Israeli critics question lopsided prisoner swap

Thursday 17th July, 05:24 AM JST

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7 Comments

skipthesong at 10:12 AM JST - 17th July

believe it or not, Samir Kantar received a hero's welcome.

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/07/16/israel.swap/index.html
adaydream at 10:46 AM JST - 17th July

I only hope that there is some reconciliation here. < :-)
skipthesong at 10:55 AM JST - 17th July

I wonder if the US government would be willing to swap the prisoners at Gitmo for AQ and Taliban militants. Maybe there is something to learn from this article after all.
kinniku at 10:55 AM JST - 17th July

adaydream,

Unfortunately, I sincerely doubt there will be. My guess is the return of Samir Kantar and others will only ignite the flames further.

Witness Hamas' spokeman's statement in the article above:

Haniyeh’s spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri went further, saying Wednesday’s swap “shows that the only successful way to free the prisoners is by kidnapping soldiers.”

It seems that Ismail Haniyeh and Sami Abu Zuhri have conveniently forgotten the many killed in Lebanon because of the kidnapping of the soldiers whose bodies were return through this deal. Was it worth all those deaths to get the Samir Kantar back? Some in Lebanon seem to think so, however I wonder how the families of those who died in 2006 truely feel.
RepublicofTexas at 11:54 AM JST - 17th July

I can understand Israel's eagerness to see the return of their soldiers, but I think in the long run this will just lead to the deaths of more Israelis.
rajakumar at 04:35 AM JST - 18th July

Israel lebanon 2006 war for 33 days, come to close in 1 day, with swaps of prisoners and bodies,good.

Thanks to Germany(UN) assistance ,for the deals.
rajakumar at 05:10 AM JST - 18th July

Remember WW2, 70 million over dead bodies. Wars just bring more miseries as can be seen in big loss of life in 33 day 2006 lebanon-israel war.

Win-lose policies of wars only makes things worse. Hope middle east wise up with more win- win pressures in Middle east.