Goldwasser and Regev for Kuntar and five lesser lights?
Israel Radio just reported (10:00 PM Monday) that Lebanese sources indicate an agreement has been reached in which Hezbullah will return Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev (or their bodies) to Israel in exchange for Samir Kuntar, Naim Nasser (I may have gotten that name wrong; a Google search indicates that he's a Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist and not Lebanese and the YNet report does not mention him), four Lebanese prisoners from the Second Lebanon War and the bodies of several terrorists. Israeli sources had no comment on the report.
Earlier this evening, Hezbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah said that Kuntar would be 'home soon.'
It appears that the Israeli threat to declare Goldwasser and Regev fallen IDF soldiers caused Nasrallah to soften his stance and omit two demands he had insisted on so far: The release of Lebanese and Palestinian prisoners in exchange for information on the Israeli captives' condition, and the release of Palestinian, Jordanian and Syrian prisoners jailed in Israel in addition to Lebanese prisoners.Kuntar has been held in Israel since 1979 for brutally murdering a policeman, and a father and his 4-year old daughter. A 2-year old daughter of the same couple suffocated to death in a crawl space to which her mother had taken her to hide during the terror attack in which the father and older daughter were murdered. Details of that terror attack in Nahariya - one of the most brutal in Israel's history - are here.
Another issue which has yet to be clarified is the information on the fate of IDF navigator Ron Arad. Israel had agreed to release Kuntar as part of the second stage of a previous prisoner exchange deal with Hizbullah in exchange for certified and proven information on Arad's fate.
Hizbullah supplied information, but it was not new and did not include proof or testimonies regarding Arad's fate after being handed over to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.
Israel may have agreed to release Kuntar at this time following a Hizbullah commitment to deliver new information on the missing navigator. An unrealistic option is that Israel decided to soften its original stance as well without receiving final and certified information on Arad. [I'm not sure why YNet dismisses that possibility as 'unrealistic,' and they don't explain it. Unfortunately, it may be very realistic at this point. Arad has been missing for so many years that there is little hope that he is still alive. CiJ]
The agreement to release Kuntar may be an Israeli concession in exchange for a Hizbullah agreement to cede the demand to release Palestinian and other prisoners.
...
According to the proposal, Israel will hand over to Hizbullah five Lebanese prisoners jailed in Israel, as well as the bodies of five Hizbullah men killed during the Second Lebanon War. Israel refuses to discuss the release of Palestinian prisoners with the Shiite organization.
Israeli officials estimate that real progress had been made in the negotiations with Hizbullah, but that this progress does not mean that a prisoner exchange deal will take place within days or even weeks.
According to the estimates, the deal may develop or continue to be stalled according to Hizbullah's reply. Jerusalem is now waiting for Nasrallah's answer.
The Hizbullah leader said Monday evening in a videotaped message broadcast at a Beirut rally marking eight years since the Israel Defense Forces' withdrawal from southern Lebanon that "the prisoners are our commitment and Samir Kuntar and his brothers will soon return to Lebanon."
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:02 PM
4 Comments:
May I suggest radio tagging the scum before releasing them? It will make sending them to their 72 raisins or virgins that much easier in the future.
Nasrallah : Resistance strategy is successful in Gaza & Lebanon
Published: Monday, 26 May, 2008 @ 7:51 PM in Beirut (GMT+2)
http://yalibnan.com/site/archives/2008/05/nasrallah_says.php
Beirut - Thousands of Hezbollah supporters in the Dahiyat , a southern suburbs of Beirut came to hear a speech by their leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah to mark eight years since Israeli forces withdrew from southern Lebanon.
His speech was expected and comes a day after the Lebanese parliament elected a new president.
As usual Nasrallah was defiant
On the accusations that his seizure of Beirut and his attack against the Druze in Mt Lebnaon was a coup against the state he said"
"The performance of the opposition proved that it did not organize a coup, but only wanted the illegal government to withdraw its two decisions"
On Doha accord he said:
Lebanon's victory is in forming a national unity government and electing Gen. Suleiman President renews hope of the Lebanese people and his Oath Address calls for entente."
He said he accepted the election law as a compromise to get Lebanon out of the political crisis.
Nasrallah said that he supports the Doha Accord's call to prevent the use of weapons in internal disputes, Nasrallah said. He added "state weapons should not be also used to settle accounts with the opposition or to target the resistance and its arms". This twists the statement made yesterday by the president when he said resistance arms should not be turned against the people".
On the issue of Wilayat al Faqih ( Iranian type Supreme religious rule ) he said
Nasrallah claimed that Hezbollah lost 14 "Martyrs" in the recent clashes in addition to casualties from AMAL, SSNP and other factions. Nasrallah who outraged the Sunnis of Lebanon by his seizure of Beirut , called on the followers of the Mustaqbal ( Future) Movement to "benefit from the recent experience." He did not explain the benefit
"I am a member of the Faqih Rule. The Faqih Rule tells us Lebanon is a pluralist nation that you should safeguard" He added " We do not want to rule Lebanon. All resistance movements throughout history ruled their nations, but we did not want power and this is why we did not ask for amending the regime "
On Shebaa farms he said
"Lebanon needs a strategy to liberate Shebaa Farms" He urged the Arabs and Lebanon to agree on a defense strategy . He predicted that Israel would cease to exist and America will be defeated"
He hinted that he would follow the Hamas defense strategy in Gaza against Israel and called it " a successful strategy"
Nasrallah urged the Iraqis to adopt Hezbollah's strategy in fighting the Americans " He accused the Americans of wanting the elected Iraqi regime to give them sovereignty rights over Iraq and declared his support for the resistance in Iraq against the Americans and called it the only option Iraq has to force the US out , just like Hamas did in Gaza and Hezbollah did in Lebanon.
In an interesting change in Hezbollah position Nasrallah said :
"Resistance should not expect unanimous backing by the society, it should take up arms and liberate"
When Hezbollah liberated south Lebanon and during its 2006 war with Israel, the Lebanese people fully supported Hezbollah. But recent events in Lebanon, has changed all that support to outright rejection of Hezbollah and its arms. It seems Nasrallah is saying he does not really care if he has the support of the Lebanese people or not. This thinking contradicts the Doha accord and the statements made yesterday by the Emir of Qatar " when he said " the time of the resistance was 2 years ago but now is the time of the wise people"
Nasrallah accused the Iraqi and Lebanese elite of cooperating with the occupiers
He said his message to day is " dual, liberation and defense, a message from our resistance to all their brethren in Palestine, the Arab World and Iraq"
His speech is bound to create havoc in Lebanon after the successful implementation of the first item in the Doha accord ...the election of the president whose speech yesterday clashed completely with Nasrallah's speech of today
As usual Hezbollah supporters used firearms to celebrate the occasion at the beginning and the end of Nasrallah's speech , despite the fact that this is against the law and the army has warned that those that celebrate with firearms will be subject to prosecution. According to media reports a Lebanese citizen, Muriel Choueiri, was injured by the celebratory gunfire during Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah's speech. Many in Lebanon are asking: " Will the army prosecute the offenders ?"
What's trading dead terrorists' bodies and a few convicted murderers for two soldiers and an airman gone missing for two decades? I'm not convinced paying the price is worth it. Hezbollah doesn't deserve a reward for waging war upon Israel and abducting its citizens.
and a player to be named later. maybe omar minaya should be minister of trade. he'd do a better job than these clowns. not that he's doing that great a job for the mets.
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