Shortly after Ronald Reagan came into office, Iran released the sixty-six hostages it had held for over a year.
Hamas is now following Iran's example, trying to mark a political shift with a hostage release. According to a Hamas spokesman, they're calling for the release of BBC journalist Alan Johnston.
This is a clear sympathy play by Hamas, who've spent much of the last week killing random civilians as they pushed Fatah out of power. Doubtless, they do have the power to lean on Alan Johnston's kidnappers, the self-styled "Army of Islam". They almost certainly had that power two weeks ago, too -- but they didn't need to make up for deaths and mass destruction two weeks ago.