Pierre's Middle East Issues Blog

Samir Kuntar, A convicted Murderer who was decorated by the Lebanese Government, many Lebanese politicians and Hezbollah as a hero

Samir Kuntar and the Last Laugh

by Daniel Pipes

Jerusalem Post

July 21, 2008

http://www.meforum.org/article/pipes/5780

Israel has lived the past sixty years more intensively than any other country.

Its highs – the resurrection of a two-thousand year old state in 1948, history's most lopsided military victory in 1967, and the astonishing Entebbe hostage rescue in 1976 – have been triumphs of will and spirit that inspire the civilized world. Its lows have been self-imposed humiliations: unilateral retreat from Lebanon and evacuation of Joseph's Tomb, both in 2000; retreat from Gaza in 2005; defeat by Hizbullah in 2006; and the corpses-for-prisoners exchange with Hizbullah last week.

An outsider can only wonder at the contrast. How can the authors of exhilarating victories repeatedly bring such disgrace upon themselves, seemingly oblivious to the import of their actions?

One clue has to do with the dates. The highs took place during the state's first three decades, the lows occurred since 2000. Something profound has changed. The strategically brilliant but economically deficient early state has been replaced by the reverse. Yesteryear's spy masterminds, military geniuses, and political heavyweights have seemingly gone into high tech, leaving the state in the hands of corrupt, short-sighted mental midgets.

How else can one account for the cabinet meeting on June 29, when 22 out of 25 ministers voted in favor of releasing five live Arab terrorists, including Samir al-Kuntar, 45, a psychopath and the most notorious prisoner in Israel's jails, plus 200 corpses? In return, Israel got the bodies of two Israel soldiers murdered by Hizbullah. Even The Washington Post wondered at this decision.

Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert endorsed the deal on the grounds that it "will bring an end to this painful episode," a reference to retrieving the bodies of war dead and appeasing the hostages' families demand for closure. In themselves, both are honorable goals, but at what price? This distortion of priorities shows how a once-formidably strategic country has degenerated into a supremely sentimental country, a rudderless polity where self-absorbed egoism trumps raison d'être. Israelis, fed up with deterrence and appeasement alike, have lost their way.

Appalling as the cabinet decision was, worse yet is that neither the Likud opposition party nor other leading public Israeli institutions responded with rage, but generally (with some notable exceptions) sat quietly aside. Their absence reflects a Tami Steinmetz Center poll showing that the Israeli population approves the swap by a nearly 2-1 ratio. In short, the problem extends far beyond the official class to implicate the population at large.

Samir Kuntar on arrival in Lebanon, complete with Hizbullah uniform and "Heil Hitler" salute (AFP).

On the other side, the disgraceful celebration of baby-murderer Kuntar as a national hero in Lebanon, where the government shut down to celebrate his arrival, and by the Palestinian Authority, which called him a "heroic fighter," reveals the depths of Lebanese enmity to Israel and its immorality, disturbing to anyone concerned with the Arab soul.

The deal has many adverse consequences. It encourages Arab terrorists to seize more Israeli soldiers, then kill them. It boosts Hizbullah's stature in Lebanon and legitimates Hizbullah internationally. It emboldens Hamas and makes a deal for its Israeli hostage more problematic. Finally, while this incident appears small compared to the Iranian nuclear issue, the two are related.

International headlines along the lines of "Israel Mourns, Hezbollah Exults" confirm the widely held but erroneous Middle Eastern view of Israel as a "spider's web" that can be destroyed. The recent exchange may give the already apocalyptic Iranian leadership further reason to brandish its weapons. Worse, as Steven Plaut notes, by equating "mass murderers of Jewish children to combat soldiers," the exchange effectively justifies the "mass extermination of Jews in the name of Jewish racial inferiority."

For those concerned with the welfare and security of Israel, I propose two consolations. First, Israel remains a powerful country that can afford mistakes; one estimate even predicts it would survive an exchange of nuclear weapons with Iran, while Iran would not.

Second, the Kuntar affair could have a surprise happy ending. A senior Israeli official told David Bedein that, now out of jail, Israel's obligation to protect Kuntar is terminated; on arrival in Lebanon, he became "a target for killing. Israel will get him, and he will be killed … accounts will be settled." Another senior official added "we cannot let this man think that he can go unpunished for his murder of a 4-year-old girl."

Who will laugh last, Hizbullah or Israel?

Celebration of Savagery

By: Charles Jalkh (Freedom Fighter)

July 17/08

Today in Lebanon, Hezbollah is celebrating the return of terrorists held in Israeli jails for committing despicable crimes against humanity. Among them is Samir Kuntar, a terrorist-serial killer responsible for killing an innocent unarmed Israeli civilian and his daughter. Mr. Kuntar took 31 year-old Danny Haran hostage along with his four year-old daughter, Einat. Kuntar shot Danny at close range in the back, in front of his daughter, and drowned him in the sea to ensure he was dead. Next, he smashed the head of 4 year-old Einat on beach rocks and crushed her skull with the butt of his rifle.

Such savagery is being branded as heroism by Hezbollah and we are not surprised. But it is a shame for the Lebanese government officials to greet these killers as heroes and sanction their actions as legitimate resistance. The action of the Lebanese officials is an insult to all Lebanese and especially the ones who died at the hand of Hezbollah when it sacked Beirut in May 2008. In this dark day, the Lebanese president Michel Sleiman, and Prime Minister Saniora, have lost all credibility and wiped out all goodwill they had gained from the world. I, as a Lebanese citizen am ashamed by these so-called leaders of my country.

And to top the barbarism off, the two Israeli soldiers were returned back to Israel as corpses. For two years, Hezbollah kept their death a secret, and their families were anxious until the last minute not knowing whether to celebrate or mourn, until they saw their coffins. Once more, Iran’s Hezbollah is showing the world its ugly, inhumane, and trashy sadism.

Our sincere condolences to Israel, to its brave and decent people, and to the families of all Israeli victims of terror. Please be assured, that there are decent Lebanese out here, and we are the majority. We feel with you. We pray for the day we can establish peace and friendly relations between our countries. It will be the day when we defeat our common enemy; Hezbollah!

July 16, is a day of shame for Hezbollah, Syria, and Iran. As to those who are celebrating in Lebanon today, they all belong to the trash bin of history.

Hizballah's "Divine Victory" Accomplished

By Andrew Cochran

Phillip Smyth is the the CT Blog's Assistant Newslinks Editor and a contributor to the.

