Israel and Hezbollah -- Prisoner Swap

This prisoner swap might not be one for the ages but it is an interesting step for both Israel and Hezbollah to be taking at this point in time. The UN-brokered deal calls for Israel to release prisoners, chief among them, Sami Kuntar, in exchange for two captured Israeli soldiers, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, who have been presumed killed after their capture in 2006.

The deal is not a done deal as it still requires Lebanon to be forthcoming with information relating to an Israeli airman, Ron Arad, who was shot down over Lebanon in 1986. Lebanon has indicated that it is willing to do this but as yet has not released a final report as promised.

Kuntar is a killer. He might be a hero to Hezbollah, but to just about everyone else he is a cold-blooded killer. He shot and killed an Israeli man in front of his four-year old daughter and then smashed the young girls head against a rock with the butt of his rifle and then tossed her body into the sea.

I do not care if you feel you are fighting a war of liberation or freedom or whatever, there is simply no justification for killing children. This was not collateral damage, but rather a pre-meditated attack in response to the signing of an Israeli - Egyptian Peace Accord at Camp David in 1978. This signing probably cost Anwar el-Sadat his life as well several years later in 1981.

Kuntar at the time was working on the orders of the Palestinian Liberation Front (PLF). The PLF tried to secure Kuntar's release in 1985 and orchestrated the hijacking of the Italian Cruise ship the Achille Lauro. The PLF were unsuccessful in this attempt. It seems where the PLF has failed Hezbollah may have succeeded.

Interestingly, the Hezbollah leadership are playing up the idea that the two Israeli soldiers might still be alive by labeling the Israeli attempts to formalize the status of the soldiers as "killed in action", speculative. If these two soldiers are not alive then this is plain and simple, cruel.

Perhaps the release of Kuntar and other prisoners is worth it to the families of the two soldiers that are to be released and to the Israeli people. I wonder how the family of Kuntar's victims feel about the pending release.

Israel and Hamas

It is interesting that when the focus or spotlight is on you in a bad way the easiest way to shift the spotlight is to demonize someone or something else. Ehud Olmert, the Israeli Prime Minister, has been doing it tough of late with corruption scandals swirling all around him and with allegations surfacing of his direct involvement. Hence, the warning issued by Olmert that this cease fire or truce that is scheduled to come into force on Thursday is Hamas' last chance. It seems that if Hamas does not play ball and behave then Israel is prepared to strike deep into the heart of the Gaza Strip.

In the Israeli PM's own words, the people of Gaza are "pissed off with Hamas".

Now I am not pro-Hamas. In fact I have no problem with it being labeled an extreme and fundamentalist organization. The problem as I see it is that Hamas is now a democratically elected entity. The "West", and primarily the US, severely misunderstood the social and political dynamics when there was agreement to the idea of Hamas participating in Palestinian elections.

There seems little doubt that Hamas is anti-Israel and this means, in my mind at least, that any kind of truce will be short-lived. I just do not believe that Hamas has the sort of governance control it needs to reign in the militants and stop the rocket attacks. I hope I am wrong. I would love to see genuine peace in that part of the world in my life time. Yep, the eternal optimist!

The Israeli PM has close links to Australia and has family members living in Australia. In fact his cousin is married to the Federal Parliamentary Secretary for Defence and an aunt in Sydney.

The PM has grand plans of making peace with Lebanon and Syria. The plan even includes opening an Israeli Embassy in Damascus. Now this kind of peace would significantly change the geo-political dynamic of the region for the better. However, before any of these grand plans are likely to come to fruition the PM needs to survive the corruption allegations that by all accounts have two possible outcomes; resignation or new elections.

In any event there seems to be an open invitation to the Australian PM, Kevin Rudd, to visit Israel. This comes on the heals of the Australian Federal Parliament passing a resolution that commemorated Israel's first 60 years of existence in March of 2008.

Maybe I will write more on this Middle East stuff in the future because I am an opinionated bugger on this issue!