Gershon BaskinAn Israeli hostage negotiator, he knows what it takes to make a deal with Hamas: He began contacting senior Hamas official Ghazi Hamid in 2006, and that relationship became the basis of the deal to free Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in 2011.
“I was committed to freeing Gilad Shalit,” Baskin said. Michael Safi“That was my mission, my job. I was willing to talk to the devil if it was necessary to bring Gilad Shalit home alive. So I didn't think about their politics, their manifestos, or their desire to kill everyone, including me.”
After signing, Baskin stayed in contact with Hamid, hoping that this connection would ultimately help bring about peace: “From the beginning, I knew that our success would be based on the personal relationship we built, so over the years we made sure to talk — about our families, our hopes and dreams, our childhoods.”
“We have to teach Israel a lesson, and we will do this again and again,” Hamid said in an interview on Lebanese television after the Oct. 7 attack.
“I was pretty shocked,” Baskin said. “At that point I wrote him a letter and told him I never wanted to speak to him again.
“But a month later, a close Palestinian friend of mine said to me: 'Look, Gershon, you made a mistake. If you contact Ghazi Hamid, you could have saved lives.' So I wrote him again and said: 'Ghazi, if talking to you can save lives, I'm willing to repair our relationship.' Three weeks later, he contacted me, and we've been in contact ever since.”
Photo: Amnon Gutman/The Guardian
