By ARON HELLER, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 23 minutes ago
JERUSALEM - **The Israeli government agreed Sunday to free a Lebanese gunman convicted in one of the grisliest attacks in the country's history in exchange for the bodies of two Israeli soldiers killed by Hezbollah guerrillas. **
The German-mediated deal was a rare political victory for embattled Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and closed a chapter from Israel's inconclusive war against the Lebanese militant group two years ago.
But critics warned that the deal’s heavy price for Israel could offer militant groups an even greater incentive to kill captive soldiers. In Lebanon Sunday, Hezbollah declared victory and planned celebrations.
Israel’s Cabinet voted 22-3 to OK the deal to return the bodies of Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, captured by Hezbollah in a July 2006 cross-border raid that sparked a vicious monthlong war.
Before a six-hour Cabinet debate, Olmert announced for the first time that the soldiers were dead. He nevertheless pushed for the deal to be approved, citing the country’s deep moral commitment to its dead and captive soldiers.
Associated Press Writers Bassem Mroue in Beirut, Lebanon, Ian Deitch in Jerusalem and Daniel Robinson in Tel Aviv contributed to this report.
I can still sort of recall when the capture of these two Israeli soldiers ignited an all-out war on Lebanon. 2 years later, and the memory of it still lingers on…
Good decision on part of the Israeli cabinet though, to approve the swap in exchange for the bodies of their soldiers.
^ It also proves that Zionists are incapable of taking casualties. This is their biggest problem.
Superior forces suffer less compared to the rag tag primitive tribals.
Unfortunately modern day Islamists want to live in a 1000 years old world. So they behave like primitive people. They love to kill others and fellow Muslims only for fun. Look at what primitive tribals are doing in Pakistan's kurram agency. Killing fellow tribals just because they are Shias.
Some of these primitive tribals have now acquired (stole or bought) some nukie and non-nukie toys. These toys are making them go bursurk. Poor tribals don't even realize that civilized world will continue giving them severe beating every now and then.
There are very few Lebanese in Israeli captivity. The prisoner exchange is quite balanced as far as the number of prisoners is concerned. So your argument above is void.
Hezbollah has named four individuals who it says are Lebanese citizens currently held in Israeli jails.
Zionist terrorists only understand the language of force. We should not have any hopes of getting anything from any negotiations with the terrorist apartheid regime of Zion.
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2008/904/fr1.htm
Two years on and the deal that Hizbullah offered in 2006 is finally being sealed: Kuntar, four prisoners from the 2006 war, a group of other Palestinian prisoners and the remains of hundreds of Arab and Lebanese resistance fighters kept by Israel since the 1982 invasion are being exchanged for two corpses and a report stating that no one has information about the whereabouts of Ron Arad, the Israel soldier missing in Lebanon.
There is no exaggeration in calling this a victory for Hizbullah, and not only in terms of the deal. Of equal significance is the fact that it vindicates Hizbullah’s insistence that any dealings with Israel must be built on the basis of a balance of power. Only this balance can provide the solutions that politics has miserably failed to deliver.
This is happening at a crucial juncture in the recent history of the region, during a time when political negotiations with Israel are being revived and the Palestinians are still holding an Israeli soldier in the hope they will be able to negotiate his release for some tangible gains. It will also serve to silence at least some of the voices from within Lebanon that have been calling for Hizbullah to be disarmed.
