Ahhhh, the arrogance of perceived power. If Israel had agreed to exchange prisoners when initially asked by Hezbollah, the war could have averted and Israel would have been spared an As* whipping. Wonder if Israel learnt the obvious lesson - Naaw, probably not.
by Amos Harel, Barak Ravid and Yoav Stern, Haaretz - Oct 15, 2007
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said Tuesday there is positive progress in negotiations to swap two Israel Defense Forces soldiers the group captured last year for Lebanese prisoners.
Nasrallah said a limited exchange on Monday in which Israel returned a prisoner and the bodies of two Hezbollah guerrillas in exchange for the body of an Israeli who drowned at sea two years ago provided an important incentive for a major prisoner swap in the future.
Hezbollah's capture of IDF reservists Ehud (Udi) Goldwasser and Eldad Regev in July 2006, sparked a 34-day war between the Lebanese guerrillas and Israel, leaving about 1,400 people dead.
"There is positive progress in the main negotiations over the two soldiers and the prisoners," Nasrallah said on TV Tuesday. "I assert that there are strenuous negotiations, continuing sessions which will be resumed in days," he said.
Hezbollah has repeatedly said it would only exchange the two soldiers against the release of all Lebanese and Arabs detained in Israel. Israeli government officials declined to immediately comment Hezbollah's
assertion, saying they would have to study the speech first.
In the first swap since the 2006 Lebanon war, Israel late Monday released an ailing Hezbollah guerilla as well as the bodies of two others, in exchange for the remains of an Israeli civilian who drowned two years ago off the coast of the north and whose body was swept into Lebanon.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, referring to the overnight swap, said Tuesday that Israel's enemies are engaged in an "ugly and cynical trade in feelings," demanding ever higher prices in exchange deals aimed at the return of missing and kidnapped Israeli troops.
The Israeli whose body was returned Monday was named as Gabriel Dwait, a 27-year-old immigrant from Ethiopia, who drowned in the Mediterranean Sea on January 20, 2005. Several months ago, Hezbollah began hinting that it held Dwait's body. Israeli authorities at the time were unaware of the remains of another Israeli in Lebanon. The Abu Kabir Forensics Institute identified Dwait's body at the border at Rosh Hanikra.
The Lebanese prisoner was identified as 50-year-old Hassan Naim Aqil, a former Hezbollah guerilla who did not fight in the Second Lebanon War. Israel decided to release Aqil, one of Hezbollah men it holds, due to his age and poor health. The bodies of the militants were identified as Ali Wizwaz and Mohammed Damasqiah.
According to a Lebanese security source, the Hezbollah militants were killed in the war.
Olmert, speaking in Ashdod at a conference on aliyah issues, said that the swap was "balanced, and at a price which Israel was authorized to bear."
But he added that "For years, our enemies have been seeking to raise the price to be paid by Israel for scraps of information, abducted civilians and soldiers, or, heaven forbid, remains.
"This is an ugly and cynical trade in feelings, and in the feelings of Israeli society. At times there is no alternative but to pay the painful price."
Israel said the swap was part of a larger negotiation process on the release of two of its soldiers abducted by the guerilla group in July 2006. Israel and Hezbollah have in recent months been conducting negotiations aimed at securing the release of Regev and Goldwasser.
The negotiations are being conducted through United Nations-appointed German mediator Ernst Uhrlau. The major sticking point currently in the talks is Hezbollah's demand that Israel first release a large number of prisoners in exchange for information on the two trips, while Israel is insisting that the exchange be carried out in a single stage.
Meanwhile, German Attorney General Monika Harms said Tuesday that is standing behind its decision to free an imprisoned Iranian agent despite a plea from the family of missing Israel Defense Forces soldier Ron Arad to reconsider the terms of the release.
Also Tuesday, the Lebanese daily Al-Akbar reported that as part of a 2004 deal, Hezbollah gave Israel documents written in Arad's handwriting, exactly 21 years after the navigator's fighter jet went down over Lebanon on October 16, 1986.
The Lebanese paper did not specify when the documents with Arad's handwriting were written, but reported that they apparently dated to when the abducted Israel Air Force navigator was held in Lebanon.
Sources in the Prime Minister's Bureau said Monday's swap also included information from Hezbollah regarding a separate issue, and that the information would be examined in the coming days. They have not confirmed Al-Akhbar's report on Ron Arad.
In a statement on its television station Al-Manar, Hezbollah confirmed that it had transferred information "related to issues of mutual interest, with the intention of achieving progress on them."
"Hezbollah hopes that this goodwill will produce long-awaited progress toward resolving the cases of all prisoners," the statement said.
A statement released by the Prime Minister's Office said the swap was "an additional step in the framework of the negotiations to return abducted soldiers Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser."
"Israel expects that this evening's significant step will serve to hasten the processes that have been underway for over a year," the statement said.
"As a goodwill gesture, there will be a swap of a prisoner and the bodies of two Hezbollah fighters for the remains of an Israeli who was not a soldier," the source said.
Israeli security sources also called the exchange a confidence-building measure, aimed at improving the atmosphere ahead or a future prisoner exchange with Lebanon.
Several IDF soldiers have been missing in Lebanon since the 1980s and are presumed dead. But there had been no previous report that an Israeli civilian was missing.
Hamas: Shalit deal more complicated
Meanwhile, Hamas spokesman Abu Obadiah said Tuesday that the deal for the release of IDF soldier Gilad Shalit, who was abducted last June by militants from Hamas and other Palestinian organizations, would be more complicated than the exchange deal Israel made with Hezbollah.
The spokesman told the Palestinian news agency Ramatan that Shalit's captors would not give up their demands to compromise with Israel. He also said to expect a deal which would embarrass Olmert and his cabinet.
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