It was a dark night on April 22, 1979 as an inflatable speedboat sped from the southern Lebanese port of Tyre to rendezvous with destiny in the Israeli border port of Nahariya. The four men on the boat all belonged to the pro-Iraqi Palestine Liberation Front (PLF), and were planning to assault the Israeli town, “to protest the signing of the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty.” As the four men came ashore, an Israeli policeman discovered them; he was subsequently gunned down. The four then made their way into an apartment building, taking a man, Danny Haran and his four-year-old daughter hostage. Danny’s wife, Smadar, mother to that daughter hid from the PLF terrorists with her two-year-old daughter, Yael. As the two-year-old cried, Smadar covered her face so the PLF group wouldn’t hear them; tragically Yael soon suffocated. The party of four, along with their two hostages, made their way out of the apartment building and down to the beach. Soon the IDF and Israeli police arrived on the scene. Instantly two of the PLF terrorists were killed. Samir Kuntar, a Lebanese Druze and member of the terrorist group, tried to escape with the hostages and the last member of his group. Kuntar fired his AK-47 into the back of Danny Haran, killing him instantly. Kuntar then moved onto the remaining hostage, Danny’s four-year-old daughter Einat. Kuntar dragged Einat to a rock and proceeded to beat the little girl with his Kalashnikov until she died. Kuntar and his compatriot Ahmed al-Abras were captured (he was released in 1985 in a prisoner exchange), and for the murders Kuntar received four life sentences. Instead of serving his sentence, Kuntar was released this morning and driven to the Israel-Lebanon border into the arms of Hizballah. Furthermore, this was not the first, and will definitely not be the last time that kidnaps and exchanges will happen in the broader Middle East.

Kuntar has been at the center of a number of spectacular terrorist attacks and the recent 2006 Hizballah-Israel war. The infamous October, 1985 PLF hijacking of the liner, Achille Lauro, was launched by the PLF, in part, to free Kuntar. That operation resulted in the murder of wheelchair-bound Leon Klinghoffer. Since then, Kuntar became the cause célèbre not just of the leftist-Palestinian groups and broader Palestine Liberation Organization, but instead became the rallying cry of the Shia Islamist Hizballah. The original name of the operation that sparked the 2006 war was, “Freedom for Samir al-Kuntar and his brothers.” While the operation’s name was subsequently changed, the operation eventually achieved its stated goals.

Today, most of Lebanon has been officially shut down for a “hero's welcome” for Kuntar. Kuntar was to be greeted at Beirut airport sometime around 6pm (Lebanon time), dressed in military fatigues. Kuntar came about an hour late, arriving in a Lebanese Army helicopter (emphasis mine). (Please take note of CT expert David Schenker’s MESH blog entry on arming the Lebanese Army, and why it isn’t always a “reliable” organization.) His welcoming committee didn’t just include Hizballah or their leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah, but President Suleiman and Prime Minister Sanoria were also in attendence. This is ironic considering no more then 2½ months ago Hizballah and Sanoria’s militias fought each other in pitched street battles throughout Beirut. Suleiman, the accepted compromise president, said of Kuntar and other released terrorists that they were, “the freed heroes.” Kuntar was then driven to the Rayeh stadium, where the official Hizballah welcome commenced. Acording to an-Nahar, around 9:50pm Kuntar pledged his loyalty to Hizballah’s Nasrallah.

The Beirut daily ad-Diyar proclaimed, “Today Lebanon witnesses an unprecedented victory over Israel.” Sheik Nabil Kaouk, commander of Hizballah in south Lebanon said of the deal, that, “[It’s an] official admission of [Israel’s] defeat”. What did Israel get in return for this latest swap? Not the live bodies of their kidnaped soldiers, instead they received two coffins. What about Ron Arad, the Israeli airman shot down and thought to still be in captivity? Israel received, not Arad, nor his body, but “concrete evidence about what happened to him.” In essence, the Hizballah commander was correct - Israel gave into terrorist demands, and got little in return. The goals of Nasrallah’s 2006 War has been confirmed. Hizballah’s operation and Israeli concessions have now fully solidified the modus operendi in the broader Middle East: Kidnap/destroy to get what you want, in other words extortion using terrorism. Furthermore, terrorist apparatuses throughout the region see this as a major victory Hamas, which kidnaped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit during a cross border raid in 2006, said, “It proves that a useful way to liberate prisoners from the jails of the occupation is to capture Zionist soldiers.”

What costs did the Lebanese, whom Hizballah purports to defend, pay so that this child-murdering terrorist could be freed? Up to 1300 Lebanese civilians were killed, much of the south of Lebanon, the al Dahiyeh section of Beirut, and numerous other bridges and roads were destroyed. This was Nasrallah’s “Divine Victory.” Even before the war, Lebanon was in debt due to Civil War (1975-1990) reconstruction costs. Following the war, the economy was destroyed, and downtown Beirut was devoid of any foreigners. The 2006 War led directly to the latest May, 2008 Hizballah coup attempt. In Nasrallah’s eyes, if Israel could be taken on, surely so could Sanoria, Hariri and Jumblatt. This belief cost another 26-70 Lebanese civilians their lives, and further drove Lebanon to be seen not as a democratic beacon in the Middle East but as a moribund terror-appeasing state.

The view that “most Lebanese will celebrate Kuntar’s release” is another extreme point of contention. For many Christians, his freedom merely highlights the complete hypocrisy of Hizballah. The argument goes, “if Kuntar, a child-killing terrorist can be freed, why are Lebanese Christians, who didn’t engage in child murder still being held prisoner in Syria?” On the new global communications and networking medium of Facebook, this has been highlighted with many people uploading photographs featuring a picture Boutros Khawand, next to Kuntar, with an ‘X’ through Kuntar’s face. Below the photos a statement reads, Release the real resistants from Syrian jails!” Khawand, a Lebanese Forces (LF) militia leader and Kata’ib party member, led the LF in its fight against Syrian occupation during the so-called “100 days War” in 1978-1979 (ironic considering at the same time Kuntar was training for his terror operation in Israel). As one of the LF commanders who knew Khawand put it, “[unlike other militia leaders, Khawand] didn’t have civilian blood on his hands” (according to a former Lebanese Forces intelligence (Jihaz Amine) member interviewed on July 20, 2007). Khawand “disappeared” along with countless other Lebanese who opposed Syria in 1992, following the Taif Agreement.

Regardless of the fact that anywhere from 200-1000 (I’ve even seen 10,000 mentioned) Lebanese are thought to still linger in Syrian dungeons, the message is clear: anyone who opposed Syria’s occupation of Lebanon from 1976-2005 and “disappeared” is doomed to spend the rest of their life in a hellish prison such at Tadmour, or find eternal rest in a mass grave somewhere in the Syrian desert. The Christian parties of the pro-Western March 14th movement, and private citizens inquiring as to what happened to loved ones, have been successfully silenced by other leaders both within March 14th and by Hizballah. Their pleas to have people released will most likely go unheard. For now, Kuntar will be one of the few imprisoned Lebanese to return to his country, although unlike many other who were imprisoned, he was a legitimate terrorist.

