The deal is seen as a serious test for Sharon

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, November 9 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – The Israeli cabinet convened Sunday, November 9, for a crucial vote on a prisoner swap with the Lebanese Hizbullah group, hours after Hizbullah leader warned the deal would not go ahead unless the Jewish state released all Lebanese captives.

The deal is described in Israel as a serious test for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

"Sharon has taken a political risk and put his prestige and weight behind the controversial decision, which will pass with a small majority at best," the Ha’aretz daily said in an editorial.

The swap is expected to result in the release by Israel of some 400 Palestinians and 19 Lebanese in exchange for the liberation by Hizbullah of four Israelis.

Among them are three soldiers captured in October 2000 and thought to be dead, and retired army officer and businessman Elhanan Tannenbaum, abducted around the same time and accused of spying by Hezbollah.

Shortly before the cabinet meeting was due to get underway, Sharon was still lacking a majority, with only seven ministers coming out in favor of the deal, including Defense and Foreign Ministers Shaul Mofaz and Silvan Shalom, army radio reported, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Eleven ministers have already said they will oppose the deal and five, including Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, were still undecided, the radio said.

Israel's security apparatus is also split over the swap, with the army and military intelligence services in favor, while the external and internal security services - the Mossad and Shin Beth - are opposed to it, AFP reported.

Ha’aretz, however, quoted sources in Sharon’s office as saying that they
believed the deal would be approved by the ministers, even if by just a slim majority.

The vote is due to be held in the afternoon.

"Any deal that excludes any Lebanese prisoner will be refused,” Nasrallah

On Saturday night, Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah said that the anticipated German-brokered prisoner exchange deal with Israel would not go ahead unless the Jewish state released all Lebanese captives.

The head of the Shiite resistance group – the main force behind Israel’s decision to withdraw from South Lebanon in 2000, ending 22 years of occupation - was responding to press reports that Sharon refuses to release Samir Kantar, held by Israel for 24 years.

"Any deal that excludes any Lebanese prisoner will be refused and the exchange will not happen," Nasrallah said at an "Iftar" meal breaking the day-time fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

"Any alteration will be taken as a denunciation of the concluded agreement," he added.

He said that the deal "concluded several months ago" does not name any names, but stipulates the release of all Lebanese prisoners.

"For us, Samir Kantar is the same as Sheikh Abdel Karim Obeid ... and Mustafa Dirani, they are all fighters," he stressed. Obeid and Dirani were caught by Israel in 1989 and 1994 as a bargaining chip to secure the release of missing air force navigator Ron Arad.

Arad is widely believed to be dead but his family and their lawyer have been angered by remarks in which Sharon suggested Israel should press on with a deal excluding Arad, but involving Obeid and Dirani.

Nasrallah insisted that Israel had been prepared to release all Lebanese prisoners, including common criminals that Hizbullah is not concerned about.

Kantar's Druze family said Saturday they have "full confidence" in Nasrallah, issuing a statement saying that "the release of Samir Kantar must be an irrevocable requirement".

"The enemy must understand firmly and definitively, that the exchange cannot take place unless all the Lebanese prisoners are released, with Samir Kantar at the fore," the statement said.

Arrested by Israel in 1979, the 41-year-old member of the Front for the Liberation of Palestine, was condemned to 542 years in prison in 1980 for killing a scientist and his daughter, and wounding a senior officer in Nahariya in northern Israel.