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There's a prisoner exchange happening as I write between Israel and the Hezbollah.
In return for 400 Palestinian prisoners, and a whole slew of terrorists of other nationalities, Israel receives the bodies of 3 soldiers kidnapped during a border patrol on the Lebanese border (right under the watchful and clearly uncaring eye of a UN outpost), as well as a very much still breathing retired army colonel, abducted under suspicious circumstances from Brussels a few days after the abduction of the soldiers. Suspicious, because it's been rumoured that he was involved in rather dicey business dealings, quite possibly *with* Hezbollah.
Two of the prisoners being returned to Hezbollah have been held in Israel for many years, and were considered bargaining chips in the search for Ron Arad, an air force navigator whose plane was shot down over Lebanon in 1986. To this day his whereabouts remain unclear, and the two prisoners, Obaied and Dirani, are thought to have knowledge of where he might be. The exchange agreement was delayed for many months, because of political backlash regarding their release.
The reason this story is significant to me is that the abduction of the soldiers happened very shortly after I moved to Israel. It was just so shocking and horrible, and as details of the abduction, and the UN's complete indifference to(and possible involvement with) the incident became available, the shock only grew.
Last year, the parents of one of the soldiers visited the school and spoke to some of our students. I got to sit in on the lecture, and it was just terribly sad. At that point, the Israeli government had already declared the three dead, even though they had no concrete proof. The parents refused to accept this, and I wanted more than anything to support their belief.
I guess this exchange is the sad confirmation of something I didn't want to accept.
Posted by raptorgirl at January 29, 2004 09:40 AM