So far, communities throughout the Hizballah- and Amal-dominated northern Bekaa Valley, al Dahiyeh and south of Lebanon are firing off volleys of automatic gunfire in celebration. With Lebanese governmental authorities reviewing and congratulating Kuntar in addition to other former prisoners, the government has now given de facto tacit approval for the 2006 War and by extension Hizballah’s actions following the war. The resonant hopefulness that followed the 2008 fighting that Hizballah would now have to act within the new regime have been quashed with their latest victory: Kuntar’s return.

July 16, 2008

Hero's Welcome for Grisly Killers

By P. David Hornik

FrontPageMagazine.com | Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Israel’s neighbors are gearing up for celebrations. For those Israelis who still have the stamina to look, these events will again reveal the chasm between Israel’s life-affirming Jewish-democratic culture and the unchanging Middle Eastern jihad-and death-culture of its neighbors.

This week most of the Olmert government’s live-terrorists-for-dead-soldiers swap with Hezbollah will be completed including the freeing of Samir Kuntar and four other live, dangerous Lebanese terrorists.

As part of a 1979 terror attack in the Israeli coastal town of Nahariya, Kuntar shot dead 28-year-old Danny Haran in front of his 4-year-old daughter Einat Haran, then drowned Danny Haran in the sea to confirm the kill. Kuntar then smashed Einat Haran’s head on rocks and crushed her skull with his rifle butt.

Yet Israeli analyst Jonathan Spyer noted that “the news of the planned swap has been greeted with enthusiasm from politicians on both sides of the [Lebanese] divide.”

Against the Hezbollah-led, mostly Shiite bloc stands the March 14 Sunni-Druze-Christian bloc. Yet new Christian president Michel Suleiman (whose affiliation vis-à-vis the two blocs is a matter of dispute) and Sunni prime minister Fuad Saniora (considered anti-Hezbollah) are poised to give Kuntar and the other four terrorists a state welcome today at Beirut International Airport. Saniora said Hezbollah’s “success … in the negotiations [with Israel] is a national success for the party and for the struggle of the Lebanese because it secured national goals.…”

As for Druze leader and sharp Hezbollah-foe Walid Jumblatt, he's planning to visit Kuntar (also Druze) and congratulate him on his return, which he called a “national occasion.” Spyer reports that “other March 14 leaders spoke in similarly glowing terms.” The Lebanese daily As-Safir reported plans to make the day of the terrorists’ return a national holiday. Already today the road from the Israeli border to Sidon, and Kuntar's hometown of Abey, are hung with banners.

Israeli Middle East scholar Barry Rubin notes that “no one in the Arabic-speaking world will say a single negative word about Kuntar’s deed or his being made a hero, despite a small liberal minority’s disgust.”

Also set to be delivered to Hezbollah by Israel, along with the remains of two hundred other Lebanese and Palestinian terrorists, are the remains of a Palestinian woman terrorist named Dalal Mughrabi. The Jerusalem Post’s Khaled Abu Toameh reported, however, that the Palestinian Authority had asked Israel to hand over Mughrabi’s remains to the PA instead.

Azzam al-Ahmed, a senior Fatah official and close associate of PA president Mahmoud Abbas, called Mughrabi “the first Palestinian woman to carry out one of the most courageous operations in Israel” and said “we want to turn Dalal’s funeral into a national wedding, a major celebration. The operation she carried out off the shores of her hometown of Jaffa was heroic and exemplary. She will always be remembered as a symbol for the Palestinian women’s struggle.”

What, then, did Dalal Mughrabi do? In what became known as the Coastal Road massacre, on March 11, 1978—about a year before the attack Samir Kuntar took part in—she led a group of eleven Palestinian terrorists who landed in inflatable boats on a beach north of Tel Aviv, killed an American photographer named Gail Rubin who was taking nature pictures nearby, and hijacked a bus along the coastal highway.

After the Israeli army pursued the bus and finally stopped it, a gun battle ensued between the soldiers and the terrorists during which the terrorists shot passengers who tried to escape. Eventually Dalal Mughrabi blew up the bus, which became a large firetrap, and the attack left thirty-six Israeli civilians dead including thirteen children. Mughrabi and the other terrorists were killed; seventy-one Israelis were wounded.

Toameh noted that “even if Israel refuse[d] to deliver Mughrabi’s remains to the PA in Ramallah, Fatah officials said they were planning to hold big celebrations throughout the West Bank to coincide with her funeral in Lebanon…. Since its inception, the PA has honored Mughrabi by naming many schools and various institutions after her. An article published in Thursday’s edition of the PA-funded Al-Hayat Al-Jadedda newspaper hailed Mughrabi as a ‘living legend and a wonderful example for all women.’”

It’s not a pretty picture, especially considering that Lebanon’s March 14 bloc and the Palestinian Authority are considered moderate or relatively moderate actors—in the former case with some justice, in the latter with none. Even among the relative geopolitical moderates, let alone the rest, toward Israel a tribal ethos prevails that regards grisly killers—alive or dead—as heroes for emulation. It’s a reality that Israelis and those wishing to help Israel need to face fully and without evasions.

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P. David Hornik is a freelance writer and translator living in Tel Aviv. He blogs at http://pdavidhornik.typepad.com/. He can be reached at pdavidh2001@yahoo.com

Letter to the Lebanese people

Uri Orbach

Published: 07.17.08, 07:59 / Israel Opinion

Uri Orbach writes open letter to people of Lebanon, whose national hero is a child-killer

Israel has no disagreement over borders with you, the Lebanese people, yet we certainly have a big dispute when it comes to your moral boundaries. We identified the bodies of our Udi and Eldad within a few hours. And how about you? For 30 years now you have failed to identify who your Samir Kuntar is.

It has been 30 years yet you still cannot distinguish between a national hero and a-child killer. For you, it’s enough that someone killed a Jew, even if it happens to be a young girl from Nahariya, in order for you to welcome him with great honor.

You are celebrating your “victory” and show contempt to our pain. One more triumph like this and you shall be lost. While going from one victory to the next, you are stuck with your misery and fanaticism.

With every proud display and rally for your heroes, you are being taken over the by Hizbullah gang, headed by the cannibal of bodies, Sheikh Nasrallah. The fire coming out of this bramble has been eating up Lebanon’s cedars for years now.

Nasrallah is a man who reveals his true face even when in hiding; he is the man who also exposes your true face.

This is a sad day in Israel, but it holds pain and restraint and pride over what we are: A fortified Jewish wall in the face of the spearhead of the Iranian madness, which is there through your silence and encouragement. The sons have returned to our borders, while the child-killer returned to your borders.

