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| By: Associated Press |
| Published: August 31, 2006 |
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Veteran civil rights leader the Rev. Jesse Jackson said Wednesday he was convinced that if Israel and the Islamic militant groups holding three Israeli soldiers would hold talks it would lead to the soldiers' release.
Jackson arrived in Israel on Wednesday as head of a 10-member ecumenical delegation representing Jewish, Muslim, Roman Catholic and Protestant groups on a mission to try to get the soldiers' released.
He earlier met with government officials and militant leaders in Syria and Lebanon and said he believed the soldiers were alive.
"I'm convinced that if we have the capacity to talk, we could bring this matter...to a head," Jackson told CNN's "The Situation Room."
"I think we're right at the precipice of being able to make a breakthrough, if we, in fact, are able to talk," he said.
Israeli has refused calls to make a prisoner swap to get the soldiers back, calling for their unconditional release.
The 34-day war between Israel and Lebanon began after Hezbollah fighters attacked an Israeli army patrol on July 12, killing three soldiers and capturing two others, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev. Their capture followed the June 25 abduction of Cpl. Gilad Shalit by Hamas-linked militants, an attack that sparked a major Israeli offensive in Gaza.
Jackson met with the soldiers' families on Wednesday and warmly clutched the hands of Goldwasser's wife, Karnit, as he spoke at a news conference.
"We got the clear impression, it was corroborated, though not proven, that the soldiers are alive, that somehow they were captured and not killed in action, that somehow there is a desire to negotiate or leverage their security and freedom for their other issues," Jackson said.
"Our first mission was to seek their heath and living status, now pursuing their freedom becomes a more political decision the government must make, and we will give them the best information we have so they can in fact be able to pursue what kind of role they will pursue," he said.
Jackson concluded his visit with the family with a joint prayer.
While Jackson's message held promise, it wasn't enough, Karnit Goldwasser said.
"We are still living off rumors, and if these rumors are true, they are encouraging. But we have no certainty they are true," she said. "We need the solid proof that they are alive."
On Tuesday. U.N. Chief Kofi Annan met with the relatives of the soldiers as well as the family of Cpl. Gilad Shalit, who was captured June 25 when Hamas-allied militants from Gaza attacked an Israeli army post. That attack sparked Israel's ongoing offensive in the Gaza Strip. None of the soldiers have been heard from since their captures.
"I did not get an impression that they are not alive, I believe they are alive," Annan said.
Jackson also met with Vice Prime Minister Shimon Peres.
Jackson has had success several times in the past in negotiating the release of political hostages.
In 1984, he met with then-President Hafez Assad of Syria and arranged the release of a Navy pilot whose plane was shot down over Lebanon during an American airstrike against a Syrian anti-aircraft position a month earlier. Also that year, Jackson traveled to Cuba and persuaded Fidel Castro to release 48 American and Cuban political prisoners.
In 1990, he helped win the release from Iraq of more than 700 foreign women and children detained as human shields against an American military attack after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait. He also persuaded Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic in 1999 to free three Americans he was holding prisoner. |
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