By YAAKOV KATZ
Gilad Schalit will likely call for help, claim that he is sick and urge Israel to do more to release him in the videotape that the Prime Minister's Office announced Wednesday it would receive from Hamas later this week, according to a former Mossad department head.
"We will likely see Schalit speak and call on Israeli leaders to do more to release him," said Rami Igra, who served as head of the Mossad's MIA Department in the 1990s. "He will say that he is sick and that he needs to be released."
The video was intended to "play on Israeli emotions," said Igra, as media coverage of the Schalit issue had dropped off slightly in recent weeks.
"Since the family is less vocal today, Hamas feels it needs to fill the vacuum and remind us about Schalit," he said.
Israeli intelligence agencies would likely not be able to glean anything useful from the video besides information concerning Schalit's physical condition, Igra said, adding that while release of the videotape was definitely a positive development, it did not indicate that a deal was imminent.
If released to the public, Igra said, the videotape would serve Hamas's interests by lowering Israeli morale, and particularly motivation among teenagers ahead of their induction into the IDF.
"Children will see the video and will ask why they should [join] the IDF when the government is not doing enough to release Schalit," he said.
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