We received the bodies with great sorrow, while you joyfully received a villain. Just look at the difference between us.

What a Shameful Day for the Majority of Lebanese in Lebanon and the Diaspora

Written by WCCR

Thursday, 17 July 2008

Pretty sad day for Lebanon and the Lebanese world wide.

A national holiday for terrorists? What a shameful day, what a shameful government that took part in a national holiday celebrating a baby killer.

Lebanon is lacking Justice, that is the bottom line.

And just for the record - The Cedars Revolution does not believe in Wah'daat Wat'tah'ne'yeh. They believe as Jesus said - I did not come unto this world to unite, I came to divide Good Against Evil.

Samir Kantar - In the dead of night on April 22, 1979, Kantar and three other gunmen made their way in a rubber dinghy from Lebanon to the sleepy Israeli coastal town of Nahariya, five miles south of the border. There, they killed a policeman who stumbled upon them, then burst into the apartment of Danny Haran, herding him and his 4-year-old daughter out of the house at gunpoint to the beach below, where they were killed. The attack is seared in Israel’s collective consciousness because witnesses recounted that Kantar shot Danny Haran in front of his child, then killed her by smashing her skull against a rock with his rifle butt. (AP)

Mr. President - This is not the Lebanon I know, This is not the Lebanon that the majority of the Lebanese want you to represent. Justice should be served to all people. The Killers of Bachir Gemayel (Habib Shartouni) to the Killers of Rafik Hariri, Gibran Tueni, Pierre Gemayel and many others should be relentlessly pursued and jailed. Samir Kantar should be held liable for his action and served with Justice not with a Parade.

Cedar Revolution, Wed Jul 16 20:51:22 +0300 2008

http://askthepresident.naharnet.com/?page=1

BABY-KILLER RECEIVES “HERO’S WELCOME” BY HEZBOLLAH

W. Thomas Smith Jr.

17 Jul 2008

Our friends with Lebanon’s pro-democracy Cedars Revolution today issued a statement — the spirit of which is felt by all freedom, democracy, and justice loving people worldwide — regarding the shameful release of and “hero’s welcome” for terrorist Samir Kantar.

According to the World Council for the Cedars Revolution:

“Pretty sad day for Lebanon and the Lebanese world wide. A national holiday for terrorists? What a shameful day, what a shameful government that took part in a national holiday celebrating a baby killer. Lebanon is lacking Justice, that is the bottom line.”

Lacking justice indeed. But this injustice extends beyond Lebanon (and Israel from where he was released). The entire world suffers with the unjust freeing of Kantar and his cronies.

Kantar murdered three Israeli civilians in 1979, including a four-year-old girl whose head he bashed with a rifle butt.

Following his release from an Israeli prison on Wednesday — along with four other Hezbollah terrorists (in exchange for the bodies of two Israeli soldiers captured-and-killed by Hezbollah two years ago) – Kantar, dressed in a Hezbollah military uniform and expressing his feeling of “enormous joy” because he has returned to the ranks of Hezbollah, told AFP:

“I haven’t for even one day regretted what I did.”

Again, let’s not forget, Kantar bashed-in a baby’s brains.

As part of his welcome home ceremony, Kantar paid his respects at the tomb of Hezbollah’s mad-bomber Imad Mughniyeh (more about Mughniyeh here). At Mughniyeh’s tomb, Kantar proclaimed:

“We swear by God … to continue on your [Mughniyeh’s] same path and not to retreat until we achieve the same stature that God bestowed on you.”

Kantar fancies himself a soldier. Trust me, a soldier – in the sense of the word as I understand it to be (and I was a Marine infantryman) – is a virtuous man. He defends his country or his causes by putting those things above his own life. A soldier also shows mercy to his enemies, and he NEVER fails to defend the weak and the innocent. Men like Kantar are not soldiers by anyone’s definition if the definition and the interpretation of that definition are honest. Any man or woman who would deliberately and summarily execute a child (no matter the reason) is a murderer and an animal. Nothing more.

Referring to Kantar as an animal may not seem objective. But like his personal hero, Mughniyeh, Kantar is what he is.

Amazingly, the mainstream media — which I myself have been a part of for years — is referring to Kantar in headlines as simply a “freed Lebanese prisoner.”

Make no mistake, this man does not represent Lebanon any more than Charlie Manson or Tim McVeigh represent America. And we cannot win this “war of ideas” – as terrorism expert Dr. Walid Phares aptly and often describes as the heart of the war on terror — until we end the soft-soaping of animals like Kantar, and come to grips with who and what these people are.

— Visit W. Thomas Smith Jr. online at uswriter.com.

March 14 Falls and Lebanon is again under Occupation

By: By: Charles Jalkh (Freedom Fighter)

18/07/08

Yesterday July 16, 2008, was a very shameful day for Lebanon’s March 14 political alliance. Making a hero out of a child killer goes against all human values and decency. We expected better from the Pro-independence forces and we are greatly disappointed with their joining Hezbollah in celebrating the return of Samir Kuntar, the killer of a 31 years old Israeli civilian and his 4 years old daughter.

The reception of Samir Kuntar is a great loss to March 14 and Lebanon, at home in moral values, and abroad in reputation. The idiots running March 14 since 2005 have managed to commit one blunder after another and finally surrender completely to the Syria-Iran-Hezbollah axis of evil. We are fed up with PM Saniora’s rejection of Peace with Israel and his insistence that Lebanon be the last Arab nation to sign a peace treaty with our democratic southern neighbor.

What Lebanese national interest is he defending and why is he jeopardizing the security of the Lebanese people by delaying peace?

Wide ranging dissent in March 14 ranks and file is abundant. Just last weeks, the grouping lost two of its most respected members; Carlos Edde and Musbah Ahdab.

A massive shift is also occuring in the Lebanese Diaspora who is greatly disappointed now with the March 14 leadership. This is not to say that we are abandoning our support for the Cedars Revolution, but the March 14 crowd in Lebanon has lost our trust and support.

We have a worthless army that refuses to defend us, a government under the control of Hezbollah, and a destroyed international reputation. In short, it seems Lebanon has again fallen under the combined Iranian-Syrian occupation through their proxy Hezbolah

Child Killer's Homecoming

Fri Jul 18,

What can you say about a people who welcome a child murderer as a hero?

Most Americans are familiar with the brutal murder of wheelchair-bound Leon Klinghoffer on the cruise ship Achille Laura in 1985. Terrorists led by Abu Abbas (who was later given safe haven in Baghdad by Saddam Hussein) took the ship captive and threw Klinghoffer overboard. But few recall that the ship was seized to bargain for the release of, among others, Samir Kuntar from an Israeli prison.

