The day before yesterday (Sunday, June 29) Israeli cabinet approved an unusual deal: the bodies of two Israeli soldiers in exchange for Samir Kuntar and several other Lebanese Hezbollah related terrorists.

Even more unusual is the timing. There are no apparent reasons for the deal; Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah leader, has always regarded the Israeli soldiers (deemed alive until recently) as trumps that would keep Israel in check — for years — at the expense of the hostages’ families emotional state. Some relatives of the Israeli captives have addressed Nasrallah directly via various media, pleading to release their loved ones and, when desperate, calling him a cruel tormentor.

Tormentor or not, Nasrallah publicly admitted that he is in no hurry, evidently relishing the opportunity to push Israel’s buttons (his son was a Hezbollah fighter killed by IDF), stating that it is up to Israel to convince him that an exchange had to take place. His decision to give in and strike a deal with the Jewish state was prompted by latest national rather than international goings on.

Hezbollah seeks to establish itself as a legitimate political player in Lebanon. What the organization’s leader gave in to was not the heartfelt pleas but his own lust for power. He wants to rule Lebanon and, while the latest upheavals are to his advantage, he needs to cement his status as an all-round political figure — and not just the head of a militant terrorist group.

His role model is no other than Yasser Arafat, who, though once ostracized for being a bloody murderer, reinvented himself as the chairman of the Palestinian authority and eventually received the Nobel Peace Prize. As outrageous as this may sound, Nasrallah may be just as good a candidate. All it takes is a (seemingly) honest transformation from a blood thirsty terrorist to a peace loving negotiator.

To everybody’s relief, Nasrallah finally displays a real human weakness.