Report: Swap of insurgent for Israeli bodies set 'appalling precedent'
Wednesday, July 16, 2008 Free Headline Alerts
JERUSALEM — Israel's agreement to release at least one leading Hizbullah insurgent in exchange for the bodies of dead soldiers was a good deal for terrorism, a report said.
The Institute for Contemporary Affairs said Israel was establishing an "appalling precedent" made at the expense of Israeli deterrence.
In a report titled "Hizbullah's Triumph: The Long-Term Implications of Prisoner Exchanges," authors Justus Reid Weiner and Diane Morrison argued that the exchange of key Hizbullah and Palestinian insurgents for the bodies of two Israeli soldiers would encourage the abduction of Israelis.
"The status quo for prisoner exchanges harms Israeli deterrence, . . . encourages further kidnappings, increases the possibility that captured soldiers will be mistreated or even murdered in custody, and rewards imprisoned terrorists by releasing them early to claim new victims," the report said.
"The Hizbullah and Hamas terrorists have a good thing going."
The report was released on the eve of the Israeli-Hizbullah prisoner exchange on Wednesday. Under the exchange, Israel would free five Hizbullah operatives as well as an unspecified number of Palestinians. One of those released was identified as Lebanese national Samir Kuntar, who in 1979 was sentenced to life for the killing of four Israelis in Nahariya. The exchange was opposed by the chiefs of Israel's intelligence community.
"By exchanging prisoners with the proxy organizations as if they were law-abiding states, Israel can be seen as upgrading the status of the organizations' unlawful combatants from terrorists and war criminals," the report said.
"Such exchanges afford them the same rights as lawful soldiers, without demanding from their leaders the reciprocal obligations. At the same time, Israel downgrades the rights of its own captured soldiers by overlooking the organizations' systematic depravation of PoW rights for Israeli soldiers under the Geneva Conventions."
The report said the Israeli-Hizbullah exchange would encourage abductions by insurgency groups. Already, many of the insurgents released by Israel have resumed their former activities, the report said.
On Tuesday, the Israeli National Security Council warned Israelis not to visit Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. The NSC's Counter-Terrorism Bureau reported an Islamic plot to abduct Israelis in the Sinai.
"Activity by terrorist elements in the Sinai Peninsula, who are working in order to abduct Israelis, raises the possibility that they intend to perpetrate such an abduction in the very near, even immediate, future," NSC said.
The Institute for Contemporary Affairs urged Israel's government to establish guidelines for any future prisoner exchange. The government of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has been negotiating with Hamas for the release of Israeli Cpl. Gilad Shalit, captured in 2006 and believed held in the Gaza Strip.
"When Israel makes exchanges that are unequal, it is only natural for Israel's enemies to view the illegal kidnapping of Israeli civilians and soldiers, and the violation of their legal rights in captivity, as an extremely profitable activity," the report said.
"Israel's capitulation in the Goldwasser/Regev [the bodies of soldiers returned by Hizbullah] deal makes the terrorist organizations appear strong and successful and, thus, encourages additional support, recruitment, and donations to the organizations."