Kuntar had taken part in an earlier terror attack. In 1979, as a 16-year-old, he and four others had traveled to northern Israel by boat from Lebanon and come ashore in the seaside town of Nahariya. At midnight, Smadar Haran recalled, they burst into her apartment building. Peering out to see what the noise was, Smadar, mother of two, slammed shut her apartment door when she saw the terrorists — but too late. Kuntar had glimpsed her. Her husband, Danny, helped Smadar and their younger daughter, 2-year-old Yael, to squeeze into a crawl space above the bedroom.

Smadar wrote later, "I will never forget the joy and the hatred in their voices as they swaggered about hunting for us, firing their guns and throwing grenades." As police began to arrive, Kuntar and the others dragged Danny and 4-year-old Einat down to the beach. With Einat watching, Kuntar shot Danny in the head and then threw his body into the surf. Kuntar then repeatedly smashed Einat's head against a rock with his rifle butt, killing her, too. Yael did not survive the attack either. In an effort to keep the baby from crying and betraying their hiding place, Smadar had accidentally suffocated her.

This week, Kuntar, dressed in fatigues and sporting a Hitlerian mustache and haircut, walked down a red carpet arrayed for him in Beirut. The government closed all offices and declared a national day of celebration. Tens of thousands of Lebanese cheered, waved flags, threw confetti, and set off fireworks as Hezbollah staged a rally to celebrate their "victory" over Israel. Mahmoud Abbas, the "moderate" leader of the Palestinian Authority, sent "blessings to Samir Kuntar's family." PA spokesman Ahmad Abdul Rahman sent "warm blessings to Hezbollah … on the return of the heroes of freedom … headed by the great Samir Kuntar."

The statement went on to laud the "heroic" actions of "martyr" Dalal Mughrabi, whose body was returned to Lebanon. She had participated in the worst terror attack ever against Israeli civilians, the hijacking of a tourist bus in which 37 people including 12 children were murdered. The Palestinian Authority spokesman took the opportunity to vow that the Fatah party "will continue to struggle in the way of the pure Martyrs, until the state is liberated and the Palestinian state is established with Jerusalem as its capital." Kuntar, acknowledging the adulation of the crowd, took the microphone and declared, "I return from Palestine only to go back to Palestine."

And what did Israel get in return? Two corpses. The bodies of Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser, the two reservists whose kidnapping in 2006 prompted the botched and inconclusive Israel/Hezbollah war. After this shameful and stupid trade of live terrorists for dead soldiers, Hezbollah has achieved its goal. In 2006, Hezbollah had crossed the border and attacked two Israeli border patrol jeeps, killing three and wounding two. Two others, Regev and Goldwasser, also believed wounded in the attack, were kidnapped and taken into Lebanon on orders from Hezbollah leader Sheikh Nasrallah, who thought he could demand the release of all Lebanese terrorists in Israeli prisons in exchange for the two soldiers. (Hamas simultaneously kidnapped Gilad Shalit in the south.) Israel at first responded with a war. But while most of the civilized world rooted for the Israelis to destroy Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, Israel flinched and conducted a feckless conflict. Thousands of Lebanese and Israeli civilians were hurt and displaced, but nothing was settled — until now. Now Hezbollah has achieved total victory.

Every Israeli is now at much higher risk for kidnapping and murder. Why in the world should Israel's enemies shrink from murdering their captives if they get just as much for corpses? Hamas continues to hold Shalit in Gaza. His life expectancy has just been radically reduced. It's inspiring that the Israeli government (like the U.S. armed forces) is devoted to bringing their people home dead or alive. But not like this. Not like this.

At the welcoming ceremony for Kuntar and his fellow terrorists, Sheikh Nasrallah made a brief appearance. In company with Lebanese president Michel Suleiman, Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, and Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri, Nasrallah hugged and kissed Kuntar and the rest. "The time of defeat is long gone," he said. "Today is the time of victory."

Who can deny it?

To find out more about Mona Charen and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

A Child Killer's Homecoming

Fri Jul 18

What can you say about a people who welcome a child murderer as a hero?

Who can deny it?

To find out more about Mona Charen and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

You won’t see me crying

Only Israeli able to stand up to Nasrallah’s propaganda so far

Einat Fishbein Published: 07.18.08, 12:01 / Israel Opinion

Two women. Both of them mourning. A black shirt, a pain-filled face. The man, the father, is out of the frame. He sits to the side with a torn shirt and says nothing. War is a matter for men; mourning is feminine.

You won’t see me crying here, said Miki Goldwasser when she started to talk, refusing to cooperate with the customary grief norms. She is not the mother who will fall down on the coffin and cry out. Not even a tear. Her hair is cropped, her face thin and tough. Dark sunglasses are covering her eyes. She is there because she has something to say, not because she wants to satisfy the viewers’ needs for liberating tears.

Days of Mourning

Peres: A people of values, not prices / Ynet

Emotional day winds down as Goldwasser, Regev families return home to mourn in private after bidding tearful farewells at funerals attended by thousands who came to pay respects. President visits with Karnit, offers words of comfort

Karnit Goldwasser is sitting next to her. She is crying, but every time she sees an acquaintance or friend, or when a thought goes through her mind, a small smile emerges on her face, lively and natural like the tears. Her face is soft, her hair flowing, and she gave her sunglasses to someone. It is difficult to take our eyes off of her. Karnit is sitting there, completely exposed. She came to bid her husband farewell, but she cannot forget that he hasn’t been hers only for a while now.

With her angry tone, Miki Goldwasser is the first and only Israeli so far able to stand up to Nasrallah’s propaganda. My fellow countrymen, hold your heads high, she says in a way no other leader would dare do. Without hesitation she talks about victory in the Second Lebanon War. She has no questions or doubts, and if there were failures, we’ll take care of them. This is our own business, and let no one take pleasure in our weakness.

Reclaiming our national dignity

Softly, with a chocked up voice, Karnit Goldwasser speaks to her dead husband. I will bid you my personal farewell elsewhere, she says. If that is the case, then just like her mother-in-law, here she is talking to the nation. She pledges her allegiance to Ehud for the second time, backs his doubt-free march to the battlefield, and promises all of us that she is moving on. Four times in her eulogy she asked what the chances are of time healing the wounds, yet not even once she said there was no cure.

They are sitting side by side, and at a certain moment both hug the man who seems to be the most broken there, the father, Shlomo. Yet on this day, they came to care for an entire nation overcome by grief. Miki Goldwasser came to reclaim our national dignity, while Karnit came to reclaim our national soul.

And they are completely dedicated to their roles. They are the ultimate Hebrew mother and wife, willing to sacrifice, serve as the silver platter, and allow their personal pain to offer strength to the nation.

