OLMERT DOESN'T HAVE THE POLITICAL CAPITAL TO MEET HAMAS'S TERMS, PULL OFF THE SHALIT DEAL

Are we crazy, or is this way beyond the ability of a Prime Minister hovering at single digits? There's no way Olmert gets the cabinet to let all of these genocidal lunatics out of jail. And if that's the case, then hasn't Hamas just indefinitely tubed a prisoner swap by leaking the full list, because now anything less seems like a compromise?

A Palestinian Web site affiliated with Hamas has published the names of some of the prisoners that Hamas is likely to request as part of the deal to free Shalit... Among the names are Abdullah Barghouti, a senior leader in Hamas' military wing, who was responsible for dozens of suicide bombings in recent years, Yihye Sanwar, one of the founders of Hamas' military wing, and Hassan Salameh, who helped plan the wave of 1996 bombings... Also listed was Fuad Shubaki, the Yasser Arafat aide who was responsible for financing the Karine A arms-smuggling ship... the website names senior West Bank Hamas official Sheikh Hassan Yousef, a Palestinian member of parliament. The list further names Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine leader Ahmed Saadat... and Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti

At most, he can get Marwan Barghouti out. Barghouti is kind of affable, kind of sort of moderate, and speaks Hebrew better than you do. For one reason or anther, Israelis think they can deal with him. But there's no way the rest of that deal is happening. Too much blood on too many hands.

Read an extended version of this post at Mere Rhetoric...