Cabinet ratifies prisoner exchange deal with Hizbullah

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1215330974358&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

The cabinet on Tuesday ratified the prisoner swap deal with Hizbullah, despite the opposition of the heads of the intelligence community, who claimed that the report filed by Hizbullah on the fate of missing IAF airman Ron Arad was insufficient and did not answer Israel's questions.

The cabinet's decision included a statement to the effect that efforts to uncover additional information regarding Arad would continue.

The swap is expected to take place at 9:00 a.m. Wednesday at the Rosh Hanikra crossing.

Before the deal can be completed, President Shimon Peres must first pardon Samir Kuntar and four Hizbullah prisoners slated to be returned to Lebanon in exchange for kidnapped IDF soldiers Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser.

Peres told reporters that there would be no joy in signing the release papers for Samir Kuntar.

"We do not want murderers to go free," he said, "but we have a moral obligation to bring home soldiers whom we sent to defend their country."

Following the cabinet decision, National Infrastructures Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said that he voted to go through with the prisoner swap not just to ease the suffering for the Goldwasser and Regev families, but for the peace of mind of every mother in Israel.

"When I voted in favor, standing before my eyes was the suffering of the families," Ben-Eliezer said following the vote. "We want every mother to know that Israel will do its utmost in order to return her son from [combat]."

"The Ron Arad affair has not ended," he added. "The report that we received is one big deception. We will send it back to whoever prepared it."

Cabinet Minister Isaac Herzog, who voted with the majority, called the decision to swap Kuntar "a tormenting one."

"Clearly we opted for a resolution that fulfills our prime rule since the creation of the state of Israel, and this is to bring our sons back home, despite the toll," he told The Associated Press.

Alternatively, Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann said that he stood by his decision to vote against the deal, but would respect it nonetheless given that it has received government approval.

"My position is known and hasn't changed," Friedmann said. "Having said that, I will respect the decision of the government, and in the next hour I will sign the necessary documents in order to release Samir Kuntar, and I will hand them to the president for the pardon."

The other two ministers who opposed the exchange were Finance Minister Ronnie Bar-On and Construction and Housing Minister Ze'ev Boim.

Boim said he was afraid the swap would make it harder for Israel to win the release of kidnapped IDF soldier Sgt. Gilad Schalit.

"No one should be surprised if Hamas will now raise the price for freeing him," Boim said. "There is some basis to assessments that there is no need to keep Israeli soldiers alive in captivity because Israel will pay a high price even for bodies."

Minutes before entering the cabinet meeting, Shas chairman Eli Yishai had said that the Israeli government must continue to do everything in its ability to find out what happened to Arad.

Nonetheless, he stressed that it was the government's obligation to authorize the swap deal.

The first stage of the swap deal was completed days ago, when Hizbullah transferred to Israel an 80-page report on the fate of Arad, who was shot down over Lebanon in 1986 and held by the Amal Shi'ite group until the night of May 4, 1988, when he disappeared.
_________________
"The conversion of the entire population to Islam and the extinction of every form of dissent is the ideal of the Muslim State - This is Islamic Peace"

A moderate Moslem is one who sends others blow themselves up.