JERUSALEM - Israel's Cabinet narrowly approved a prisoner swap with Hezbollah after eight hours of anguished debate yesterday, overriding warnings that the deal could signal weakness and encourage more kidnappings of Israelis.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon lobbied hard for the swap, which excludes Israel's most famous missing serviceman, Air Force navigator Ron Arad, who was shot down over Lebanon 17 years ago. The vote was one of Sharon's toughest leadership tests in three years.
The deal for the swap could still collapse - and the Lebanese guerrilla group threatened yesterday to kidnap more Israelis if that happens.
Under the deal, about 400 Palestinians and several dozen prisoners from Lebanon, Syria, Morocco, Sudan and Libya will be released in exchange for Israeli businessman Elhanan Tannenbaum and the bodies of three Israeli soldiers.
The Palestinians have been pressing Israel to release Palestinian prisoners - though the exchange might not have an immediate effect on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It could further boost Hezbollah's popularity among Palestinians and reinforce a belief that Israel only responds to force.
Some Israelis believe the Palestinians have been encouraged in their ongoing uprising by Israel's withdrawal from southern Lebanon in 2000, seen by Arabs as a victory for Hezbollah's years of resistance against Israeli troops.
In Sunday's Cabinet session, the ministers voted without knowing the names of most of those to be released, but were assured that they would not have been involved in killing Israelis - with the exception of several Lebanese prisoners on the list who killed Israeli soldiers in south Lebanon.
That restriction would presumably preclude the release of Palestinian uprising leader Marwan Barghouti, who stands accused by Israel of a role in attacks that killed 26 Israelis. Palestinian sources have said they expected Barghouti to be released.
Palestinians reacted with disappointment yesterday.
Issa Karake of the Palestinian Prisoners Association said he had hoped those with life terms would be among those freed. If this standard (of not having killed Israelis) is applied
the deal will lose its value because the long-serving prisoners are those who carried out operations in which they killed Israelis he said.
More than 7,000 Palestinians are held by Israel, most of them rounded up in Israeli military raids in the past three years of fighting. The release of prisoners is a top priority for the Palestinian Authority, but the Sharon government has freed only a few hundred, most of whom were nearing completion of their terms. That helped spark the resignation of reformist Palestinian premier Mahmoud Abbas two months ago.
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