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 »

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.

Read more »

Forgetting about the infighting going on right now about who does or doesn’t have the right to declare Regev and Goldwasser KIA, now Hezbollah has chimed in with some noise of it’s own.  This of course makes total sense in the context of what’s been going on. Read more »

I was all set to head to sleep this evening, but a last minute reading of the news prompted me to post again once more before I go to sleep. I have said for the last 2 days that the deals being considered for the release of Ehud Goldwasser, Eldad Regev and even Gilad Shalit are too steep to truly make sense. This applies more to the case of those kidnapped by Nasrallah’s gang of criminals, as at least we know Gilad Shalit is alive. Read more »

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 »