Israel Army Radio Reports Prisoner Swap Deal with Hizbullah Imminent

According to Israel’s army radio, there is truth to Hizbullah chief Na’srallah’s assertion that a prisoner swap deal with Israel is imminent. On Sunday it reported that Israel was now prepared to release five Lebanese prisoners and the bodies of 10 terrorists killed on Israeli soil in exchange for the two soldiers snatched in a cross-border raid in July 2006, triggering a 34-day war. It is not known whether the two Israelis are alive and some officials have expressed doubts that they are. Hizbullah has steadfastly refused to furnish a sign-of-life for either soldier. Na’srallah stands to chalk up another significant victory over Israel with the reported inclusion of master terrorist Samir Kuntar as part of the deal. Kuntar murdered four members of a single family after coming ashore at the northern Israeli community of Nahariya in 1973 – a crime considered by Israelis to be so heinous that successive governments could not even broach the idea of releasing Kuntar in earlier prisoner swaps. Another significant concession by Israel will be its willingness to drop its use of Kuntar as leverage to obtain information about Ron Arad, an air force navigator shot down in 1986, whose whereabouts remains unknown. Arad is a cause célèbre in Israel and releasing the only bargaining chip significant enough to gain information about him is a black eye for the government. Hizbullah has dropped its demand that Palestinian prisoners also be part of the deal, apparently leaving that issue to Hamas, which is negotiating its own deal with Israel to free Gilad Shalit, an army corporal also captured in 2006.