Apparently Israel will be going ahead with their incredibly foolish prisoner swap with Hizb’Allah, in which they will exchange 435 Lebanese and Palestinian prisoners for the remains of three Israeli soldiers and an Israeli businessman who may also be dead. The leader of Hizb’Allah, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, isn’t even trying to hide his smirking sense of triumph: Nasrallah: Thursday will tell who is alive and who is dead.

Hizbullah’s leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah in a press conference in Beirut earlier Sunday said he would release details of the prisoner exchange once the deal was completed, in the next two to three days.

“Only on the day of the completion of the deal will we know who is alive and who is dead,” he said.

Nasrallah said that the prisoner swap needed to be done in two stages in order to reach a complete solution since the final deal includes Israeli prisoners that are not being held by the Hizbullah.

“We see the prisoners as our responsibility, regardless of their nationality,” the Hizbullah leader said. The Arab prisoners who are not included in the list should know that the door is not closing on them, for this is only the first stage, he added. “We will not forget them, as we never have. Even when Israel withdrew from south Lebanon we did not forget them.”

Ron Arad’s affair will open the door to the release of more Arab and Palestinian prisoners, Nasrallah said, including the ‘harsh’ cases.

“In the future we will achieve even greater results than today,” Nasrallah said. Asked if Hizbullah would carry out further kidnappings, Nasrallah smiled and said “yes”.

Referring to the prisoners who are to be released, Nasrallah said that more than 400 prisoners is a good number, considering Israel’s initial refusal to release any prisoners.

“Some of Israel’s principles were broken today; they can never go back, in future negotiations.”