The highly publicized clash between Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman and the families of two soldiers — Hadar Goldin and Oron Shaul — whose bodies are being held by Hamas has underscored an Israeli decision to limit the price it will pay for the remains. An angry exchange erupted following the Aug. 24 resignation of Lior Lotan, the negotiator tasked by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with contacts for the return of Israeli captives and MIAs. The Goldin and Shaul families claimed Lotan quit because the government had tied his hands in negotiations with Hamas. According to the families, Lotan had concluded that the Israeli government was unwilling to pay the price Hamas was demanding, and therefore there was no hope of a deal.

The leaks from Liberman’s office in response have only served to bolster the families’ suspicions. Associates of the minister report that Liberman insists that there will be no “second Shalit deal” on his watch, referring to the October 2011 agreement freeing 1,027 Palestinian prisoners, mostly Hamas supporters, from Israeli jails in return for Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier held by Hamas for five years. According to Liberman’s associates, the demands being made by Yahya Sinwar, Hamas' leader in Gaza, are even steeper than those the organization presented for Shalit.

After Lotan’s resignation, the Goldin family said Liberman was unable to bring back their son because he was a “weak and cowardly” defense minister. Liberman’s office issued a statement in response, asserting that 202 of the Palestinians freed in 2011 had returned to terrorist activities and that 111 were back in Israeli jails. Seven Israelis had been murdered in attacks carried out or planned by released inmates, according to Liberman’s count. These figures have not been verified by outside experts, but Israel did rearrest some 50 freed Hamas prisoners following the June 2014 abduction and murder of three Israeli youths in the Etzion settlement bloc of the West Bank.

The arguments by Liberman and his associates could explain Lotan’s resignation. If Hamas is interested in a deal on the scale of the Shalit exchange, and Israel is adamant in its rejection of such a deal, there is indeed nothing further the negotiator can do.