"Israeli" will talk to Hamas for Shalit

Source: AFP, 01-04-2008
OCCUPIED ‘JERUSALEM' (AL-QUDS)-- An 'Israeli' minister on Monday called for direct talks with the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas aimed at securing the release of an 'Israeli/ soldier seized by Gaza militants. "We must do more to ensure our kidnapped soldiers return home," Trade and Industry Minister Eli Yishai said in an interview with 'Israel's' Army Radio.
"That is why I'm willing to meet Hamas representatives in Europe or Egypt," added the head of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, a key component of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's governing coalition.
Yishai appeared to be referring to Gilad Shalit, an 'Israeli' soldier seized by Palestinian militants in a cross-border raid from Gaza in 2006 claimed by Hamas and two other armed groups.
"Nothing is more important than bringing home those," Yishai added.
In a television interview late Sunday from Damascus with Britain's Sky News television, exiled Hamas political head Khaled Meshaal insisted that Shalit was being treated well.
"Gilad is still alive and we are treating him in a good way while the ‘Israeli' treat our prisoners badly and everyone knows that," Meshaal said in reference to the treatment of Palestinians by the Zionist state which has been decried by human rights organizations.
Last April, Hamas sent to 'Israel', through Egypt, a list of 450 prisoners it wanted freed in exchange for Shalit, and since then the Islamists have blamed the Jewish state for the failure to reach an agreement.
But an 'Israeli' official said at the time that many of the Palestinian prisoners had "blood on their hands," meaning 'Israel' claimed that they had been involved in attacks that killed 'Israeli' settles and soldiers, and could not be released, disregarding the truth that Shalit among other 'Israeli' soldiers are the ones who have innocent Palestinian and Lebanese civilian blood on their hands.