Israel/Hezbollah

       Israel and Hezbollah have prepared a written agreement on a prisoner exchange that the cabinet will deliberate on Sunday and possible approve. If approved, Israel will sign the deal that will then be taken to Beirut by the German mediators for Hezbollah's signature. The deal with Hezbollah aims to secure the release of IDF reservists Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, who were captured in a cross-border raid by the Lebanese guerillas in July 2006, sparking the Second Lebanon War. The cabinet will meet Sunday to hear a briefing and deliberate over the prisoner exchange deal Israel reached with Hezbollah through German mediation. Ofer Dekel, the official charged with the negotiations on all the prisoners, will brief the ministers and respond to their questions.So far the deal with Hezbollah is described in official Israeli circles as "a framework agreement." Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said that he believes "we will be able to reach the moment of decision with a clear conscience." Speaking in the Knesset on Wednesday, Olmert said that "among decisions facing a prime minister, this is one of the most difficult. On the balance, along with the boys and their families, are sadness, pain and values on which we have grown as a nation and a state. All these are stripped off in one hard and complex moment when a decision needs to be made and we will make it." If the cabinet approves the accord, as it is currently inclined to do, Israel will sign an agreement that will be carried by German mediators to Beirut, where a Hezbollah representative will be asked to also sign it. The deal would then be carried out in a week or two. Infrastructure Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer said Thursday that he was prepared to vote in favor of the deal. "We must do everything to bring the boys home, and if a deal like this was prepared for the release of Gilad Shalit, I would vote in favor of that also," he said. (00,00)