Good news for Gilad Shalit?

It's safe to assume that Gilad Shalit began 2006 without the slightest notion that his name would become known the world over during the year, and that he would be mentioned in nearly every discussion about Israeli-Palestinian relations.

The 19-year-old Israeli army corporal was at a post just outside Gaza on June 25, when the post came under attack by Palestinian militants. Two other Israeli soldiers and two of the attackers were killed. Shalit was captured.

The attack and the capture demonstrated the ineffectiveness of the "separation barrier" that Israel is building at a cost exceeding $2.5 billion in an effort to stop its citizens from becoming victims of Palestinian attacks. Shalit was taken back into Gaza through a tunnel that went under the barrier.

Tensions rose in the days following the attack. One report was of a warning by Israel to Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas that his prime minister would be targeted for assassination if Shalit were killed. In another report a Israeli minister warned that if Shalit were killed, "it's safe to say the sky will fall on them... in ways the Palestinians haven't seen before."

Frank Kaufmann, director of the Interreligious Federation for World Peace, lamented in a blog entry reprinted in World Peace Herald: "Players in the region have allowed this horrible incident to escalate to the point at which only great suffering awaits both sides barring some resolution."

A good way to resolved the situation without anyone losing face might be to allow Shalit to escape, Kaufmann suggested.

Fortunately for many innocent civilians on both sides, Shalit is said to be still alive and Israel's threats have not been tested. Neither did he escape, by design or otherwise.

Today comes good news from a Hamas source that negotiations over Shalit's release are going well, and that he may be released soon. Let's hope that this happens and that Shalit can get on with his life. It would be good to start 2007 with some encouraging news from the Middle East.