A Mixed Blessing: Hamas, Israel, and the Recent Prisoner Exchange

What is known as the Shalit deal between the Israeli government and Hamas, which saw the return of Gilad Shalit to Israel on October 18, 2011 and the mass release of Palestinian security prisoners, among them prisoners serving life sentences for the murder of Israelis, 1 raised anew some fundamental issues that inevitably accompany deals of this sort between Israel and terrorist groups. Unlike in 1985 with the Jibril deal, when Israel released 1,150 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for three Israeli soldiers and whose high cost is reminiscent of the most recent swap, the price Israel paid in October 2011 was extensively and publicly debated. In addition to the cost itself, the reason for the heated discussion lay in the open, multi-channeled media coverage and the nature of contemporary public discourse. Hamas, whose negotiators were well aware of prisoner exchange precedents between Israel and terrorist organizations that had held soldiers and civilians in captivity, foremost among them the Jibril exchange model, presented the results of the deal as an historic victory for the Palestinian people. 2 For their part, spokespersons for the Israeli government claimed that although the deal was a bitter pill for Israel to swallow, Hamas was in fact forced to make significant concessions it had previously refused to make and accept certain conditions insisted upon by Israel. The spokespersons claimed that with this in mind and under existing circumstances, this was the best deal possible. 3