Gershon Baskin: “For Israel, ending the war in exchange for all the hostages is equivalent to surrender” The activist, who in 2011 mediated the exchange of soldier Gilad Shalit for more than a thousand Palestinian inmates, sees it as “quite likely” that the exchange will prosper despite the difficulties with the rest of the conditions. “This is the strangest negotiation in the world because both parties are completely committed to the destruction of the other," he says.