Hamas is adept at hitting the most exposed nerves of Israeli society, and the Al-Jazeera report published on Monday containing video footage of former Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit's time in captivity in Gaza was no coincidence.
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Hamas leaders, most of whom have spent time in Israeli prisons, understand and are familiar with Israeli society and the importance it places on bringing its captive soldiers home, dead or alive.
Those who covered the Schalit affair from the day of his abduction to the day of his release, certainly remember how the immense support in Israel for accepting Hamas' demand to exchange him for more than 1,000 terrorists, most of them with the blood of Israeli civilians on their hands – played into the hands of the murderous terrorist organization. It also increased the terrorist group's appetite for abducting more and more Israeli soldiers to use as bargaining chips, which Hamas leader in Gaza Yahya Sinwar said he promised his terrorist friends left behind in Israeli prison when he was released in the Schalit deal.
Any show of support, any visit by a senior politician to the protest tent erected by the Schalit family and its backers outside the Prime Minister's Residence in Jerusalem, only further cemented Hamas' intransigence.
In light of past prisoner swaps, Hamas understands that the more it threatens and insists on its demands, the greater the public and political pressure will be in Israel on the decision-makers to meet the group's demands.
The fact that Israel is on the verge of swearing in a new government is also a factor in the eyes of Hamas' leaders. This state of affairs has only amplified the terrorist group's refusal to reach a compromise that will satisfy both sides, even at the cost of postponing Gaza's rehabilitation. Just to refresh the memory, in the days preceding the Schalit deal, Israel was also in the midst of a political drama, which culminated in the resignation of then-prime minister Ehud Olmert. Netanyahu, who won that election and eventually finalized the Schalit deal, received almost complete public and political support for the move despite the many warnings of its destructive impact on the war on terror.
This time, Hamas dusted off never-before-seen footage of Schalit in an effort to prod the Israeli public to pressure the political echelon.
Hamas officials understand a thing or two about psychological warfare, and the terrorist group is well aware that showing photographs of the bodies of the fallen soldiers in the morgue could create the opposite reaction and erode Israeli public support for meeting its outrageous demands. Ergo it released the mysterious audio recording of an "Israeli soldier," allegedly in the group's hands, begging for his freedom.
As time passes and the indirect negotiations mediated by Egypt go on, Hamas will continue applying pressure on the bereaved families and Israeli society. Hamas knows for a fact that abducted Israeli soldiers are the most effective bargaining chip it can possibly possess to secure the release of murderers and arch-terrorist responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Israelis.
It's not for nothing that Marwan Issa, the deputy commander of Hamas' military wing, was quoted in the Al-Jazeera report as saying that Hamas is constantly working, mainly during the rounds of fighting with Israel, to expand its "crop of Zionist captives."
The time has come to make it clear to Hamas, once and for all, that Israel will not repeat the mistakes of the past.
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