Olive Tree Ministries - prophetic signs, current issues, and the Messianic Jewish movement.

News Watch: Topical

Israel in a Dilemma After Terror Attack--July 3
--> Posted to Breaking_News for July, 2008

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - A deadly rampage in a bulldozer by a Palestinian resident of Jerusalem left Israel grappling on Thursday with the dilemma of how to maintain security in the city along with the premise it is undivided.

Israel captured East Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed it along with nearby villages in a move that is not recognized internationally, granting Palestinian residents Israeli identity cards that gave them wide freedom of movement.

In issuing the same documents used by Jews, Israel was sending a signal that East Jerusalem -- which Palestinians want as the capital of a future state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip -- was part of the "indivisible capital" of the Jewish state.

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Universalism: The End of Christian Influence--July 3
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The above is the first line in a recent article by Associated Press religion writer Eric Gorski. America is changing -- some would argue has changed -- in terms of religious composition. When you combine Catholicism with Protestantism, Christianity has always dominated the American religious landscape.

But Americans today are seeing themselves as more "spiritual" than "religious" and therefore are dropping the concept that one must subscribe to a particular set of beliefs in order to be in right standing with God. Whoever God is. A recent Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life suggests this. Now atheism remains very unpopular as Americans do believe in God to the tune of 92 percent. It's just that they don't know exactly what they believe about God, so they are willing to go with the idea that, "Hey, everybody's in."
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Nasrallah: Deal with Israel is a Lebanese Victory--July 3
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Nasrallah: Deal with Israel a Lebanese victory

Hizbullah chief comments on prisoner swap deal, says he assumes exchange will occur within next two weeks; also promises new info regarding Ron Arad. 'We have reached decisive evidence,' he says
Roee Nahmias

Kidnapped soldier Eldad Regev's father, Tzvi Regev, said Wednesday night that the speech given by Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah, is another attempt at mocking the kidnapped soldiers’ families. In his first reference to the prisoner swap deal, Nasrallah said that Israel has no information regarding the fates of Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev.

Tzvi Regev said that he didn’t watch the televised speech but understood that this was another opportunity to laugh in their faces, “Just like he has ceaselessly done in the last two years.

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A Peek at Peak Oil--WND--July 3
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A peek at peak oil

Exclusive: Craige McMillan wonders why 'communist pollution' is less harmful than ours

Posted: July 03, 2008

By Craige McMillan

The relationship between future and current oil prices implies that an expected change in the future price of oil will have an immediate impact on the current price of oil.
– Martin Feldstein writing in "We can lower oil prices now"

If you listen to our self-proclaimed environmental saviors, we're going to be paying more and more for oil and gasoline, before it disappears entirely. The reason it will disappear is that they've made it impossible to drill in our known reserves, or to build new refineries ( "Eco-collectivists' plot backfires").

It is, of course, OK if other nations set up drilling equipment just off our 200 mile coastal limit and angle drill into our reserves, ship the oil overseas to be refined into gasoline – and then sell us the product at prices so high only the wealthy can afford to travel beyond their own cave.

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He Cried Allah Akhbar and Hit the Gas--J.Post--July 3
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'He cried Allah Akhbar and hit the gas'

Jul. 2, 2008
Yaakov Katz , THE JERUSALEM POST

He was a soldier home on leave, riding his bike down Jaffa Road on Wednesday when he spotted the overturned No. 13 bus and a massive bulldozer tearing through the streets of Jerusalem. Realizing that the Arab behind the wheel was in the midst of a terror rampage, "M" (his identity and unit are barred from publication by a court order) threw his bike to the side of the road and began to chase the bulldozer.

Speaking with reporters several hours after the attack, M recalled the sequence of events that led to his courageous action.

As he began running toward the bulldozer, M said, he shouted to onlookers, asking for a gun. Together with a civilian, M climbed aboard the bulldozer and began wrestling with the driver.