There is something in the wisdom of these two women, in their clear vision and personally, that is beyond what we have become accustomed to. After all, we and our leaders learned that pain weakens us, and that we are allowed and should react out of fear and without thinking too much. They, on the other hand, do not give in to the pain, they are fearless, and they thought hard and long about every word they uttered.

Karnit and Miki Goldwasser are not the type of women who fought to get the IDF out of Lebanon, yet maybe in their own way, they will clear the horrors of Lebanon from our soul.

A moment of moral clarity

As Lebanese leaders cheer return of a child-murderer, Israel mourns its two soldiers

GIL TROY, Getty Images

Published: Friday, July 18

How do you welcome a child murderer as a hero?

Depending on the tone, this question becomes an attempt to clarify, or an expression of outrage. Stated calmly, "How do you welcome a child murderer as a hero?" can be a factual question - such as the one that faced Lebanese leaders this week as they proceeded to celebrate the freeing of Samir Kuntar from an Israeli prison, where he had been held since 1979 for murdering 4-year-old Einat Haran, her father Danny Haran, and a policeman.

Stated angrily, "How do you welcome a child murderer as a hero?" is the question Israelis are asking - and the rest of the civilized world should be asking, too.

Lebanese citizens cheer the release of five prisoners and the return of the bodies of 199 Lebanese.

On the night of April 22, 1979, Kuntar, working with three other terrorists, took Danny and Einat hostage, marching them to the Mediterranean beach after seizing them in their home in the coastal city of Nahariya. After shooting Danny in front of his daughter, then drowning him to make sure he was dead, Kuntar turned on Einat. Swinging his rifle butt, he smashed the 4-year-old's head against the rocks, until she too died.

Adding to the horror, Einat's mother, Smadar, hiding in a crawl space, accidentally smothered 2-year-old Yael Haran while trying to stifle her whimpering.

Any civilized court of law would hold the attackers responsible for the toddler's death, too. Judging by the euphoria in Lebanon and in the Palestinian territories this week, by the terrorists' barbaric, topsy-turvy immoral logic, the additional carnage enhances Kuntar's heroic status.

Of course, this kind of language is terribly impolite. We Westerners are not supposed to call ourselves "civilized" and deem others "barbaric." For decades now we have been told that such terms are too judgmental, too culturally-determined, too imperialistic, too arrogant.

We have been so sensitized and issues have become so relativized many of us have lost our moral bearings. We have to call Kuntar a "militant," a "fighter" but not a "terrorist." We are supposed to explore Kuntar's motivations.

And besides, whatever his motives, we are expected to excuse his crimes by pointing to equally heinous Western sins, or the religious-cultural-nationalist foundations for his actions.

And yet, occasionally, illuminating moments of moral clarity shine through the haze of amoral theorizing that emanates from our finest campuses, that is disseminated by our most technologically sophisticated media. We all witnessed such a moment this week with Israel's heart-breaking prisoner exchange.

As the two coffins bearing the bodies of Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser arrived in Israel from Lebanon, the nation of Israel plunged into mourning. These two young men became the entire country's collective children. Strangers who had never met either of them wept bitterly, sharing the pain of the family and the friends, remembering other losses, fearing more tragedies in the future.

By contrast, the massive celebrations in Lebanon for Kuntar and four other terrorists revealed not only the thuggery of Hezbollah but the descent of Lebanon itself. Rolling out the red carpet for a murderer, dispatching the country's top leaders to greet someone who crushed a 4-year-old's skull, declaring a national day of celebration, revealed just how thoroughly the Lebanese leadership had succumbed to the brutal sensibilities of Hassan Nasrallah and his Hezbollah terrorists.

At first glance, it is easy to conclude that the country that is mourning lost this week and the country celebrating won. In fact, Israel won a great moral victory. Israel showed why Westerners should and will support the Jewish state, empathize with the Jewish state, identify with the Jewish state.

We want to side with the country that moves heaven and Earth to bring its boys home, to protect its citizens; not with the country of bloodthirsty mobs deifying cowards who smashed the skull of a 4-year-old girl with a rifle butt on a lovely Mediterranean beach. We learn about a people by observing whom they love and whom they hate. Joy is fleeting and often triggered by base instincts. Sometimes collective anguish is a sign of moral strength, not national weakness.

"I'm proud to belong to those who love and not to those who hate," Ofer Regev said while eulogizing his brother Eldad. Israelis should be proud of this moment of moral clarity - and wary of enemies with such distorted value systems. Israel's - and the West's - enemies are wrong.

:****A nation that risks so much even just to bring two corpses home, a country that celebrates life not death, is not only a worthy ally - but a dangerous adversary when provoked.

In Israel, a nation mourns with the families of slain soldiers

Two soldiers whose remains were part of a prisoner swap with Hezbollah were eulogized Thursday amid ongoing unease over the exchange and questions about balancing family interests with those of the state.

By Ilene R. Prusher | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

from the July 18, 2008 edition

An Agence France-Presse report on a rally for five Lebanese prisoners released from an Israeli prison Wednesday. Some analysts in the region say Hezbollah has been emboldened by the prisoner swap, causing concern in Israel.Nahariya, Israel - For Israelis, their Second Lebanon War, fought in summer 2006, came to a close only on Thursday, when the two soldiers whose capture became the cause for launching the conflict were laid to rest before their families and the eyes of a solemn nation.

But even in their return – which transpired a day earlier as part of a swap with Hezbollah, who traded the men's bodies for the remains of some 200 Lebanese plus five Lebanese prisoners – there is still unease about the lopsided trade-off and questions about balancing the interests of affected families against those of the state.

Under a sweltering July sky at the Nahariya military cemetery, which overlooks the same Mediterranean that hugs the Beirut coastline where Hezbollah continued victory celebrations Thursday, many family members and friends who eulogized "Udi" – Ehud Goldwasser – seemed to want to shift the sentiment that Israel had somehow lost to Hezbollah.

"I stand at attention before you with my eyes lifted toward my people with the request: Stand tall, lift your heads in national pride," mother Miki Goldwasser said at her son's graveside.

"They say because of you, a war broke out. I hope we can see this war as a victory. Through this, we have discovered that we are a strong people. We have discovered bereaved families with an undefeatable, powerful spirit. We have discovered kindness."

The most powerful words to the gathering of a few thousand came from widow Karnit Goldwasser, who has been the spokeswoman of an international campaign to release her husband and Eldad Regev, then believed to be alive.

"They say time heals all wounds," she said. "But is this really so? Two years have passed since that debilitating moment that cut through our life's thread, the moment in which the worst scenario became a threatening reality that forced us to dive into a dark and convoluted world. I believed and hoped that the moment would come where I would wake up and say it was all just a bad dream."

