Shooting Themselves in Other People’s Feet
The old line about the Palestinians never missing an opportunity to miss an opportunity actually never gets old:
The continued firing of Kassam rockets on the western Negev was the major reason Israel decided against releasing a symbolic number of Palestinian prisoners before the Muslim festival of Id al-Adha that began on Saturday, senior sources in the Prime Minister’s Office said after nightfall.
…
Officials in the Prime Minister’s Office said that as early as Tuesday, when the Kassam rockets continued to fall despite the Gaza cease-fire, the feeling in Olmert’s bureau was that such a prisoner release would send the wrong signal.
Meanwhile, there’s one prisoner release I personally don’t expect to see happen:
One of the Hamas-linked groups holding Shalit said on Thursday that progress had been made toward a prisoner exchange, and media quoted PA Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas as saying Shalit would be released soon.
But neither said when a swap might take place, and previous claims of progress have not panned out.
To say the least. I’d love to see it, of course, but one rarely loses a bet placed against the Palestinians.