Hezbollah

The tentative truce between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip is just part of a larger effort by the Jewish state to reach out to longtime adversaries. In the process, it confronts a number of difficult, domestically unpopular negotiating options. One key issue faced by Israeli diplomats is both straightforward and highly sensitive. Syria wants the Golan Heights, captured by Israel in 1967, returned in exchange for peace.

Army troops moved into the streets of Tripoli on Monday, restoring a precarious calm in northern Lebanon after 10 people died in heavy clashes in recent days, military officials said. "The situation is back to normal since this afternoon, when the army entered all the neighborhoods where the fighting happened," said a high-ranking military officer, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. "Our intervention came after a political agreement between all parties."

The Israeli Cabinet's approval Sunday of a prisoner swap with the militant group Hezbollah touched off cries of victory in Lebanon and sparked fresh debate within the Jewish state over the price of its determination to retrieve missing soldiers. After weeks of emotional public speculation and a six-hour Cabinet debate, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's government voted 22 to 3 in favor of a deal that would return two captured Israeli soldiers. Olmert acknowledged Sunday that they were probably dead.

Re "A costly swap," Opinion, July 1 Benny Morris blames Hezbollah for behaving in a way "contrary to basic international law." He is absolutely right, but should he have two standards? In the 2006 war against Hezbollah, Israel bombed Lebanese civilians in a way quite "contrary to basic international law." For many months, Israel has been collectively punishing the Gaza population in a cruel way explicitly condemned by international law. The unfortunate truth is that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has transformed the distinguished historian Morris into a person unable to see that each side in this conflict cares very little for "basic international law."

Israel's military said it had begun digging up the bodies of Lebanese fighters after the government struck a deal with the Hezbollah guerrilla movement to swap five prisoners and dozens of bodies for two Israeli soldiers captured in 2006 who Israel believes are probably dead. Israel will hand over Samir Kuntar, serving multiple life terms for a 1979 attack in Israel's north, four other prisoners and dozens of bodies. In return, Israel is to receive the two soldiers, or their bodies.

Closing an uneasy chapter of its 2006 war against Lebanon's Hezbollah guerrillas, Israel prepared to swap the most notorious Lebanese convict in its prisons today for the remains of two Israeli soldiers whose capture sparked the fighting. The deal, approved by Israel's Cabinet on Tuesday, revived raw emotions on both sides of the 34-day conflict: Israel's frustration over its failure to crush an Arab foe and Hezbollah's euphoria in holding off a powerful army until a U.N.-brokered truce.

Re "Deaths confirmed, Israel weeps as one," July 17 Hezbollah's depravity and Israel's fundamental decency were on full display last week. It's hard to watch Lebanon's leadership accord heroes' welcomes to Samir Kuntar and his Hezbollah compatriots. Kuntar is not, as his supporters claim, "the conscience of Lebanon, Palestine and the Arab nation," but a brutal, mass-murdering thug. Kuntar will be forgotten soon. I doubt Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser will be so easily forgotten.

The Lebanese army flooded the streets of the northern city of Tripoli with troops Saturday, restoring a precarious calm after fierce sectarian fighting left nine people dead in two days, a military official said. Local television showed men firing machine guns and grenade launchers as street clashes raged between armed toughs loyal to Sunni Muslim leader Saad Hariri, who is backed by the West, and members of the Alawite Shiite Muslim sect, who are close to Syria and the Iranian-backed Shiite militia Hezbollah.

The Lebanese parliament overwhelmingly approved a national unity Cabinet that gives Iranian-backed Hezbollah a more powerful say in how the country is run. The Cabinet joins Hezbollah and its allies with supporters of Western-backed Prime Minister Fuad Siniora. For nearly two years, Siniora's government had rejected the militant group's demands for veto power in the Cabinet but compromised after a wave of violence between rival factions in May. Hezbollah and its allies have 11 of 30 seats in the Cabinet.

Comments by a leading Lebanese politician published Thursday have stirred speculation that he is considering a break with the country's U.S.-backed political alliance, which is locked in a power struggle with the camp led by the pro-Iranian movement Hezbollah. Walid Jumblatt, the colorful and outspoken leader of Lebanon's Druze community, accused his coalition's leader, Saad Hariri, of trying to build a militia and allying with Islamic extremists.