But Israelis have been waking up to find that many of their goals have gone unrealized. The prisoner exchange has Israel feeling like it was "played." Some wondered why Israel agreed to the swap, if Hezbollah wasn't straight with Israel about whether the two were alive and whether they had information about Ron Arad, who was captured in Lebanon in 1986 and is considered missing in action.

Groundswell of public pressure

Part of the answer, analysts say, is that the families succeeded in creating a groundswell of public pressure to bring their sons home, dead or alive, even at the cost of releasing Lebanon's Samir Kuntar, convicted of killing four Israelis in a 1979 raid here.

"What we witnessed in the last two years and more is that the families of those soldiers and the involvement of the Israeli media and public opinion is very strong in affecting the decisionmakers," says Yitzhak Reiter, a professor of political science and Middle Eastern Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

"It affects the ability to negotiate on a fair bargain," he says. "This is something that Israel should handle differently. Perhaps the government in the near future will make an official decision that dead bodies will be exchanged only for dead bodies, and live soldiers for live soldiers.

"If the other side doesn't give you complete information about your soldiers, such as whether they are dead or alive, then you just don't do it. The government could put this criteria in place, and then if a situation occurs in the future, the enemy knows our principles and won't expect otherwise," Mr. Reiter says.

Israel's principle is that it is immoral to leave any soldier or citizen on foreign soil. It has, as a result, sometimes traded hundreds of prisoners for the release of one man. This ethos has come under some criticism in recent days. But Defense Minister Ehud Barak, speaking at Goldwasser's funeral, defended it vehemently.

"We were prepared to pay a high price, even higher than what seemed logical, in order to see our sons sent home," Mr. Barak said. "If any of you, God forbid, should be captured, or should anything worse happen in the fight against the terror, Israel, its government, and the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] will do everything just and possible to bring you home."

But Aviva Cavaille, a young woman who came to the funeral, said most Israelis could not understand how their government had agreed to a swap that didn't include Cpl. Gilad Shalit, who was abducted by Hamas more than two years ago while on duty close to the Gaza Strip.

"From the ethical point of view, it's not acceptable that we got the bodies of two men, and for that we released a murderer who is alive and celebrating in Lebanon," says Ms. Cavaille. "It creates a greater danger for kidnappings in the future. It shows the weakness of our leadership."

Family persistence

At the same time, many others give Karnit Goldwasser credit for keeping the case of the abducted soldiers on the agenda, traveling globally and trying to force leaders to push for progress on an issue that could have easily have disappeared from the headlines. Among the partners in this were leaders in the American Jewish community, who had made dog tags with the names of the soldiers on them and asked people to wear them in solidarity.

"Karnit singlehandedly raised this level of awareness through her own public presence, and I think that's what got us to this point," says Lori Klinghoffer, the chairwoman of National Women's Philanthropy in the United Jewish Communities, a US umbrella group. "There have been other missing soldiers, and they usually stay in the news for a week or two."

Some Israelis bristled at the public's questioning over the way the swap tallied up.

Columnis Yair Lapid wrote in the Yediot Ahronoth newspaper that even in Israel's "hyperactive democracy" people should occasionally assume that the right decision was made.

"The deal that ended yesterday wasn't good or bad, only necessary. Anyone who thinks there were other options, deludes himself," Mr. Lapid wrote. "While it's true that Hezbollah is more calculated in its attitude toward the fate of its people, who would want to be Hezbollah today? The clamorous debate over the question of 'Did we get a good price or not,' should be kept for buying cars."

Samir Kuntar

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Samir Kuntar (Arabic: سمير القنطار‎, also transcribed Sameer, Kantar, Quntar, Qantar) (born July 20, 1962 in Aabey, Lebanon), is a Lebanese militant who belonged to the Palestine Liberation Front. He participated in the kidnapping of an Israeli family in 1979, and was convicted later that year of murdering three Israelis: an Israeli policeman, a 31 year-old man, and his 4-year-old daughter. He denied killing the civilians. Kuntar received four life imprisonment sentences in an Israeli court and spent nearly three decades in prison before being released on July 16, 2008 as part of a Israel-Hezbollah prisoner swap.

Raid from Southern Lebanon

On April 22, 1979, at the age of 16, Samir Kuntar led a group of four PLF members who entered Israel from Lebanon by boat. The group members included Abdel Majeed Asslan (born in 1955), Mhanna Salim Al-Muayed (born in 1960) and Ahmed AlAbras (born in 1949). They all belonged to the PLF under the leadership of Abu Abbas. The group departed from the seashore of Tyre in Southern Lebanon using a 55 horse-powered motorized rubber boat with an 88 km/h speed. The goal of the operation was to attack Nahariya, 10 kilometers away from the Lebanese border. They called their operation the Nasser Operation.

Around midnight they arrived at the coastal town of Nahariya. The four killed a policeman who came across them. The group then entered a building on Jabotinsky Street where they formed two groups. One group broke into the apartment of the Haran family before police reinforcements had arrived. They took 31 year-old Danny Haran hostage along with his four year-old daughter, Einat. The mother, Smadar Haran, was able to hide in a crawl space above the bedroom with her two year-old daughter Yael, and a neighbor.

Shootout and capture

Israeli witnesses claim Kuntar's group took Danny and Einat down to the beach, where a shootout with Israeli policemen and soldiers erupted. Kuntar allegedly shot Danny at close range in the back, in front of his daughter, and drowned him in the sea to ensure he was dead. Next, eyewitnesses said he smashed the head of 4 year-old Einat on beach rocks and crushed her skull with the butt of his rifle.[1] Kuntar consistently denied killing the 4-year-old,[2] asserting in his court testimony in 1980, only published in 2008, that Israeli gunfire had killed Mr. Haran as soldiers burst in to free him, and that he did not see what happened to Mr. Haran’s daughter.[3]

Smadar Haran accidentally suffocated Yael to death while attempting to quiet her whimpering, which would have revealed their hideout.[4] A policeman and two of Kuntar's comrades were killed in the shootout on the beach; Kuntar and the fourth member of the group, Ahmed AlAbras, were captured. Alabras was freed by Israel in the Jibril Agreement of May 1985.

Murder of the Haran family

According to Smadar Haran, her last memories of Danny and Einat are the sight of them being led away at gunpoint by Kuntar. From her hiding place, she could hear Danny reassuring Einat, who kept asking for her mother. When Yael cried for her pacifier, Smadar covered her mouth to stifle her whimpering. She remembers her daughter's tongue licking and sucking on the palm of her hand. Later, doctors and paramedics explained that the toddler had been gasping for air.