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Olympic Boycott Now Impossible--CNS News--July 3
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Beijing Olympics Boycott Now 'Impossible,' Chinese Activist Says

By Keriann Hopkins and Michael Gryboski
CNSNews.com Correspondents
July 03, 2008

(CNSNews.com) - For Chinese human rights activist Harry Wu, the politics of the Beijing Olympics are a "temporary issue," and efforts to boycott the Olympics are "in this moment impossible." But the eyes and ears of the world, Wu said, should still be focused on human rights abuses in Communist China.

Wu told Cybercast News Service that the Bush administration is doing the best that it can to raise the issue of human rights abuses in China, given that former President George H. W. Bush is leading the American contingent to the games.
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Columbian Kudos--WSJ--July 3
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Colombian Kudos

July 3, 2008;

If most world news seems depressing these days, consider the exception of Colombia. Yesterday, the Colombian military rescued Ingrid Betancourt and three American contractors who had been held hostage by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) for more than five years.

Chalk up one more antiterror win for Colombian President Álvaro Uribe, the best U.S. ally in South America. Also freed in the operation were 11 other FARC hostages. News of the successful rescue came only a short time after John McCain had left Cartagena after his visit this week to tout a free-trade agreement with Colombia that Barack Obama opposes.

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The Enemy Detainee Mess--WSJ--July 3
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The Enemy Detainee Mess

July 3, 2008; Page A10

Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy has departed for summer vacation, but what a mess he's left behind, especially for the U.S. military. His 5-4 decision requiring habeas corpus review for foreign terrorists is already creating confusion and problems about how to handle these dangerous enemies.

The Bush Administration is currently debating how to respond to Mr. Kennedy's war-fighting ukase in Boumediene v. Bush, with President Bush set to make a decision soon. Some in the Administration want Mr. Bush to abolish not merely Guantanamo but even military commissions, the special tribunals set up to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and others for their war crimes. This would compound the mistake of Boumediene, and do away with what has long been a useful tool of military justice.

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The Mideast Peace Test--NRO--July 3
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The Peace Test

Bush offered Palestinians a state; they said no deal.

By Clifford D. May

The anniversary passed with scarcely a mention. Six years ago, on June 24, 2002, President Bush turned American policy in the Middle East in a new direction. In a ground-breaking speech, he announced that the U.S. would support the creation of a Palestinian state. His only condition was that Palestinians first choose “leaders not compromised by terror.” He asked also that they “confront corruption,” and “build a practicing democracy based on tolerance and liberty.”

Bush was optimistic that this would come to pass, and that by the time he left the White House, a Palestinian state and a Jewish state would be living side by side in peace. In the years that followed, the stars appeared to be aligning.
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Fence Me In--NRO--July 3
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Fence Me In--Tackling immigration.

An NRO Q&A

Mark Krikorian, the executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, is a longtime National Review and National Review Online contributor. He is this weekend the proud author of a new, important book The New Case Against Immigration: Both Legal and Illegal. He talks with NRO editor Kathryn Lopez first about the book, the election-year ahead, and more.

Kathryn Jean Lopez: The world — or at least all of the NBC-watching public – will have their eyes set on the Statue of Liberty this weekend. And you do this?

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Wedding Belle--American Spectator--July 3
--> Posted to Breaking_News for July, 2008

Similarly, Barack Obama is faking up some tortured, difficult-to-follow position in nominal opposition to gay marriage while dispatching his wife to signal the opposite before a crowd of the "Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Community" in New York City.

"Barack is not new to the cause of the LGBT community," she said to the Democratic National Committee's Gay and Lesbian Leadership Council last week. She said her husband supports "full equality" for them, which is why he endorses -- here she tried out a new euphemism -- "robust civil unions." Not just civil unions, but robust civil unions.
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President Bush: "Off the Record"--Cal Thomas--July 3
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President Bush: ‘Off the record’

By Cal Thomas

http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | It is a privilege to spend 90 minutes with the president of the United States. It is frustrating, though, when 90 percent of those minutes are declared off the record.

