From THE JERUSALEM POST, Jul. 15, 2008, by JPost.com Staff:
The cabinet on Tuesday ratified the prisoner swap deal with Hizbullah, despite the opposition of the heads of the intelligence community, who claimed that the report filed by Hizbullah on the fate of missing IAF airman Ron Arad was insufficient and did not answer Israel's questions.
The cabinet's decision included a statement to the effect that efforts to uncover additional information regarding Arad would continue.
The swap, which was approved by a majority of 22-3 cabinet ministers, is expected to take place at 9:00 a.m. Wednesday at the Rosh Hanikra crossing.
Before the deal can be completed, President Shimon Peres must first pardon Samir Kuntar and four Hizbullah prisoners slated to be returned to Lebanon in exchange for kidnapped IDF soldiers Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser.
...Following the cabinet decision, National Infrastructures Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said that he voted to go through with the prisoner swap not just to ease the suffering for the Goldwasser and Regev families, but for the peace of mind of every mother in Israel...."We want every mother to know that Israel will do its utmost in order to return her son when he is in the guard."
"The Ron Arad affair has not ended," he added. "The report that we received is one big deception. We will send it back to whoever prepared it."
Alternatively, Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann said on Tuesday that he stood by his decision to vote against the deal, but would respect it nonetheless given that it has received government approval. "My position is known and hasn't changed," Friedmann said. "Having said that, I will respect the decision of the government, and in the next hour I will sign the necessary documents in order to release Samir Kuntar, and I will hand them to the president for the pardon." ...
Greer Fay Cashman contributed to this report.
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