The Israeli government has decided to swap a live terrorist for two dead soldiers.
Former Chief of Staff Dan Halutz is in favor of the deal.
And isn’t the price too high? According to Halutz, “Our nation is not like all other nations. Let’s face it, we have different sets of values, which I believe are the right values. In returning the soldiers we must act from the same place we acted at the time – from the Jewish place. Redemption of prisoners, mutual guarantee.
“Sometimes the sentiment must dictate a decision… And the main thing is that the soldier and his family should know that we will do everything for them – because we have been sentenced to many more years of hostility.”
For Halutz this deal ought to pre-sage a deal with Hamas to get Gilad Shalit back. Halutz’s predecessor Moshe Yaalon disagrees:
Former IDF Chief of Staff Yaalon sparked a row Monday when he said that security prisoners should not be released as part of prisoner exchange deals in which the demanded “price” is too high.
“When it comes to the question of a deal, I am one of those who call for the minimum, and in some cases we must even say we are ready to sacrifice in the face of what we are required to pay, because the payment price is much heavier than the price of losing the hostage,” he said.
Not surprisingly Yaalon was criticized by the Shalit and Goldwasser families.
Emanuele Ottolenghi has a question about how Israel handled the situation:
When did the government know that the two soldiers were in all likelihood dead? Was it immediately after Hezbollah’s incursion into Israeli territory, on July 12, 2006? If so, the government launched a military campaign of 33 days, that cost the lives of over 130 Israelis, in order to rescue the dead bodies of two. Some explaining is in order, if that is the case.
We’ve been down this road before. In 2004 Israel released hundreds of prisoners to get the bodies of 3 soldiers who had been killed in a crossborder raid by Hezbollah, violating the international border behind which Israel had retreated month earlier.
Israel released more than 400 prisoners Thursday in a long-awaited swap with the Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah in exchange for the return of an Israeli businessman and the bodies of three Israeli soldiers.
The German-brokered exchange was completed despite a suicide bombing earlier on a bus in Jerusalem that killed at least 10 bystanders and wounded about 50 in the deadliest attack on Israel in four months. The blast occurred near Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s official residence, but he was not in the area at the time.
“We are releasing another 400 Palestinians with a very heavy heart, because we know that these 400 will return very quickly to the cycle of violence,” Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Jonathan Peled said in Jerusalem.
This time again it was the Germans who helped facilitate the return of dead Jews. And the Washington Post adds, it was under the auspices of the UN.
The deal, which followed months of negotiation mediated by Germans under U.N. auspices, marked the first such swap between Israel and Hezbollah since 2004.
That’s the UN whose troops aided the 2000 cross border raid, protected Hezbollah and did nothing to enforce its own resolutions when violated by Hezbollah. It’s kind of like paying to getting your property back from the very thieves who stole it.
The New York Times reminds us that this was purportedly one of the reasons that Hezbollah carried out the raid two years ago.
Indeed, within minutes of the decision, Al Manar, the Hezbollah television station, hailed it as evidence of the group’s power. “What happened in the prisoner issue is proof that the word of the resistance is the most faithful, strongest and supreme,” Hezbollah’s executive council chief, Hashem Safieddine, was quoted as saying.
The July 12, 2006, raid by Hezbollah into Israel that captured the two soldiers was aimed at seizing bargaining chips for the group’s effort to free Mr. Kuntar and several other Lebanese.
So Israel has effectively handed a Hezbollah a victory with this trade.
And of course there’s the question of who will be next.
Three government ministers voted against the prisoner swap deal Sunday-Finance Minister Roni Bar-On, Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann and Housing Minister Zeev Boim.
The three said that the deal constitutes a victory for the Hezbollah. “After the release of Kuntar, who will be able to stop the release of [Tanzim head] Marwan Barghouti?” Bar-On said Sunday.
The families of Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser will get much needed closure. The question will be at what cost.
