Shin Bet chief says "Hamas people in Cairo were sure that public pressure would make us accept them; it became a slippery slope."
By JPOST.COM STAFFYuval Diskin 311(photo credit: Sivan Faraj )
Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) chief Yuval Diskin said on Wednesday that the public's concerns over captive soldier Gilad Schalit torpedoed efforts for his return."The Hamas people in Cairo [for negotiations] did not want to stop demands at any point," Diskin said, referring to talks in 2009. "They were sure that no matter what conditions they had, public pressure would make us accept them. At a certain point, it became a slippery slope."RELATED:Analysis: Where does the prisoner deal stand now?Hamas says no progress in negotiations on SchalitDiskin spoke during an event that was held in memory of late newspaper editor Dov Yudkovsky at the Israeli Journalists' Association headquarters in Tel Aviv.In response, Schalit's father, Noam Schalit said: "That sounds pathetic, after five years of failure."Diskin also spoke about Anat Kam, a former IDF soldier accused of spying and leaking confidential military information."When we discovered that there is a leak, we suspected that this was just the tip of the iceberg, and in retrospect we weren't wrong," he said.
