This time Israel is supposed to trade 420 convicted terrorists, including 20 Lebanese and 400 Palestinians, to the Hizbullah terror organization for one kidnapped Israeli civilian and the bodies of three Israeli soldiers. The civilian, Elchanan Tannenbaum, was kidnapped by Hizbullah in October 2000 apparently while on a business trip in an Arab country and, according to reports, has been severely tortured. The soldiers, St.-Sgts. Benny Avraham, Adi Avitan, and Omar Sawayid, were also kidnapped by Hizbullah that same month while on patrol on the Israeli side of Israel's border with Lebanon, and are presumed to have been killed. The 20 Lebanese Israel is supposed to hand over include Sheik Obeid and Mustafa Dirani, Shi’ite militia leaders whom Israel claimed it was holding as bargaining chips for Ron Arad, the captured Israeli airman who is still believed to be held in Iran and will not be part of the exchange

After months of agonizing debate, including appeals and demonstrations by relatives (and their supporters) of the four dead or imprisoned Israelis and of Arad, Israel has decided to pay the heavy price despite dire warnings by opponents of the deal that it means rewarding, and further encouraging, anti-Israeli terror.

But now there’s a wrench in the works—Samir Kuntar. Hassan Nasrallah, the Hizbullah terror master, says that unless this 421st terrorist is also released, there’s no deal. Israel says, no way.

Who is Samir Kuntar? On April 22, 1979, he led a group of four terrorists who infiltrated Israeli waters from Lebanon and beached their rubber dinghy in the coastal town of Nahariya. Breaking into the apartment of the Haran family, they took 28-year-old Danny Haran hostage along with his four-year-old daughter Einat. Smadar Haran, hiding in the attic with her two-year-old daughter Yael, tried desperately to keep the girl quiet and ended up suffocating her. During a resultant shootout with Israeli policemen and soldiers, the terrorists killed the father and the four-year-old girl in cold blood, a policeman and two of the terrorists were killed, and Kuntar and the other terrorist were captured. The latter, Ahmed Abarrass, has long been a free man: along with 1100 other terrorists, he was freed by Israel in the 1986 Ahmed Jibril prisoner deal in return for three Israeli soldiers.

What makes Kuntar different from all the other prisoners Israel is supposed to release this time? The difference is that he’s the only one who’s defined as having “blood on his hands”—of having murdered Israeli civilians. This time, Israel says, that’s where it draws the line. The other detainees include Obeid and Dirani, the Lebanese Shi’ite militia leaders, one of whom, Dirani, is charged with having held and tortured Ron Arad in the first period of his captivity and then selling him to Iran; other Lebanese who took part in killing Israeli soldiers in that country; and 400 Palestinians who played various accessory roles in terrorism but did not directly kill anyone themselves. But as Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom stated: “Prime Minister Sharon said that Kuntar’s release is out of the question. The murder of a family in Israel is unforgivable. . . . We have stated in the clearest possible terms throughout the negotiations that Kuntar is not on the list.” Says Nasrallah: “Any swap that excludes any of the Lebanese detainees will not be acceptable. . . . I say to the enemy [Israeli] government . . . that the first name on the list must be Samir Kantar.”