So, it had come down to this. Tomorrow, Israel will send back the murderer, Samir Kuntar, 4 Hezbollah fighters captured in the 2006 Lebanon War along with the bodies of almost 200 Hezbollah fighters, the release of an as yet undetermined number of Palestinian prisoners and a report on Iranian diplomats kidnapped in the 1980’s.

What is Israel getting in return? Well, if you believe the reports from the Lebanese media, Read more »

Although we aren’t privy to the agreement signed by Olmert and Nasrallah, we can be pretty sure that the swap is on course. Today, the IDF Rabbinate confirmed they have begun exhuming the bodies of fallen Hezbollah fighters from a cemetery near Kibbutz Amiad. The deal is expected to go through very quickly with the culmination in about another week and 1/2. Read more »

On the day after the prisoner swap, there has been a ton of hand- wringing in the media. Did Israel or didn’t Israel do the right thing? Was too high a price paid or was this the only move they could have made? There were some surprises. Read more »

I was a little sad to wake up this morning and see that the prisoner swap was passed by a huge majority of the cabinet over the objections of the Mossad and the GSS. I can’t say I 100% blame them for going that route. This puts an end to another chapter for both Israel and Lebanon. Israel gets back Goldwasser and Regev (and we get to see if they are actually alive) and some information on Ron Arad’s whereabouts. Read more »

I don’t think anyone expected the cease-fire that went into effect recently to last very long, so we can do away with pretending to be surprised that Qassams are being launched into Israel. How long did that take…72 hours? 96 hours?  As I said in this post:

…the ‘truce’ will be short lived. Someone in Gaza won’t be able to stop themselves from firing a Qassam or a GRAD rocket that will hurt or kill an Israeli or a foreign worker.

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So, if you read my post the other day, I had figured they were going to declare the soldiers dead to pressure Hizbullah to either put up or shut up as to Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev’s condition, and to make sure they if they were dead, Kuntar wouldn’t be released. Read more »

Reading the news today garnered one interesting story about what’s going on in Israel. More specifically with the deal Israel is trying to complete with Hizbullah for the return of Goldwasser and Regev for Kuntar and others.

There is an apparent push by the IDF Chief Rabbi to declare the soldiers missing in action and dead. Why this comes up right now seems to be a mystery as there has been plenty of time to do so beforehand. My guess? Israel didn’t want to prejudice the negotiations with Hizbullah and set the bar too low in terms of what Nasrallah would ask as his price for their return. At least if they gave Nasrallah hope, Israel might have hope to regain their stolen sons. Read more »

I’ll assume you’ve all been reading the papers:

“Israel offers full peace talks with Lebanon” (rejected) With Syria. A cease-fire with Hamas (we’ll see how long it lasts). Talks with Abbas to return the ‘West Bank’ to ‘Palestinian’ rule, whenever that was (hint: never). With all these overtures to loose itself of territory obtained through defensive wars, you’d think Olmert thought the country was on fire and he was just trying to put it out.

The media pushed this down everyones throat as the ONLY solution to piece…I mean peace. This article, by Yair Lapid, is particularly annoying, representative of the defeatist sentiment that seems to pervade the “peace-seeking” reporters in Israel. ‘Israel wants everything but doesn’t want to give up anything.’ ‘Our enemies are right, we are wrong.’ He basically accuses anyone who disagrees with him of “magical thinking”, and the only way to remedy this is to basically give up. THEN there will be peace. Read more »

Unless you’ve been under a rock for the last few weeks, you’ve heard the drum-beat growing louder. A deal is in the works: Goldwasser and Regev, two IDF soldiers who’s kidnapping across the Lebenese border by Hizbullah sparked the 2006 war between Lebanon and Israel may be on their way back to Israel in a deal with Hizbullah brokered by Germany.

There is no way anyone anywhere doesn’t want to see these soldiers returned back home. The only thing that’s going to leave a sour taste in everyones mouth is what its going to cost to get them back. In addition to a bunch of no-name Hizbullah grunts and possibly a few bodies, Israel is more than likely going to have to give up Samir Kuntar. Who is Kuntar, do you ask? Read more »

I dont know if you have been reading the papers lately, but it seems like there is a fire sale going on in Israel in terms of its territory. I can’t say I 100% understand the need to negotiate with your enemies, especially when they approach the negotiations as more of list of demands.

Syria: We wont speak with you unless you hand over or commit to hand over he entire Golan first. THEN we can discuss peace.

Lebanon: Forgetting of course the fake government up there that represents mostly Hizbullah, the refrain is the same. Vacate the territory first (Shebaa Farms)and THEN we can discuss peace.

Gaza: Well, no surrender demands here, though Hamas is trying to make sure that Israel wont stop if from smuggling in more weapons. In fact Israel is actually acceding in part to their demands for a ceasefire.

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