President Bush likes it that way, because he gets to speak "frankly" without worrying about how his remarks will be interpreted. Monday, in the on-the-record part of an interview with a small group of newspaper and magazine columnists, the president spoke of progress in Iraq: "I am pleased that the initial skepticism ... is beginning to fade, to the point where (the) king of Jordan is going to Iraq; Prime Minister Maliki is going to Abu Dhabi; ambassadors are soon to be exchanged, hopefully."

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Obama's Real Partriotism Problem--July 3
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Barack Obama has a patriotism problem that even Monday's flag-waving trip to Independence, Mo., can't squelch. And it doesn't have anything to do with his lapel pin.

In part because liberal commentators have such a hard time grasping why patriotism should be an issue at all, and the GOP is so clumsy explaining why it's important, the debate often gets boiled down to symbols. Like so much else about Obama, his position on the lapel flag changes with the needs of the moment. After 9/11, he wore it. During the debates over the Iraq war, he stopped because he saw the flag as a sign of support for President Bush. (He started wearing it again in May.) "I decided I won't wear that pin on my chest," he added in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. "Instead, I'm going to try to tell the American people what I believe will make this country great and, hopefully, that will be a testimony to my patriotism."

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Israel Still Paying for its Defeat--Jacoby--July 3
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JWR

It was two years ago this month that Israel and Hezbollah went to war.

On July 12, 2006, Hezbollah, an Iranian-sponsored and Syrian-backed political and terrorist organization, staged an unprovoked raid across the Lebanon-Israel border, killing three Israelis and kidnapping two others, Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser. The war that ensued - a war for which Hezbollah had openly prepared for six years, constructing fortified bunkers and amassing thousands of Katyusha artillery rockets along the border - was a disaster for Israel. The fighting lasted for 33 bloody days, during which Israel achieved none of its key objectives: It didn't destroy Hezbollah, it didn't stop the barrage of rockets slamming into its northern cities, and it didn't rescue its kidnapped soldiers.

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The Obama Recession?--Human Events--July 3
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The Obama Recession?

by Mac Johnson (more by this author)
Posted 07/03/2008 ET

Economics -- to most people as useful a course of study as ancient Bulgarian literature -- is really the study of human behavior. This kind of behavior is labeled “emergent” -- meaning it is a large-scale pattern that emerges spontaneously out of the interactions of numerous individuals each independently following a more local program. (In the case of the economy, this more-local program is the perceived self-interest of each of the millions of people within the economy.)

Because of the huge number of factors involved, and the constant feedback of one factor on another, predicting emergent effects is as difficult as predicting next year’s hurricanes. This is why economists follow so many indicators, do so much math, and often end up wrong anyway.

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White House Backs Efforts to Stop "Fairness Doctrine"
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White House Backs Pence Bill To Stop Fairness Doctrine

by John Gizzi (more by this author)
Posted 07/03/2008 ET

A week after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she would not bring to a vote a bill to stop reimposition of the Fairness Doctrine, the White House yesterday weighed in strongly behind the legislation authored by Rep. Mike Pence (R.-Ind.). But, in also endorsing the Pence’s Broadcasters Fairness Act, the President’s top spokesman left open the possibility of the White House helping secure the 22 signatures required to get the measure out of committee and on the House floor for a vote.

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McCain: Pump This!--Coulter--July 3
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McCain: Pump This!

by Ann Coulter (more by this author)
Posted 07/02/2008 ET

Well, I guess we're all pretty relieved we didn't drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge back in 2002. What a disaster that would have been.

The vote on ANWR was almost entirely along partisan lines, with all Republicans, except a handful of "moderates," voting for drilling, and all Democrats, except a handful of sane Democrats like Zell Miller, voting against drilling.

John McCain opposed drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge because he polled soccer moms and found out they were against drilling. They thought it sounded too much like going to the dentist. McCain wanted to ensure that he remained beloved by the two pillars of his base: "centrists" and New York Times reporters.
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September 10th Democrats--July 3
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Sept. 10th Democrats

by Rep. Peter Hoekstra (more by this author)
Posted 07/03/2008 ET

Is it fair to say that Congressional Democrats and Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama have a "September 10th" mindset on U.S. national security? While Democrats vigorously object to this charge, evidence is mounting that this is indeed the case.

