[Dr. Aaron Lerner - IMRA:

Is the "sense of urgency among the security and political top brass in
Israel" because something has significantly changed in Gilad Shalit's
condition or that post-Winograd report regime survival introduces a "sense
of urgency"?]

Officials: Progress being made over Shalit, but no breakthrough
By Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondent Last update - 07:36 11/01/2008
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/943911.html

Ministers tasked with laying the groundwork for a prisoner exchange to
secure the release of kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit met with Prime Minister
Ehud Olmert on Thursday, and presented him with the list of Palestinian
prisoners who could be released - signaling that negotiations with Hamas may
be close to a deal.

Political and security officials are cautiously optimistic about a possible
deal. The main message is that there is progress, but still no breakthrough.

The meeting addressed which prisoners could be released under new, relaxed
criteria the ministerial forum set for determing which Palestinian security
prisoners have "blood on their hands." This was the first time it presented
Olmert with its recommendations.

The forum, which includes Vice Premier Haim Ramon, Foreign Minister Tzipi
Livni, Public Security Minister Avi Dichter, Justice Minister Daniel
Friedmann and Minister without Portfolio Ami Ayalon, met four times over the
past two weeks.

Those meetings were also attended by the government's point man on the
hostages issue, Ofer Dekel, Shin Bet chief Yuval Diskin, Israel Defense
Forces Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi and other senior officials in the
defense establishment, Justice Ministry and Israel Prisons Service.

The meeting with Olmert lasted two hours, which was longer than expected.
From the start there were differences of opinion within the forum, as well
as objections to relaxing the criteria, especially from Diskin. However,
Dekel, who has been conducting intense negotiations with Hamas through
Egypt, believes that given the current circumstances, relaxing the criteria
could bring about a deal.

"Both sides wish to close a deal, and the process of relaxing criteria is
supposed to help with that," a security source said. "But this was the case
before, and it still didn't happen. So we need to move with caution, and it
is not at all certain that we are nearing the end of the affair."

A political source added that the purpose of all the latest discussions,
including Thursday's meeting with Olmert, is "to be ready in case the deal
ripens."

In recent weeks, several signs have generated a sense of progress regarding
Gilad Shalit's release. The first sign is a sense of urgency among the
security and political top brass in Israel, which led to the marathon talks
about relaxing the criteria.

The discussion convened by Olmert Thursday, and the presentation of the
recommendations also attest to a certain degree of progress. Another
indication of progress is the discretion evinced by the ministers involved.
Ramon, who heads the forum, has been refusing to answer questions on the
matter, and last week even made an irregular request that a discussion of
the issue, proposed by MK Yossi Beilin, be removed from the agenda because
of its great sensitivity. His request was granted.