Meryl wonders if there might be some advantage to Israel that may occur on account of the release of Kuntar for the bodies of Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser:
There’s one tiny point of light at the end of this dark tunnel. I think that Israel may be clearing up all the details of her prisoners and KIA hostages as a way to clear the decks for action in Gaza. In other words: If Israel has her captives back, whether they are alive or dead, she can then start clearing out the terrorist rat’s nests with a clear conscience, and without fear that it is causing their deaths.
The only problem with that idea is that Israel just agreed to a one-sided ceasefire with Hamas in Gaza. Daled Amos asks if there’s a different consideration in play
Is it a coincidence that this exchange is taking place now, at the same time that Olmert is attempting peace negotiations with Lebanon?:
For those of you who are concerned about Samir Kuntar’s suffering in jail, Israelly Cool has some details:
Did I mention that Kuntar got married, received conjugal visits from his wife, and earned a college degree all while in prison?
Crossposted on Soccer Dad.
The Commentary mag position is disingenous in my opinion SD. Whatever one’s feelings on the hostilities in Lebanon, or its results we can all recall the speed at which events unfolded. Clearly, there was no specific knowledge on the 2 soldiers in the initial actions.
Also, the state of events is already being blurred by time. Regev & Goldwasser’s fellow unit members were killed, a unit that went into hot pursuit across the border was also lost in ambush by Hezbollah, this was already within an hour or two a loss of 8 or 9 soldiers. Also, the initial attack itself was in conjunction with many many rockets fired at the northern border civilian populace as is cutomary as ‘cover’ for terrorist operations.
We tend to recall rockets as part of the event, but rockets preceeded the event, despite the Arab ploy to re-write that sequence then, and continuing until now. Israel must respond to defend the populace from rocket attacks, it must do so in the north, it must do so at ashkelon, at sderot. This is the basic purpose of government to defend its citizens. We cannot be outraged at the lack of will to carry this out on one border, and by the same token question this effort on another when it does happen.
Many questions, debates, etc on the Lebanon conflict will go on and with good reason & justification, but the effort initially should not be questioned I believe, and the escalation to war is unfortunately part of the reality that unfolded.
Please note I am not questioning SD’s knowledge of these events in the least.
Saus,
Why don’t you blog anymore? I miss you!
It may not be that government knew immediately (or was pretty certain) that Regev and Goldwasser were dead. But I have a hard time believing that they just came to that conclusion a few weeks ago. When the deal became imminent is when the government chose to let slip that the two were likely dead, but I believe that the government had known for awhile.
I agree that it’s not true that Israel attacked Hezbollah only to recover Regev and Goldwasser. Hezbollah had built up its strength in violation of 425 (with the acquiescence of the Lebanese government, the UN and the rest of the world). The crossborder attack was the tipping point, but it was not the sole reason for the war. (It makes it easier for Israel’s critics to say that Israel overreacted by claiming that Israel attacked only to recover the two soldiers. I think that’s what you mean by the “Arab ploy to re-write” what happened. )
You’re correct that contrary to what Ottolenghi wrote there was a need to attack Hezbollah outside of the violation of Israeli territory and the capture of Regev and Goldwasser.
Perhaps it would be better to put it as Elder of Ziyon did:
I cannot imagine the pain that the Eldad and Goldwasser families have been going through, but giving Hezbollah their stated prize – in which they give up nothing that is of any value to themselves – is doing nothing less than giving them total retroactive victory in the Lebanon war, by their own stated goals. We know by now that the UN forces in Lebanon are not enforcing their own mandate and that Hezbollah has more than recouped their losses from 2006, and now Israel is doing nothing less than conceding defeat.
The sickening piece of filth called Samir Kuntar was the only thing that stopped Hezbollah from being able to declare total victory. Now, victory is theirs.
hehe thx SD
Agreed, my own feelings regarding the swap are in Meryl’s thread.
re blogging, this is temporary and is employment related, ie not a question of time, a question of politics just for now.
The solution is pretty obvious to me –
Release that scumbag Kuntar, and then cap his ass when he’s in Lebanon ala Mughniyeh
If it would only end like the episode “Bait” of the Unit.