By a "September 10th" mindset, I mean the naïve national security positions advocated by Democrats until September 10, 2001 that failed to focus on real threats to our nation. These positions included favoring after-the-fact litigation against foreign terrorists, over preventing attacks by maximizing our intelligence and military resources.
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Non-Mulsims: Worse than Animals--July 3
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Non-Muslims: Worse than Animals

By Jamie Glazov
FrontPageMagazine.com | 7/3/2008

Frontpage Interview’s guest today is Abul Kasem, an ex-Muslim who is the author of hundreds of articles and several books on Islam including, Women in Islam. He was a contributor to the book Leaving Islam – Apostates Speak Out as well as to Beyond Jihad: Critical Views From Inside Islam. He writes from Sydney, Australia and can be reached at nirribilli@gmail.com.

FP: Abul Kasem, welcome to Frontpage Interview.

Kasem: Thank you.

FP: We are here today to discuss how Islam views non-Muslims. What is the best way to start this discussion?

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The Religious Left: 4th of July Day of Mourning?--July 3
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The Fourth of July: A Day of Mourning?

By Mark D. Tooley
FrontPageMagazine.com | 7/3/2008

Should Christians mourn on July 4, given what a disaster the United States has been for the world? Much of the Religious Left thinks so!

Undoubtedly speaking for many left-wing seminary faculty and clergy, Ted Smith of Vanderbilt University penned an editorial for this month’s Christian Century magazine called: “The Fourth of July: How Does a Christian Celebrate?”

The answer from Smith is: very carefully, if at all. He recalls the early misgivings he had about Independence Day when he was a young staffer at the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs in 1989. The horror of it all smacked him like a hot skillet.

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Jews Inch Towards Their Temple--July 2
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Another step on the long road towards the restoration of Temple Worship in Jerusalem was reportedly taken Monday with the opening of a new workshop in which robes will be manufactured for practicing priests.

According to a report in The Jerusalem Post Wednesday, a number of Kohanim, (Jews in the Cohen family line who trace their ancestry back to Aaron, the first High Priest) have already had measurements taken for the biblically-described vestments.

One of them is the well-known chief rabbi of Efrat Shlomo Riskin.
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Franklin Graham Peppered Obama About Ties to Islam--WND--July 2
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Franklin Graham peppered
Obama about ties to Islam
Candidate confronted on Christian faith, asked whether he accepts Jesus as savior

Posted: July 02, 2008

By Aaron Klein

WorldNetDaily

JERUSALEM – At a meeting with Christian leaders last month, Sen. Barack Obama reportedly was peppered with questions by Franklin Graham – son of evangelist Billy Graham – about the presidential candidate's ties to Islam, his Christian baptism and whether he accepts Jesus as his savior, it has emerged.

The new accounts, published by the Religion News Service and by the left-leaning magazine The Nation, contrast with major media reports describing Obama's closed-door meeting June 10 with Christian A-listers as friendly.

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US Won't Let Iran Close Gulf of Hormuz--J.Post--July 2
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'US won't let Iran close Hormuz Strait'

Jul. 2, 2008
Associated Press , THE JERUSALEM POST

The US Navy and its Gulf allies will not allow Iran to seal off the strategic Strait of Hormuz, the commander of US naval forces in the Gulf said Wednesday.

The warning by Vice Adm. Kevin Cosgriff, commander of the 5th Fleet, came as he was holding talks with naval commanders of Gulf countries at a conference in the United Arab Emirates capital of Abu Dhabi. The one-day meeting was to focus on the region's maritime and trade routes security and the threat of terrorism.

