to hand over the proposed prisoner release list after allegedly meeting with Hamas leaders incarcerated in the Sharon region’s “Hadarim” prison.

 

Sources within Hamas said it was Dekel’s second such meeting in the past two weeks. Despite the terrorist group's anger over Palestinian Authority government contacts with Israel, Hamas called the meetings with Dekel "honorable" in a statement last week because they are aimed at releasing prisoners.

 

At least two different spokespersons in Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office gave differing accounts over the weekend of how far talks had actually advanced with Hamas terrorists over the issue of Shalit’s release, but a source in the Prime Minister’s Office denied Friday that negotiations with Hamas, with or without Ofer Dekel, had taken place.

"Israel has not and will not negotiate with Hamas about anything. It's as simple as that. This whole story is nothing more than a tactic to get Hamas leaders off the hook over responsibility for Shalit's fate, and we will not allow that to happen," the source said.

 

Meanwhile, Shalit’s parents, as well as the families of IDF reservists Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser, both kidnapped by Hizbullah terrorists last summer, are keeping up the pressure on the international community to help free their sons.

 

The families attended a solidarity rally for their sons in Paris on Sunday, attended by more than two thousand people at the French capital’s Great Synagogue. 

 

Shalit’s father spoke at the rally in French, noting that he and his family are French citizens. He pointed out that jailed PA terrorists are allowed visits by family members and international Red Cross representatives, can receive letters and packages, are offered good medical care and participate in academic courses – while Gilad has yet to be seen by anyone other than his Hamas captors.

 

The families met Monday with French President Nicolas Sarkozy and asked him to assist them in their efforts to obtain their loved ones’ release.  Sarkozy said that he has already begun working to free the soldiers, especially Gilad Shalit, who is a French citizen.  He is working for Shalit’s release, he said, “as a president who is obligated to one of his citizens.”

Sarkozy also told the families that he has brought up the subject of the kidnapped soldiers in his meetings with Arab leaders.  Benny Regev, the brother of Eldad Regev, said after the meeting that Sarkozy appeared to support the families and genuinely desires the soldiers’ release.

The families are scheduled to meet later in the day with French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner.