Sources: Israel, Hezbollah strike prisoner swap deal

[oberliner]

Israeli sources said Monday that Israel and Hezbollah had struck a deal securing the release of two Israeli soldiers captured by the Lebanon-based militant group in a July 2006 cross border raid that sparked the Second Lebanon War.

The sources explained that in exchange for the captives, Israel would release Samir Kuntar, a Lebanese militant currently imprisoned in Israel for the 1979 murder of a Nahariyah family, an Israeli citizen jailed for espionage on Hezbollah's behalf and four other Hezbollah men captured by Israel during the 2006 war. The deal reportedly will also include the return of the remains of ten Lebanese, currently held by Israel, to Hezbollah.

Earlier Monday, Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah hinted that a prisoner swap would soon be completed, telling supporters in Beirut that Kuntar would soon be freed.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/987183.html

[notfullofit]

1. I wonder how

many terrorists will have to be released in exchange for the two Israeli soldiers?

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

2. I wonder how you determine who the real terrorists are...

http://youtube.com/watch?v=_6Bj5_AOico&feature=related

[oberliner]

3. A murder of unimaginable cruelty

It had been a peaceful Sabbath day. My husband, Danny, and I had picnicked with our little girls, Einat, 4, and Yael, 2, on the beach not far from our home in Nahariya, a city on the northern coast of Israel, about six miles south of the Lebanese border. Around midnight, we were asleep in our apartment when four terrorists, sent by Abu Abbas from Lebanon, landed in a rubber boat on the beach two blocks away. Gunfire and exploding grenades awakened us as the terrorists burst into our building. They had already killed a police officer. As they charged up to the floor above ours, I opened the door to our apartment. In the moment before the hall light went off, they turned and saw me. As they moved on, our neighbor from the upper floor came running down the stairs. I grabbed her and pushed her inside our apartment and slammed the door.

Outside, we could hear the men storming about. Desperately, we sought to hide. Danny helped our neighbor climb into a crawl space above our bedroom; I went in behind her with Yael in my arms. Then Danny grabbed Einat and was dashing out the front door to take refuge in an underground shelter when the terrorists came crashing into our flat. They held Danny and Einat while they searched for me and Yael, knowing there were more people in the apartment. I will never forget the joy and the hatred in their voices as they swaggered about hunting for us, firing their guns and throwing grenades. I knew that if Yael cried out, the terrorists would toss a grenade into the crawl space and we would be killed. So I kept my hand over her mouth, hoping she could breathe. As I lay there, I remembered my mother telling me how she had hidden from the Nazis during the Holocaust. "This is just like what happened to my mother," I thought.

As police began to arrive, the terrorists took Danny and Einat down to the beach. There, according to eyewitnesses, one of them shot Danny in front of Einat so that his death would be the last sight she would ever see. Then he smashed my little girl's skull in against a rock with his rifle butt. That terrorist was Samir Kuntar.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&contentId=A2740-2003May17

[notfullofit]

4. It would be a

cold day in Hell before I would release such a monster as Kuntar!

[azurnoir]

6. Kuntar

was 16 at the time of murders, he's 52 now, this is not to excuse him or promote his release more it perplexed is there any "rehabilitating" someone such as this?

[eyl]

7. I haven't seen any signs he's been rehabilitated in any way

for one thing, has he ever expressed any remorse for his crimes?

[azurnoir]

10. Why do they want him back?

He's not Palestinian he is not Arab he is a Druze, who are not exactly friendly Hezbollah

http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=42450

in a way he reminds more of some "suburban" kid who wants to hang with gansta's 'cause its kewl than any one fighting for any kind of "freedom", or in short a common thug who got a lot of PR after the fact.

[Violet_Crumble]

12. Even if someone like him could be rehabilitated or felt remorse, he still should rot in prison...

Some crimes are so henious that the thought of the murderer ever being released leaves me feeling sick, and this is one of those crimes. What he did was so brutal, personal, and premeditated that it doesn't matter if he was 16 or 60 when he did it, and I don't understand why the Israeli govt would even consider including him in any prisoner swap. I know there's a thing that Israel has with getting back captured troops or even their remains, but does anyone think the families of those soldiers would want their remains (let's be realistic here coz there's no likelihood they're still alive) returned knowing that a child-killer being released to some warped hero's welcome in Lebanon was the price that was paid? Mothers and what they feel always seem to be pushed to the wayside in this conflict, and in the case of Samir Kuntar it's the mother of the little girl he murdered who is the only one whose feelings should matter. She lost her family in horrendous circumstances, and if him being locked up for the rest of his life gives her even a tiny feeling of justice or closure, then he should rot there as far as I'm concerned....

[eyl]

13. I agree

Were I running things, I wouldn't even discuss releasing any of the prisoners until Hizbullah allowed the Red Cross to verify the Israeli prisoners' condition. And even if they were alive, I wouldn't offer to release Kuntar - let Nasrallah explain to his public why he's letting four of his people rot in an Israeli priosner for Kuntar (I'm not counting the fifth guy whose name escapes me at the moment because he's just about finished his sentence anyway)

[notfullofit]

9. I really

could not care less whether he is 'rehabilitated' or not, the monster should rot in jail forever and a day.

[Vegasaurus]

14. No, one can not rehabilitate monsters like this nt

[shaayecanaan]

5. And they went to war for this...

from Wiki:-

Kuntar, then turned his attention towards the frightened little 4-year old. He took his rifle and then swung it across the little toddler's head, knocking her to the ground. As little Einat was knocked to the ground, she was screaming and crying hysterically "mommy daddy help me," while thrashing her little legs around in the sand. But unfortunately Einat was alone, and no one was there to save her. Kuntar then dragged the little toddler a couple of feet to the closest rock he could find, this was while she was begging him not to hurt her. Kuntar, then laid her head down on a rock, with the intention of crushing it with the butt of his rifle. Einat, instinctively covered her head with her little arms, Kuntar struggled with the little toddler until he finally managed to clear her arms out of the way so that he could aim for her head. Once her arms were out of the way, Kuntar proceeded on beating her on the head over and over with the butt of his rifle, and repeatedly stomping on her little body as hard as he could as well, until blood rushed out of her ears and mouth, and her little cries faded away as she was knocked into unconsciousness. Then, to ensure she was dead, Kuntar continued on beating her over the head, as hard as he could, several more times until her skull was crushed and she was dead.

A thousand people died on account of a war to free this piece of shit? I can't believe they even settled the deal, it is a fucking insult to all Lebanese. They could have tried to justify the war on just about any other basis, trying to recover the Shebaa farms, whatever, and Lebanese would have had a easier time accepting that. He's not even a Muslim, just some crazy Druze that wanted to hang tough with the Palestinians.

[azurnoir]

11. Agreed n/t

[eyl]

8. Such a deal, if this report is true,

would be a travesty.

The only way it could possibly be justified is if the Israeli hostages were returned alive, but reportedly the assumption in Israeli circles is that they're dead.