The 5th Fleet is based in Bahrain, across the Gulf from Iran. Cosgriff said that if Iran chocked off the Strait of Hormuz, it would be "saying to the world that 40 percent of oil is now held hostage by a single country."
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Israel: Mr. Obama, Don't Betray My Country--July 2
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ISRAELINSIDER

Mr.Obama: Don't Betray My People

It looks like Mr. Obama is a shoo-in for the White House. It also looks like my people are going to be betrayed once again by a badly misguided American president. Jimmy Carter helped give birth to the virulent Shiite Islamism by forbidding the Shah of Iran to crush the bloodthirsty Ayatollah Khomeini and his band of rabid Islamists. Now, Mr. Obama intends to confer legitimacy on the illegitimate child, the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Jimmy Carter, the self-appointed touring ambassador of bad-mouthing America must be rejoicing in the prospect of Mr. Obama's presidency. Mr. Obama holds the promise of not only carrying on the Carterian misguided policies, but taking them to their very ruinous end.
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Oil Shock Gripping the World--Fox--July 2
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MADRID, Spain — As crude soared to a new record, the head of the International Energy Agency declared that the world was in the grip of an "oil shock," and the president of OPEC acknowledged he could not say whether prices would flatten out or continue to soar.

The comments by IEA chief Nobuko Tanaka, OPEC chief and Algerian Energy minister Chakib Khelil and other industry leaders at the 19th World Petroleum conference reflected the concern surrounding record oil prices that seem ready to spike higher.

An IEA report released at the conference confirmed what most consumers fear: that supplies of oil will remain tight, whether for cooking fires in the poorest countries or powering cars and cooling or heating homes in the richest. And that's despite record prices and reduced demand as costly crude dampens the world's oil hunger.

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Cultural Agenda Set by Oprah, Not Religious Leaders--July 2
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Cultural Agenda is Set by Oprah – Not Religious Leaders

By Eric Barger

www.ericbarger.com

Some may wonder why I have bothered to discuss Oprah again our ministry email updates and newsletter. After all, for Christians isn't the issue obvious? Isn't it a done deal that Believers see what Oprah is up to and thus stay away?

I only wish it were that simple. It would appear that spotting Oprah's goofy and dangerous spiritual ideas isn't a sure bet since so many alleged "Christians" seem to have a bigger problem called Universalism.

A headline in the June 24, 2008 USA Today read: "Cultural Agenda is Set by Oprah - Not Religious Leaders." The article included many facts and poll results. Perhaps the most shocking was that of the 35,000 Americans surveyed by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life's U.S. Religious Landscape Survey 70% believe that "many religions can lead to eternal life" while only 24% state that their particular religion is the one true way.

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Who Dares Oppose the Obama's?--Townhall--July 2
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In the thick of the fight over the wrong Reverend Wright, Barack Obama put on his annoyed face and said the whole issue of his preacher's hate speech was a distraction from the real issues, like health care and education and war. So many in the media were quick to agree. But now that the primaries are over, the network news crews aren't covering the issues. They're warbling a happy tune about all of Barack and Michelle Obama's wonderful personal qualities. View Full Article

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How Iran Kills Americans--July 2
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How Iran Kills Americans

By Associated Press
Associated Press | 7/2/2008

Hezbollah instructors trained Shiite militiamen at remote camps in southern Iraq until three months ago when they slipped across the border to Iran — presumably to continue instruction on Iranian soil, according to two Shiite lawmakers and a top army officer.

The three Iraqis claim the Lebanese Shiites were also involved in planning some of the most brazen attacks against U.S.-led forces, including the January 2007 raid on a provincial government compound in Karbala in which five Americans died.

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Israel Caves Again--July 2
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Israel Caves Again

By P. David Hornik
FrontPageMagazine.com | 7/2/2008

On Sunday the Israeli cabinet voted 22-3 in favor of a “prisoner” swap with Hezbollah. Israel, on its side of the bargain, won’t be receiving any prisoners but instead the corpses of Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser, the two soldiers kidnapped by Hezbollah in 2006, along with partial, inadequate information on Ron Arad, the airman shot down over Lebanon in 1986.

Hezbollah, for its part, gets five live terrorists including child-killer Samir Kuntar, dozens of corpses of terrorists, information on four Iranian diplomats who were detained by Christian Phalange forces in Lebanon in 1982, and live Palestinian terrorists whose number and identity are supposed to be determined by Israel.

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