Israel faces post-war dilemma over Hizbollah 'hero'

JERUSALEM, Sep 15 (Reuters) To Smadar Haran Kaiser, Lebanese prisoner Samir Qantar is a murderer who shot dead her husband and bashed in their four-year-old daughter's skull on a spring night 27 years ago.

To Hizbollah, Qantar is a hero in the fight against the Jewish state. It says Israel must free him from prison in exchange for two Israeli soldiers it captured in a cross-border raid on July 12, triggering a 34-day-long war.

After Israel's war against Hizbollah, which killed nearly 1,200 people in Lebanon and 157 Israelis, Israel is considering releasing Qantar, the longest-held Lebanese prisoner in Israel, in exchange for the two soldiers.

''I haven't asked them not to do it,'' Smadar, now 54, told Reuters. ''He is not my private and personal prisoner.'' Qantar was convicted of killing her unarmed husband and daughter in a raid on April 22, 1979. His family denies he killed the two.

Hiding in a storage space above the bedroom as the Palestine Liberation Front gunmen entered her flat, Smadar accidentally smothered to death her other daughter, age 2, while trying to keep her from crying.

Smadar said she is trying to keep out of the debate over Qantar's fate, and urged policymakers to do what is best for the country and the captured soldiers.

''I am a human being. I feel the tragedy of the families of the captured soldiers,'' she said. ''I have my own opinion, but I think my own opinion should not be considered. I hope the kidnapped soldiers will be back home.'' The issue has put Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in a political bind.

Already under fire for Israel's performance during the war, Olmert has promised to do everything possible to bring home the two soldiers.

Dan Schueftan, deputy director of national security studies at the University of Haifa, said a prisoner swap ''may buy cheap popularity (for Olmert) in the short-term but the price is unacceptable long-term. This will encourage more terrorism.'' Ely Karmon, a senior analyst at Institute for Counter-Terrorism in Israel, said Hizbollah would see Qantar's release as ''a big victory''.

Qantar's brother, Bassam, said Hizbollah's capture of the two Israeli soldiers ''greatly improved the chance that Samir will be free among us.'' He rejected Israeli characterisations of his brother, who was a teenager at the time of the seaborne raid, as a criminal.

''According to Samir, he was arrested after five hours of confrontations and heavy exchange of fire,'' he told Reuters in Beirut. ''What had likely happened is that the girl and her father were both killed in the cross-fire during the operation.'' ''TOUGH CHOICES'' Smadar still lives in Nahariya, the northern Israeli town near the Lebanese border where the attack occurred in 1979. She has remarried and has two daughters. Down the street lives the family of one of the Israeli soldiers captured on July 12.

In the 1979 attack, prosecutors said Qantar and three other gunmen landed in a rubber boat on the beach and broke into Smadar's apartment.

He took Smadar's husband, 32-year-old Danny Haran, and their four-year-old daughter, Einat, down to a nearby beach. Witnesses said he shot Danny in front of Einat, then smashed Einat's head against a rock with his rifle butt.

When Smadar emerged from her hiding place, her younger daughter, Yael, was dead. An Israeli policeman was also killed.

An Israeli court sentenced Qantar to 542 years in jail.

Israel considered Qantar's release in 2004 for information about missing Israeli airman Ron Arad, but nothing came of it.

While Israel has demanded the unconditional release of the two soldiers captured on July 12, Defence Minister Amir Peretz said on Wednesday that Qantar's fate was ''on the agenda.'' In a television interview this week, Nasrallah said no deal would be possible without Qantar. ''Absolutely not,'' he said.

Smadar said she knows Israeli leaders face tough choices.

''It's very hard. There are many considerations,'' she said.

Reuters AB VV1732