Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
News

Israelis Mull Barghouti Release

WASHINGTON — Israeli officials this week denied press reports that individuals close to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert were cooking up a deal in which imprisoned Fatah strongman Marwan Barghouti would be freed in exchange for the release by the Bush administration of Jonathan Pollard, the American naval intelligence analyst who received a life sentence in 1986 for spying for Israel.

The administration is said to be completely uninterested in such a deal. According to some Israeli reports, Pollard’s supporters floated the idea.

However, sources said that while a swap is implausible, Israeli officials are considering the possibility of releasing Barghouti under certain circumstances. Barghouti, considered the most popular and charismatic figure in the younger generation of Fatah leadership, was sentenced in 2004 to five consecutive life terms for leading the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and for ordering the murder of Israelis. While in prison, he led Fatah’s parliamentary slate in the Palestinian legislative elections this past January. He is widely seen as the only figure that could regroup Fatah and provide legitimacy to future negotiations with Israel if and when the Hamas government falls.

“Most senior officials in the political system and in the security apparatus realize that at some point, this man will have to be released because he’s probably the only one with whom we could sign an agreement,” said Shlomo Brom, a former top intelligence analyst now serving as a scholar at the congressionally funded United States Institute of Peace. “If the imperative is to bring about the collapse of the Hamas government as soon as possible, then it is also imperative to prepare for the day after.”

Brom and other Israeli experts noted, however, that Barghouti’s release would pose enormous political difficulties in the foreseeable future because of the likelihood of a public-opinion backlash. Paradoxically, Brom said, the more terrorism and anarchy intensify, the more difficult it would be for Israeli politicians to release him because the Israeli public will grow more resentful of the brigades and their leader.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.