German mediator Ernest Uhrlau announced yesterday that the prisoners-for-hostages exchange with Hizbullah will be carried out this week. The basic framework is as was approved in November, i.e., 435 prisoners who live in Palestinian Authority-areas and Lebanon, including Sheikh Obeid and Mustafa Dirani, in exchange for abducted citizen Elchanan Tenenbaum and the bodies of three soldiers killed by Hizbullah over three years ago: Benny Avraham, Adi Avitan, and Omar Souad.
A second stage of the agreement is the formation of an international committee to investigate the whereabouts and condition of missing Israeli navigator Ron Arad; Lebanese-Druze Samir Kuntar, who murdered several members of the Haran family in 1979, will be released in exchange for "solid evidence" that Arad is either alive or dead. Hizbullah chieftain Nasrallah reportedly told Kuntar's family that he would be released three months from now.
The official German announcement of the deal is somewhat different. It states that Kuntar will be returned to Lebanon without delay as soon as the negotiations regarding him are completed successfully - and that the sides hope this will occur within 2-3 months. The Germans also state that committees will be established to reveal the whereabouts of Ron Arad and of four Iranian diplomats who have been missing in Lebanon since 1982. "In exchange for a clarification about Ron Arad's fate and his return," says the German announcement, "Palestinians and other Arabs will be freed based on negotiations without preconditions."
Prime Minister Sharon expressed gratitude to the German government for its efforts in mediating the deal, as well as to Gen. Ilan Biran, who has conducted the Israeli negotiations over the past months.
In addition to the 435 PA and Lebanese prisoners, Israel is also to release 12 other incarcerated Arabs, as well as a German Hizbullah agent. The latter is a convert to Islam arrested by Israel in 1997 after he was sent to perpetrate a suicide attack against Israelis. None of the 450 prisoners succeeded in murdering Jews. Israel has also agreed to give the Lebanese maps of the minefields it planted in southern Lebanon, hand over the remains of 59 Hizbullah terrorists killed in fighting with the IDF who are currently buried in cemeteries in northern Israel, and clarify the fate of 24 other Lebanese who have been listed as missing in the past two decades.
Hizbullah head Nasrallah held a press conference this afternoon, gloating over the "victory" he had achieved over Israel and promising to achieve the release of even more Arab prisoners from Israel.
Three other soldiers missing in action were not even mentioned in the deal, and their families feel that they have been abandoned. The three - Tzvi Feldman, Zechariah Baumel and Yehuda Katz - have not been seen for certain since the Sultan Yaaqub battle in southern Lebanon in 1982, although there have been many reports that one or more of them were seen in Syria shortly afterwards. Yonah Baumel, Zechariah's father, said today that he was happy for the four Israeli families in the current deal, even though he feels the price was too high. He further said that he had asked Prime Minister Sharon and Defense Minister Mofaz not to release any Syrian prisoners at present, but was rebuffed. "I take that very hard," Baumel said. He said that he knows that his son's case is not directly connected with Hizbullah - "Hizbullah wasn't even in existence in 1982" - but he has strong criticism of the entire system: "I, by myself, conducted negotiations [in the 1980's] for the return of one soldier in exchange for one terrorist - not one for 300 or 400."
The big winner from this deal is apparently Hizbullah leader Sheikh Nasrallah, who is perceived as the only Arab leader to have "liberated" lands from Israel, and will now be able to preside over a joyful parade of returned prisoners. However, some analysts feel that whatever gains Hizbullah derives from the deal will not offset the organization's image as a liability to Lebanon's development, and/or that Hizbullah may still be sacrificed by Iran and Syria in order to gain points in the Western world.
A second stage of the agreement is the formation of an international committee to investigate the whereabouts and condition of missing Israeli navigator Ron Arad; Lebanese-Druze Samir Kuntar, who murdered several members of the Haran family in 1979, will be released in exchange for "solid evidence" that Arad is either alive or dead. Hizbullah chieftain Nasrallah reportedly told Kuntar's family that he would be released three months from now.
The official German announcement of the deal is somewhat different. It states that Kuntar will be returned to Lebanon without delay as soon as the negotiations regarding him are completed successfully - and that the sides hope this will occur within 2-3 months. The Germans also state that committees will be established to reveal the whereabouts of Ron Arad and of four Iranian diplomats who have been missing in Lebanon since 1982. "In exchange for a clarification about Ron Arad's fate and his return," says the German announcement, "Palestinians and other Arabs will be freed based on negotiations without preconditions."
Prime Minister Sharon expressed gratitude to the German government for its efforts in mediating the deal, as well as to Gen. Ilan Biran, who has conducted the Israeli negotiations over the past months.
In addition to the 435 PA and Lebanese prisoners, Israel is also to release 12 other incarcerated Arabs, as well as a German Hizbullah agent. The latter is a convert to Islam arrested by Israel in 1997 after he was sent to perpetrate a suicide attack against Israelis. None of the 450 prisoners succeeded in murdering Jews. Israel has also agreed to give the Lebanese maps of the minefields it planted in southern Lebanon, hand over the remains of 59 Hizbullah terrorists killed in fighting with the IDF who are currently buried in cemeteries in northern Israel, and clarify the fate of 24 other Lebanese who have been listed as missing in the past two decades.
Hizbullah head Nasrallah held a press conference this afternoon, gloating over the "victory" he had achieved over Israel and promising to achieve the release of even more Arab prisoners from Israel.
Three other soldiers missing in action were not even mentioned in the deal, and their families feel that they have been abandoned. The three - Tzvi Feldman, Zechariah Baumel and Yehuda Katz - have not been seen for certain since the Sultan Yaaqub battle in southern Lebanon in 1982, although there have been many reports that one or more of them were seen in Syria shortly afterwards. Yonah Baumel, Zechariah's father, said today that he was happy for the four Israeli families in the current deal, even though he feels the price was too high. He further said that he had asked Prime Minister Sharon and Defense Minister Mofaz not to release any Syrian prisoners at present, but was rebuffed. "I take that very hard," Baumel said. He said that he knows that his son's case is not directly connected with Hizbullah - "Hizbullah wasn't even in existence in 1982" - but he has strong criticism of the entire system: "I, by myself, conducted negotiations [in the 1980's] for the return of one soldier in exchange for one terrorist - not one for 300 or 400."
The big winner from this deal is apparently Hizbullah leader Sheikh Nasrallah, who is perceived as the only Arab leader to have "liberated" lands from Israel, and will now be able to preside over a joyful parade of returned prisoners. However, some analysts feel that whatever gains Hizbullah derives from the deal will not offset the organization's image as a liability to Lebanon's development, and/or that Hizbullah may still be sacrificed by Iran and Syria in order to gain points in the Western world.