Prisoner swap raises hope for peace
Inured to years of peace-making failure, few veteran analysts, if any think it can translate into immediate gains elsewhere. Yet the deal may have the potential to loosen the state of siege that separates the two sides.
In Gaza, thousands poured into the streets to welcome home the first of 1,027 detainees being released as part of the swap agreed by Israel and Hamas, and mediated by Egypt.
Across the border, Israelis were elated as a gaunt Sergeant Gilad Shalit emerged from more than five years of captivity in Gaza, with the vast majority supporting the lopsided accord that secured his freedom.
“If people see beyond the immediate spectacle of the deal and look at the pragmatism involved on both sides, then this is definitely a cause for hope,” said Uri Dromi, a spokesman for former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin.
“At some point, Hamas and the government sat in the same building. Maybe they did not meet face-to-face, but through mediators they agreed to something,” he added.
The prisoner swap is a rare case of a seemingly intractable Middle East problem actually being resolved.
World leaders voiced hope that the exchange would lead to better times.
“This release ... will have a far-reaching positive impact on the stalled Middle East peace process,” UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told Reuters yesterday.
That might prove wishful thinking. But the successful conclusion of the Shalit talks should provide important lessons, with new contacts established and utter secrecy maintained throughout, said David Newman, a professor of geopolitics at Ben-Gurion university.
“In an era when there is little real optimism about the possibility of meaningful conflict resolution ... the negotiations between Israel and Hamas that led to the Gilad Shalit deal can be instructive for the future of the peace process,” he wrote in yesterday’s Jerusalem Post.
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