Following his meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo on Sunday, Defense Minister Ehud Barak refrained from responding to reports that there has been progress in negotiations with Hamas for the release of abducted soldier Gilad Schalit.
"The less we talk about the issue of Gilad Schalit, the better," Barak said. According to his aides, there was no significant progress on the prisoner swap.
The BBC, however, reported on Sunday that Egypt has managed to get Israel and Hamas to agree to certain concessions in regards to the planned prisoner swap.
An Israeli source was quoted in the Arab press over the weekend saying that Barak’s visit to Cairo followed a new development in the Egyptian-mediated talks with Hamas. Israeli defense officials would not confirm the reports but said that Barak planned to emphasize the importance of securing a deal to release Schalit as soon as possible.
The officials said that if a prisoner swap took place, Israel would immediately consider lifting the blockade over Gaza and allowing in more goods.
Barak was scheduled to meet with Mubarak as well as Intelligence Minister Omar Suleiman and Defense Minister Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi
His trip to Egypt comes just days before the third anniversary of Gilad’s June 25 kidnapping at the hands of Hamas.
On Saturday night, in a Channel 2 interview on Meet the Press, Gilad’s father Noam, attacked former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert for not doing enough to free his son. He also accused Olmert of reprimanding the family for their activities on Gilad’s behalf.
During the last three years Noam has often attacked the government for not doing enough, but on Saturday night he was unusually harsh in his remarks about Olmert.
"From time to time he (Olmert) would reprimand us or make all kinds of absurd claims," said Noam.
"The previous prime minister would say that our activities did not help, and even harmed" ongoing efforts to secure Gilad’s release, said Noam.
The rallies and statements they made on Gilad’s behalf was not the only thing that Olmert complained about when he spoke with them, Noam said.
"He would also reprimand us on other things. He told us we were lucky that Gilad was alive when others had died" including the two soldiers in Gilad’s tank who were killed in the June 25 attack.
According to Noam, Olmert also told the family that they did not relate either to those two soldiers or to others who had died in past kidnapping.
The family, said Noam, was left with the feeling that "we had to justify why he [Gilad] had survived the attack and was alive." Noam accused Olmert of "not doing enough to free" his son. Outside of intensive efforts from January to March 2009, Noam said, he had been told from people involved in the negotiations that Olmert and the state had not done enough to free his son.
During his time in office, Olmert said that not a day went without an attempt being made to free Gilad, said Noam, who then added that this turned out just to be meaningless talk that did not stand up to the test of reality.
As an example, Noam said, the ministerial committee to check the situation of security prisoners in Israeli jails was not created until two weeks before Olmert left office.
"It is just one indication that too little was done too late," said Noam.
He said that there was a drastic improvement for the better in the relationship between the Schalit family and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and the new negotiator Hagai Hadas but that at the end of the day what was most important was results, which is this case meant Gilad’s return.
Last month Netanyahu appointed former Mossad official Hadas to serve as Israel’s special envoy for the Schalit talks in place of former deputy Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) head Ofer Dekel. Netanyahu also instructed Hadas to renew the talks from where they ended under the Olmert government.
On Tuesday, the Schalit family and their supporters plan to rally on Gilad’s behalf along the southern border.
Olmert’s office said that consistent with past practices, it would not respond specifically to Noam Schalit’s comments, but added that during his time in office, Olmert had gone to great lengths to try to free Gilad.