New campaign sheds light and urgency on Israelis missing in Gaza – Haaretz

Two years ago, Col. Moshe Tal retired from the IDF after 25 years in Military Intelligence. He found himself a fascinating second career, among other things as a sports analyst in the United States. But he has devoted much of his spare time to an exceptional pastime a soon-to-be launched public campaign to re-awaken public debate on the fate of Israels captives and missing in action held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Tal, who began his career in the technology units of Military Intelligence, served in several senior positions, including as head of MIs research division. After his retirement from active service, Tal continued to sit on the IDF negotiating team headed by the prime ministers coordinator for hostages, the former senior Shin Bet officer, Yaron Bloom. Recently, as reported by the public broadcaster Kan, Tal quit the team, citing the lack of progress in talks.

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In a phone conversation with Haaretz, he says that throughout his involvement in the issue, Israel never missed an opportunity to miss an opportunity. I find it hard to explain why this happened, he says.

Hamas is holding the bodies of two soldiers killed during Operation Protective Edge in 2014 Lt. Hadar Goldin of the Givati Brigade, who fell in a battle in Rafah, and Staff Sgt. Oron Shaul from the Golani Brigade, who was killed when his armored personnel carrier was blown up in the Shejaiya neighborhood in the east of Gaza City.

Israeli intelligence believes that Hamas is also holding captive the Israeli civilians Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed, who crossed the border of their own accord about a year after Protective Edge. The fact that Mengistu and al-Sayed both come from the margins of society (they both suffer from mental health issues; one is the son of Ethiopian immigrants and the other is a Bedouin) at least partly explains the tepid public interest in their fate.

While Hamas employs psychological warfare to try to obscure the picture, the real state of affairs is clear to Israel: The two civilians are alive, the soldiers are dead.

As an intelligence officer, Tal spent years working on the case of the missing Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. In retrospect, he says, it is clear that the security establishment and the Israeli public were both traumatized by the Shalit prisoner swap. Lacking any operational solution to rescue him, the Netanyahu government compromised and paid a high price, releasing 1,027 Palestinian terrorists, including hundreds convicted of involvement in murder, in exchange for a single soldier.

The feeling that it paid an excessive price for Shalit has led Israel to take the slow road towards any solution to the current case. In any event, it is clear that the price Israel is willing to pay for the bodies of the soldiers and the living civilians will be lower than it paid for a living soldier. The fact that attention to the affair, the media pulse, is close to zero, influences this, claims Tal. Behind the scenes, people are dealing with it morning till night, but theres no progress, pedal to the metal without getting anywhere.

For Benjamin Netanyahu, the previous prime minister who appointed him, the government hostage coordinator was a flak jacket to use as protection from any accusations that he wasnt taking care of the issue. Look, theyre working on it. But in fact, Israel isnt trying hard for a deal. Nothing productive is happening. The most obvious sign of that is that at no stage have we reached a real dynamic of negotiations with Hamas. The fact that every few months theres a meeting with Egyptian intelligence to discuss the negotiations is maintenance, not progress.

Tal tells me (for the first time, to the best of my knowledge) about a fascinating move behind the scenes in autumn 2018, a little while before the previous chief of staff, Gadi Eisenkot, completed his term. Eisenkot, who hasnt forgotten his responsibility for the two soldiers whose bodies remain in Gaza, began a discussion with Yossi Cohen and Nadav Argaman, respectively, the heads of Mossad and Shin Bet at the time, about what in their opinions would be a reasonable price Israel could pay for a deal. They presented their conclusions to Netanyahu.

The aim according to Tal was to broadcast to Netanyahu that they have his back to progress in the negotiations and that there was room for maneuver to possibly enable a deal. The initiative died out without any real change.

Last spring, Tal relates, another small opportunity for a breakthrough emerged. In the final months of Netanyahus term there was a certain distancing in his previously excellent relations with the Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi. According to Tal, during those months, al-Sissi turned down a number of offers to meet and hold conversations to discuss, among other things, the hostage question. Things changed for the better after Naftali Bennett became prime minister last June. First there was a successful phone call between Bennett and al-Sissi, and then, about a week later, an Israeli delegation met with senior Egyptian intelligence officials in Cairo.

At that meeting, one of the Egyptian officials told his Israeli interlocutors that he had been personally tasked by al-Sissi with achieving a solution, not a deal. Tals interpretation is that from Cairos perspective, the emphasis needed to switch to solving the humanitarian issue of the fate of the missing prisoners, instead of conditioning progress on achieving a broad, long-term arrangement for the problems of the Gaza Strip.

In informal talks, the Egyptians implored the Israelis to be more flexible with their position and to agree to release a larger number of Palestinian security prisoners. As the Egyptians see it, the highest priority of Hamas leader in Gaza, Yehya Sinwar (who was himself released from an Israeli jail as part of the Shalit deal), is freeing more prisoners, not a further easing of economic restrictions.

More flexibility

Egypt itself has a lot to gain from a prisoner swap. Cairo is convinced that Jerusalem could exert its influence on the American administration to ease its human rights demands on Egypt, and thus enable a steady and stable flow of economic and military aid. Cairo is hoping for technological assistance from Israel, among other things, in advancing the large desalination projects that Egypt needs.

Cairo has a further expectation, one that reflects the zeitgeist in the Middle East. Against the backdrop of the Abraham Accords, Egypt hopes to recruit Israel to wield its influence in the Gulf states to garner larger investments in joint technology projects with Egypt. These projects could help the Egyptian economy and ease the suffering of the population somewhat (although prior experience would indicate that a large part of the money finds its way into the pockets of the generals and their confidantes). However, the Egyptian message to Israel remains the same: Be a bit more flexible on your asking price and throw us a few bones, and well bring Hamas to the table.

The updated Egyptian offer sparked a series of deliberations on the Israeli side. Tal thinks there was something in it. In 2011, when Egypt wanted to seal the prisoner swap deal that saw Gilad Shalit released, it put heavy pressure on Hamas. This included detaining Hamas military leader Ahmed Jabari in Cairo for six weeks until he acceded to the deal (Israel assassinated Jabari about a year later during Operation Pillar of Defense). But despite the initial contacts, so far Bennett, like Netanyahu before him, has failed to make progress on a deal.

In the meantime, Tal says, all of Israels assumptions about Hamas behavior have collapsed. Despite easing the restrictions on Gaza, Hamas opted to risk a military conflict in Operation Guardian of the Walls. Further lifting of restrictions since then, which included allowing 10,000 Palestinian workers from the Gaza Strip into Israel, have failed to persuade the organization to enter a comprehensive arrangement that will solve the issue of MIAs and prisoners. Sinwar has remained firm on his demands.

Tal says that the lack of movement on the issue is partly a result of a lack of public pressure on the government. This is why he has decided to give this interview. At the same time, Tal is raising funds for an advertising campaign aimed at reawakening public interest in the prisoners held in Gaza and their families. The campaign will be launched on billboards around the country in March. It is an impressive initiative, and quite extraordinary for a recently retired officer but its hard to imagine how it will convince the government to take the intensive actions necessary to solve the problem.

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New campaign sheds light and urgency on Israelis missing in Gaza - Haaretz