Prisoner Deal Scrambles Jewish State’s Politics
Haifa, Israel - As Israel awaited final word on its prisoner exchange with Hezbollah, the country was torn by an unusual debate reflecting the painful dilemma facing the government. Rather than pitting right vs. left or government vs. press and public, like most political disputes, the prisoner swap has pitted the government and the press — an unusual alliance in itself — against an odd coalition of right- and left-wing opposition parties, backed by academics and much of the official security establishment.
The debate spilled out into the streets and blanketed the media last week, with demonstrations in nearly every town and screaming headlines on the front pages. “Bring Them Home” was the banner headline on the front page of Yediot Aharonot on the morning of the Cabinet vote approving the swap. Ma’ariv showed photos of the parents of the two Israelis captured in Lebanon in 2006, who were to be returned — already dead, the government believed — in exchange for Lebanese and Palestinian terrorists. The photos were captioned, “Look into their teary eyes.”
It was the pleas of the soldiers’ families, lavishly covered in the press for months, together with pressure from a sympathetic public that pushed the government of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to approve a deal, apparently against its original inclination.