We need an international community that will provide the assurances, guarantees, mechanisms and pressure that will enable our new government to truly provide the people of Israel with the peace and security promised in each and every election campaign.
Gershon Baskin, disclosed that for more than two years he had been in contact with a “senior Hamas personality” in Europe over the release of Gilad Schalit, the Israeli soldier captured by Hamas and held in Gaza since 2006.
Baskin has been living with the feeling that the Gaza war was not really a war of no choice aimed at protecting the inhabitants of the south. He is not the only one.
Perhaps the talks are not direct, but we are negotiating with Hamas. The agreement that will be reached will be exactly what I proposed to Olmert, Barak and Livni 10 days before the war began.
Gershon Baskin wants to ensure that his party also addresses social and political issues like peace with the Arab world.
Peter Beaumont talks to Gershon Baskin and other leftwing Israelis about the impact of the Gaza conflict on upcoming elections
In meetings with Hamas figures, arranged through texts, calls and emails, Baskin established a kind of one-way channel of communication to the office of Israel’s prime minister