The release by Israel of, Marwan Barghouti, the mastermind of the second Intifada in 2000, has never been closer, his lawyer said on Sunday. “(His release) could come in the next few days,” lawyer Khader Shkirat told the privately run Channel 10 television. The television said that Barghouti, who was the West Bank leader of Fatah during the uprising that broke out in 2000 and is still seen as a leading candidate to take over from Western-backed Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, had been told of his imminent release. He is likely to be one of the first prisoners released in any exchange for Shalit as a goodwill gesture by Israel to Abbas, the television added. Outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is trying to negotiate a last-minute deal with Hamas under which Israel would release 1,000 or more Palestinian prisoners in exchange for captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. Israel last freed some 250 Palestinian Fatah prisoners in November. Israel said the release was intended as a confidence-building measure to bolster Abbas and his Fatah faction. Even though Barghouti is a key figure in Fatah and seen as the secular movement's principal rival to Hamas in terms of public support, he figures high on the list of prisoners whose release the Islamists have demanded from Israel. He was detained in April 2002 and given five life sentences in June 2004 after being convicted of masterminding four attacks on Israeli targets. Barghouthi is seen as a possible successor to Abbas, whose secular Fatah faction lost to Hamas in a 2006 election and was routed from the Gaza Strip in a June 2007 civil war between the Palestinian rivals. In the past, Israel has largely refused to free Palestinian prisoners with “Jewish blood on their hands” but a growing number of cabinet ministers have voiced support for releasing Barghouti as part of an exchange for Shalit. As a prominent leader of Fatah, Barghputi has remained a leading champion of the Middle East peace process, even during his time in Israeli custody. Educated in political science at Beir Zeit University near Ramallah, and fluent in English and Hebrew, Barghouti spent several of his teenage years in an Israeli jail before being exiled to Tunisia during the first intifada in 1988. He returned after the Oslo peace accords were signed in 1993 to be elected to the Palestinian parliament in the first poll after the territories were granted autonomy. Livni refuses to be no. 2 Meanwhile back in nerve center of Israel disagreements following last weeks election could bring peacemaking talks to a standstill with leading the Kadima Party into opposition if she is not named the next prime minister. It wasn't clear whether Livni was ruling out a coalition headed by Benjamin Netanyahu's hawkish Likud Party - or angling for better terms for her party should it enter such a coalition. Kadima captured 28 of parliament's 120 seats in Israeli elections last week, barely edging out Likud, which won 27. President Shimon Peres is allowed to assign the task to whatever member of parliament he thinks is best able to form a government, and is expected to announce his decision late this week. Both Livni and Netanyahu have called on each other to join a broad-based government, but neither has indicated readiness to serve under the other. Livni said Kadima's edge gives it the right to lead the government. “If not, we will continue to fight for what is right from the opposition,” she told a meeting of Kadima lawmakers on Sunday. Livni's Kadima is in danger of breaking apart, however, if it is relegated to the opposition. The party is an amalgam of hawks and centrists drawn largely from the Likud, and some of its lawmakers might break away and rejoin Likud if it is in power. Earlier Sunday, Kadima Cabinet Minister Avi Dichter said Kadima would agree to a power-sharing arrangement in which Livni and Netanyahu would take turns being premier. Israel had such an arrangement in the 1980s, but unlike the present situation, parliament's moderate and hawkish blocs were evenly divided then. If Likud and Kadima don't join forces in the next government, the ultranationalist Avigdor Lieberman could be the decider. Lieberman wants to redraw Israel's borders to place concentrations of Israeli Arabs under Palestinian jurisdiction which could be a potential conflict with President Barack Obama who has pledged to put Mideast peacemaking high on his agenda.
