MIDDLE EAST: In a deal hailed by the Lebanese guerrilla group Hizbullah as a great victory, Israel is this week to release 400 Palestinian and 23 Lebanese prisoners in exchange for the return of a businessman captured by Hizbullah and the bodies of three soldiers kidnapped by Hizbullah at the Israel-Lebanon border, writes David Horovitz in Jerusalem
Under the much-delayed deal, set for Thursday according to officials on both sides, Israel is also to free 12 prisoners from other Arab countries and return the bodies of 59 Lebanese and Palestinian gunmen. German mediators played a central role in the deal, and the Israelis will be handed over in Germany.
In a second phase of the deal, which may go ahead in the next few months, Israel has agreed to release Samir Kuntar, the longest serving Lebanese prisoner, jailed over the killings of four Israelis, in exchange for "concrete proof" on the fate of Ron Arad, the best known Israeli MiA, an air force navigator missing since his plane was shot down over Lebanon in 1986.
Two senior guerrilla leaders, Abdel Karim Obeid and Mustafa Dirani, kidnapped by Israel in Lebanon to be used as bargaining chips for Mr Arad, are to go free in this week's exchange. The Hizbullah leader, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, yesterday denied that Mr Arad was being held in Iran, as Israel has sometimes alleged, but said that Iran and Syria would assist in providing information on Mr Arad.
Sheikh Nasrallah urged all Arab states with prisoners held by Israel to give him the details, so that he could engineer their release. That call underlined the boost to Hizbullah provided by the deal; the Palestinian media widely noted yesterday that Sheikh Nasrallah was achieving the mass prisoner release that the former Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mr Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) failed to win.
Some Israeli critics have blasted the government for capitulating to Hizbullah. But Mr Sharon defended the exchange as "right, moral and responsible".
Israel yesterday appointed a new attorney general, Mr Menahem Mazuz, who must now decide whether to indict Mr Sharon in a bribery scandal. Mr Sharon, who denies any wrongdoing, is expected to step down if charged.