January 5, 2008 (LPAC)--Israeli Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai told Israel Radio today that he would be willing to see imprisoned Palestinian Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti released, in exchange for the release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who has been held by Hamas since 2006.
Barghouti's release is key to any serious peace discussions between Israel and the Palestinians, as Lyndon LaRouche has long emphasized. Barghouti was given five life sentences by Israeli courts for murder and terrorism in 2002, but for decades he played a leading role in organizing for a peace settlement, and is considered one of the most-respected Palestinian leaders by all factions of that movement, including Hamas. On Dec. 2, 2007 Barghouti told a delegation of Knesset members visiting him in prison, "The end of the [Israeli-Palestinian] conflict is near. All that is needed is a leader courageous enough to sign [an agreement]. I believe we are on the brink of a solution. If a permanent agreement is drafted, the Palestinian Authority will hold a referendum to approve it."
The major Israeli daily Ha'aretz ran a lead editorial calling for Barghouti's release on June 21, 2007, and in September, Israel's Minister of Infrastructure, Benjamin Ben-Eliezer told Ha'aretz that Barghouti should be released, linking this to the release of Gilad Shalit, because he considers Barghouti to be "the next leader of the Palestinians," and Israel needs "to see how we hold a dialogue with him and how we find the opening through which the peace process will also occur."
Sources in Vilnai's office stressed to Ynet news service that Vilnai's statement today on Barghouti was the Deputy Defense Minister's personal opinion, and not the government's policy, but the public call for his release from such a high level of the Israeli security establishment, indicates the serious discussion of this option underway. As LaRouche stated in a Dec. 24 radio interview, Barghouti's release from jail would mean a big shift, in the context of the openings created by the Annapolis peace conference.
