'A historical achievement'

Last Sunday, the Israeli Cabinet's approval of a hostage swap deal with Hezbollah touched off cries of victory in Beirut and sparked a fresh round of debate within the Jewish state over the price of Israel's determination to retrieve its missing soldiers.

After weeks of emotional public speculation and a six-hour Cabinet debate, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's government voted 22-3 in favour of a deal that would return two captured Israeli soldiers, who Olmert acknowledged publicly on Sunday were probably dead.

In return for the men or their bodies, Hezbollah would receive several imprisoned Lebanese militants, the bodies of about a dozen other fighters and the release of a still unspecified number of Palestinian prisoners.

The soldiers — Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev — were captured in a 2006 cross-border raid by Hezbollah.

The abduction sparked a month-long war in which Israel bombarded Lebanon from the air and Hezbollah fired thousands of rockets into northern Israel. The fighting killed more than 1,000 Lebanese and 159 Israelis.

The vote brought a triumphant response from Hezbollah's Al Manar television.

“Today the enemy was forced to recognise the logic of the resistance,'' an announcer said. “Our prisoners cannot be liberated with words, diplomacy and tears. Blood liberated the land as well as the people.''

At the top of the list of prisoners sought by Hezbollah is Samir Kantar, Israeli's longest-held Lebanese prisoner, who is serving multiple life sentences for the murder of an Israeli father and daughter in 1979.

Born on July 20, 1962 in Aabey, Lebanon, Kantar is a Lebanese Druze who belonged to the Palestine Liberation Front.

During his imprisonment, Kantar married an Israeli Arab woman who is an activist on behalf of terrorist prisoners, but divorced her.

Also during his imprisonment, Kantar graduated from the Open University of Israel in social and political science.

Olmert, addressing the Cabinet, said he hoped the agreement would “bring an end to this painful episode — even at the painful price it costs us.''

Officials expect the latest deal to be completed within two weeks. By Sunday night, Hezbollah was ecstatic about the exchange, with one leader calling it “proof that the word of the resistance is the most faithful, strongest and supreme.''

In Lebanon, Al Manar showed footage of preparations for Kantar's welcome-home celebration in the southern coastal city of Sidon.

His brother, Bassem Kantar, called the swap “a historical achievement for the resistance.''