Kuntar, other prisoners to be swapped for Goldwasser, Regev

      The cabinet overwhelmingly agreed to swap notorious Lebanese prisoner Samir Kuntar for the bodies of captured IDF reservists Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, according to a senior government official Sunday afternoon. The cabinet debated the deal for nearly six hours before the vote, which was approved 22-3, with Roni Bar-On, Ze'ev Boim and Daniel Friedmann the only ministers to vote against. As well as freeing Kuntar, who is serving multiple life terms in a 1979 infiltration attack in Nahariyah, Israel will release dozens of bodies, including eight Hizbullah guerrillas captured during the Second Lebanon War, and a number of Palestinian prisoners. Israel also agreed to give information regarding disappearance of Iranian diplomats in the nineties as part of the deal. In addition to the bodies, Israel will receive a report on Ron Arad, a missing Israeli airman whose plane crashed in Lebanon in 1986, and body parts of other IDF soldiers. The Regev and Goldwasser families were briefed shortly after the decision by cabinet secretary Ovad Yehezkel. The cabinet heard numerous briefings from all the relevant security authorities, including Ofer Dekel, Olmert's emissary who negotiated the deal, the IDF and the Mossad. The ministers were also given the various assessments as to whether Regev and Goldwasser are still alive. Earlier in the cabinet meeting on Sunday, Olmert came out all but assuring that it would be approved, and the deal will be carried out in a matter of days. "At the end of a long process, which I summarized for you, I came to the conclusion that as the prime minister of Israel I should recommended approval of the resolution that will bring to an end this painful chapter, even at the painful price that it extracts from us." (17,45)