Rev. Jesse Jackson says Israeli soldiers alive

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Veteran civil rights leader Rev. Jesse Jackson said Tuesday that an Israeli soldier seized by Palestinian militants and two others held captive by Hizbullah are alive. Jackson also said Syria, a main backer of both Hamas and Hizbullah, wanted to be involved in a prisoner swap that included the three Israelis and Syrian nationals detained by Israel in the Golan Heights. He said he received the information in meetings in Damascus on Monday with Syrian President Bashar Assad and Khaled Mashaal, political leader of Hamas, which is linked to the kidnappers. "The Hamas leadership says that the soldier they are holding is alive and well," Jackson told reporters in Beirut, where he was meeting political and religious leaders.