Ha'aretz (Thurs): Nasrallah says Israel will regret not releasing Kuntar

[Jack Rabbit]

From Ha'aretz (Tel Aviv)
Dated late Thursday January 29

Nasrallah says Israel will regret not releasing Kuntar
By Yoav Stern, Haaretz Correspondent and agencies

In a speech at a festive ceremony held in honor Lebanese prisoners freed by Israel on Thursday, Hezbollah Secretary-General Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah said Israel would regret not releasing militant Samir Kuntar in the prisoner exchange deal the two countries carried out Thursday.
In 1979, Kuntar murdered three members of the Haran family in the northern city of Nahariya.
Nasrallah said that Hezbollah will respond to Israel's decision not to free Kuntar, and threatened that members of his organization would kidnap soldiers again.
Nasrallah made clear that in future kidnappings, the Israeli soldiers would survive the abduction and be live hostages. The remark was a reference to the fact that the three soldiers abducted by Hezbollah in October 2000, whose bodies were returned Thursday as part of the prisoner exchange, were killed prior to the kidnapping.

Nasrallah showed he can negotiate with Israel; now he should put that to good use. Instead, he threatens more kidnappings. That will only lead to a new round of tit-for-tat.

Nasrallah is overplaying his hand. No good will come of this.

[Muddleoftheroad]

1. Execute him now

That would eliminate their desire for more kidnappings. Then go after Nasrallah.

[Lithos]

2. Could he be playing out of both sides of his mouth?

He may not have been aware how much focus was on him for this speech which may have been to his "home crowd".

But agreed that no good came come from such statements.

L-

[tinnypriv]

3. I'd be interested to see what Aidoneous thinks about this

Lebanese politics is about as confusing as you can get. :)

[Aidoneus]

4. he is pleased with himself right now, and is arrogant on the best of days

Not without reason, for he has presided over successes on matters where decades of leaders far stronger than he have failed.

The coverage of this is remarkably pathetic so far, even considering the subject. In the reports I can find, there is but one complete sentence of his being properly reproduced. I'll have to wait before any decent transcript of his remarks appears before forming any thoughts.

Besides Quntar, Naseem Nasr will probably come up in the next few days. Nasrallah caught hell from the family for not pressing for his inclusion and will probably wish to tie up that loose end.

[Aidoneus]

5. about Nasr..

Nasr is something of a special case, as he has a Lebanese Jewish mother and an Arab father. He fought with Hizbullah's Islamic Resistance in the south, but was seized by the Israelis and is held in their jails on (I think) espionage charges. Because he is half-Jewish, he is considered to be an Israeli citizen by the GOI and off-limits for the exchange, but the mother lashed out at Nasrallah anyway and he will likely press the issue.

Also, the Iranians still want to know what happened to the 4 'diplomats' that Hobeika's people kidnapped for Israel. In his recent testimony (where the more prominent charge of torture and rape during his confinement at 1391 came up), Dirani assumes that the Iranians had Arad stolen from him in order to get information about them.

[Aidoneus]

6. I should immediately go out and buy a lottery ticket

found a better piece on Nasrallah's speech (seems like it was written by somebody who might have actually listened to it first hand, and not just cut'n'pasted a few segments of a wire report that sucked when it was full & original), and it seems he brought up much of what I thought he would.

[tinnypriv]

7. Thanks

BTW, thought you might be amused by this:

http://www.maariv.co.il/channels/0/ART/639/512.html

"Peres: Hezbollah will ruin Lebanon"

Yes - that Peres.

[Aidoneus]

8. heh

the old man has a fine sense of irony..