Abdul Rahman Al-Rashid

As almost everyone knows by now, Berlin is the scene of secret negotiations between two arch-enemies, Hezbollah and the Israeli government. These could lead to the release of 400 Lebanese, Palestinian, Egyptian and Jordanian prisoners, for which Hezbollah will pay with the remains of 300 dead soldiers and a single prisoner.

The Israeli government isn’t so worried that the Israeli bodies will be one pilot short. It is more worried that the operation will provide Hezbollah with too much publicity. That at least is the opinion of the head of the Israeli Foreign Intelligence, who thinks that it is a mistake both politically and in terms of security and says Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has taken advantage of the issue. That is grist to the mill of those in Sharon’s government who opposed the negotiations, and they are ready to block them whenever they can.

Israel has used up every trick in its arsenal to get back the bodies and the single prisoner. The latest warning — that it would kidnap Hassan Nasrallah himself — was another empty threat. If it could get its hands on him it would already have done so, instead of continuing to negotiate and fight for years. Israel no longer has any choice but to negotiate with Hezbollah. Still, things have become more complicated since the negotiations were made public.

The Israeli intelligence chief is worried that Hezbollah will get a lot of publicity from the release of the 400 Arab and Lebanese citizens. I say Hezbollah deserves the publicity. Any other groups have only negotiated on behalf of their own citizens. Only Nasrallah has put Jordanians and Egyptians on his list alongside the Palestinians. If he succeeds he will have earned the gratitude of the mothers of all the prisoners as well as the citizens of those countries. If he fails, he still deserves their respect because he has tried. No one else has negotiated with the same spirit.

If Israel barters over the release of every one of the batches of prisoners languishing in its prisons, we should not forget that in most negotiations the topic of prisoners probably only pops up with the last cup of coffee. Israel has been invited to attend conferences, embassies were opened for it, but it did not deign to release a single prisoner. Else negotiations did take place but didn’t include all Arab prisoners.

I am sure that Hezbollah will make some gains, and it deserves to. It has paid the price and chosen to help other prisoners.

- Arab News Opinion 22 November 2003