Negotiating with Hezbollah

Thursday, September 18, 2003

From the Goddess paintings by Silvia Rosenberg, canvas, 35x50

Three soldiers were reported wounded and a top Hamas man killed in a Gaza operation this morning, while in Ramallah, Yasser Arafat’s Fateh leadership was meeting to hammer out the details for a new Palestinian government. Israel Radio’s account of the Muqata session was that it appears the Fateh old-timers, who were with Arafat in Tunis, rather than the new leadership that emerged in the territories during the first intifada, will be the winners in the new government, ostensibly to be headed by Ahmed Qurei’.

But the real action was taking place in secret, somewhere in Germany, as Israeli negotiator Ilan Biran, a former major general, was meeting with the German mediator working on the exchange with the Hezbollah. Israeli officials today were confirming Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah’s statement yesterday that Israel would be freeing Palestinian, Syrian, and Jordanian prisoners, as well as Lebanese in exchange for the three bodies of soldiers kidnapped early in the intifada on the Lebanese border, plus Elhanan Tannenbaum, a reserve colonel who was on a private business trip and somehow was lured into Hezbollah clutches a few days after the kidnapping at Mt. Dov.

According to Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, who was speaking to Likud party activists, the talks are in advanced stages, and ‘good news’ could come during or right after the upcoming New Year holidays. Nasrallah said deal could be done by October. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon met with the family of missing navigator Ron Arad, who apparently won’t be coming back in the prisoner exchange deal. The consensus on the deal now is that Hezbollah wants to show it is a defender of the Arab, and particularly Palestinian cause, but that the prisoner exchange could be the final stage of the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel, though the Lebanese organization will not actually announce it as such.

Sharon meanwhile met with the Norwegian foreign minister, distancing himself from the statements made by some of his ministers about killing Arafat – whom security services sources now admit is constantly surrounded by human shields, precluding any military operation. But Sharon refuses to rule out the possibility of taking action against the Palestinian leader.

Arafat meanwhile gave interviews last night to Israeli TV stations, offering a new truce, explaining that the cease-fire talks were taking place with all Palestinian factions, and calling on Israel to join a cease-fire. But Israel’s official position right now is that there will be no cease-fire with the Palestinians until they ‘start dealing seriously with the terrorist infrastructure.’ Shalom said today that ‘asking Arafat to give up control over the Palestinian security services is like asking a man to jump off a roof. There’s no chance he’ll do it, because he knows that would spell the end of his authority.’

But President Moshe Katsav, the Likud president who has proven to be somewhat ore dovish in the president’s office than he ever was in the Knesset, said that ‘Arafat doesn’t need our permission – or international permission -- to stop terrorists who accept his authority to stop blowing themselves up in buses … and if he does so, he’ll be applauded worldwide.’ On the same occasion – a meeting with the visiting president of the Dominican Republic – Katsav said that even if Ron Arad isn’t part of the prisoner exchange being worked out, ‘Israel will remain committed to his return, morally and publicly.’

In other developments, Peace Now announced its first demonstration in more than 18 months to take place on Saturday night; two Israelis were arrested on the Temple Mount for harassing IslamicTrust Waqf officials; the government announced a land give away and generous grants for people from the center of the country who want to live on the Lebanese border; and the International Monetary Fund issued a very optimistic projection about 2.1 percent economic growth for Israel in 2004.

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