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.
