The Return of the Hounds of Hell

A move is afoot to secure a prisoner swap - 1,000 Palestinians for Gilad Shalit. I have a real bad feeling about this. I've made my feeling known about this for quite some time. Prisoner swaps are a real bad deal for Israel and the West. All it does is encourage further attacks and swaps to recover those Israelis or Westerners taken.

Saudi newspapers say Israel has been working toward securing the release of kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit in negotiations with Hamas in Egypt.

Newspaper Okaz reported that a senior Arab source said Israel and Hamas have been working on a deal to release the soldier in exchange for the freedom of 1,000 Palestinian prisoners, YNetNews.com reported Friday.

Under the deal, Israel would begin freeing the prisoners, including 500 women and juveniles, three days after Shalit is turned over to Egyptian custody. First, 350 prisoners serving short prison terms would be released, followed several days later by 350 prisoners serving medium terms and 300 prisoners serving long sentences 10 days after that.

Hamas has approved the deal, and the Jerusalem Post said the Egyptian moderators were awaiting a response from Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

Of course Hamas and Fatah would approve this deal. They get everything they want - humiliate Israel, secure the release of hundreds of Palestinians who are in prison because they violated Israeli law - or have Israeli blood on their hands, and Israel gets back Gilad Shalit.

Does this sound like a fair deal to any rational thinking person? It shouldn't.

Meanwhile, Kofi Annan claims that he's secured a deal with the Syrians to patrol the border with Lebanon.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Friday that Syria would step up border patrols and work with the Lebanese army to stop the flow of weapons to Hezbollah.

Syria will increase its own patrols along the Lebanon-Syria border, and establish joint patrols with the Lebanese army “when possible,” Annan said after meeting with Syrian President Bashar Assad in Damascus.

Assad made no public comments after their meeting, but Annan spoke with reporters at the Damascus airport before he departed midday for Qatar.

So, does this mean that both the Syrians and Lebanese will look the other way as Hizbullah resupplies across the border, as they'd been doing for the past six years as Hizbullah prepared for war with Israel? I simply don't trust the Syrians to do anything to stop Hizbullah from resupplying; it's not in their interests to do so. Syria benefits from ongoing instability in Lebanon because the Syrians can exploit it to reassert its influence there. This 'deal' is akin to having the fox watching the henhouse.

The Washington Post reports that Hizbullah continues to operate openly in Lebanon, often coordinating its activities with the Lebanese military.

In Al Ghandouriyeh and a number of other villages seen during a drive through the border region, Hezbollah flags flew high and wide, often alongside Lebanese flags. Hezbollah members staffed reconstruction offices, held town council meetings and stood at their own checkpoints in what seemed to be cordial coexistence with the recently arrived army troops.

No weapons were visible except those carried by the soldiers. But many of the young Hezbollah supporters were of fighting age and seemed ready for another call-up if the need arose. In the agreement that led to the army's deployment, Hezbollah pledged that its fighters would put away their weapons. But the Lebanese government promised Hezbollah in return that its soldiers would not try to find out where the arms were stored.

The deal seemed to be working Thursday in Al Ghandouriyeh, which lies about 20 miles inland from Tyre and six miles northwest of the Israeli border. Heavy fighting raged here in the final days of the war as Israeli troops who had been helicoptered in encountered unexpectedly stiff resistance from Hezbollah defenders. The men of Al Ghandouriyeh openly displayed pride in what they had accomplished on the battlefield and seemed to have nothing to fear from the army troops lounging nearby.

That means continuing violation of UN SCR 425, 426, 1559, and 1701, which call for the disarmament of all militias. Putting away the weapons until such time as they're needed isn't disarmament. It's a farce.

The worst fears of Israelis will be realized. Hizbullah remains in Lebanon as the Lebanese and UN look the other way on the key provisions of UN resolutions that require disarming the terror group, Shalit, Goldwasser, and Regev remain in the hands of the Islamic terror groups that initiated the conflicts in Lebanon and Gaza, and there are continued reports that the Israeli government is considering prisoner swaps to get the three soldiers back. Annan is trying to get Syria to exert pressure to secure the release of the three Israelis. Well, that makes some sense- Syria backs Hamas and Hizbullah and provides material support to both Islamic terror groups.

Meanwhile, the Europeans are providing economic aid to the Palestinians, despite the fact that Hamas is still a terrorist group dedicated to Israel's destruction and is unwilling to deal with Israel.

The IDF, however, continues doing what it does best - eliminating threats to Israel. They continue sweeping Lebanon and destroying Hizbullah bunkers as they find them. More rockets were fired at Israel from Gaza overnight.

Technorati: terrorism, fatah, Gilad, Shalit, Olmert, Eliyahu, Asheri, Ashri, Abbas, Regev, Goldwasser, PRC, Hamas, Gaza, palestinian, Israel, hizbullah, hezbullah, hezbollah, lebanon, syria.