In 1979, the Israeli newspaper Maariv newpaper described the attack as follows: After drowning Danny in the sea in front of Einat (as Ahmed Al-Brass, Mhanna Salim Al-Muayed, and Abdel Majeed Asslan served as look outs and backup cover for Kuntar), Kuntar turned his attention towards the 4 year-old. He took his rifle and then swung it across the toddler's head, knocking her to the ground. Kuntar then dragged the toddler a couple of feet to the closest rock he could find and laid her head down on a rock, with the intention of crushing it with the butt of his rifle. Einat, instinctively covered her head with her arms, Kuntar struggled with the toddler until he finally managed to clear her arms out of the way. Once her arms were out of the way, Kuntar repeatedly beat her on the head with the butt of his rifle and stomping on her body, until blood rushed out of her ears and mouth. Then, to ensure she was dead, Kuntar continued beating her over the head until her skull was crushed and she was dead.[5]

According to Kuntar's former cellmate Yasser Hanjar, Kuntar "never expressed remorse, but maintains a different version [of the events] than the Israeli one"... "Kuntar firmly rejected allegations he had smashed the head of 4-year-old Einat Haran" [6]

Excerpts of Kuntar's court testimony from 1980 were published for the first time after he was released; according to him, Israeli gunfire had killed Haran when soldiers burst in to free him, and he did not see what happened to Haran's daughter.[7]

Treatment in prison

During his imprisonment, Kuntar married an Israeli Arab woman who is an activist on behalf of militant prisoners, but divorced her. While they were married, she received a monthly stipend from the Israeli government, an entitlement due to her status as a wife of a prisoner.[4] Also during his imprisonment Kuntar graduated from the Open University of Israel in social and political science.[8]

Negotiations for release

Several years later, the Palestinian Liberation Front seized the Achille Lauro, an Italian cruise ship, demanding that Israel release Kuntar, along with 50 other Palestinian prisoners, though Kuntar was the only prisoner specifically named. The hijackers killed a wheelchair-bound American Jewish passenger, Leon Klinghoffer during this raid and had his body and wheelchair thrown overboard.

In 2003, Israel agreed to release around 400 prisoners in exchange for businessman Elchanan Tenenbaum and the bodies of three soldiers held by Hezbollah since 2000. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah refused to accept the deal unless it included Samir Kuntar. "Hezbollah's conditions have become clear and defined, and we are sticking to them in all circumstances", Nasrallah declared in his statement.[9][10]

Israel then agreed to release Samir Kuntar on condition that Hezbollah provided "solid evidence" as to the fate of Ron Arad, an air force navigator missing in Lebanon since 1986.[11][12]

Inspired by the prisoner swap, Hamas vowed, a few days later, that they would also abduct Israeli soldiers to secure the release of Palestinian prisoners. Hassan Nasrallah simultaneously told his supporters that Hezbollah would continue to kidnap Israelis until "not a single prisoner" remained inside Israeli jails.[13]

In 2006, Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora and UN envoy Terje Rød-Larsen proposed a deal in which Kuntar and all other Lebanese prisoners would be released on condition that Syria declared Shebaa farms as Lebanese territory, the Lebanese deployed troops on the country's southern border with Israel, Israel withdrew from Shebaa farms and the Israeli air force stopped flying over Lebanon, Israeli occupation ended, Hezbollah was disarmed and Hezbollah was removed from the border areas.[14]

Abduction of Israeli soldiers

Main article: Zar'it-Shtula incident

On July 12, 2006 Hezbollah attacked an Israeli border patrol, killed eight soldiers, and captured two others, sparking the 2006 Lebanon War. The captured soldiers were meant to be released in exchange for Samir Kuntar.[citation needed] In subsequent interviews on Al-Manar TV station Dr Mohamad Jawad Khalifeh, the Lebanese Minster of Health, congratulated Hezbollah for "its great actions" and said that "Lebanon has the right to regain its prisoners and liberate them". Ali Ammar, a Hezbollah member of the Lebanese Parliament, stated his opinion that "particularly at this basic stage in the history of the homeland and the nation, this government should have expressed solidarity with its people and let Samir Quntar feel that he is a Lebanese par excellence. Kuntar was released on Wednesday 16th of July 2008. "[15]

Prisoner exchange deal

Main article: 2008 Israel-Hezbollah Prisoner Swap

On May 26, 2008, Israeli sources announced that Samir Kuntar was among those who would be exchanged for the two reservists, Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser, captured by Hezbollah.[16] On June 29, 2008 the Israeli ministers cabinet approved the prisoner exchange between Hezbollah and Israel which would involve the release of Kuntar despite intelligence stating that the two soldiers are almost certainly dead.[17] Kuntar and four other prisoners being released as part of the deal are the last of the Lebanese prisoners in Israeli custody. Also part of the deal would be the release of the remains of other Lebanese from all other previous wars and, after a suitable interval, dozens of Palestinian prisoners.[18]

On July 16, 2008, Hezbollah transferred coffins containing the remains of captured Israeli soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev,[19] in exchange for Kuntar and four Hezbollah members taken prisoner during the 2006 Lebanon War.[20]

References

1. ^ Beyer, Lisa, "A Mother's Anguish Renewed", Time Magazine, July 25, 2006. Retrieved on July 7, 2008.

2. ^ Heller, Aron, "For Israel, prisoner swap evokes raw memories", AP, July 16, 2008. Retrieved on July 16, 2008.

3. ^ Prisoner Deal Reopens an Israeli Wound, New York Times, 16 July 2008

4. ^ a b Kaiser, Smadar Haran, "The World Should Know What He Did to My Family", Washington Post, May 18, 2003. Retrieved on July 7, 2008.

5. ^ Samir Kuntar... The REAL Samir Kuntar

6. ^ Khoury, Jack (2008-07-01). "Former cellmate says Samir Kuntar never meant to kill anyone", Haaretz. Retrieved on 2008-07-02.

7. ^ http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/16/world/middleeast/16israel.html?_r=2&hp=&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin

8. ^ http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1215330995555

9. ^ "Nasrallah: no prisoner swap without Samir Kuntar", Canadian Jewish News (November 13, 2003).

10. ^ ""Israel backs deal with Hizbullah to swap prisoners"", The Guardian (November 10, 2003).

11. ^ "Israel agrees to free prisoners in secret deal with Hizbullah", The Irish Times (January 26, 2004).

12. ^ "Arad could alter release criteria", The Jerusalem Post (January 27, 2004).

13. ^ "ROUNDUP: Hamas, Hezbollah vow to abduct more Israeli soldiers", Deutsche Presse-Agentur (January 30, 2004).

14. ^ "Diplomatic maneuvers", Mideast Mirror (June 1, 2006).

15. ^ "Lebanese Hezbollah TV talk show discusses implications of operation", BBC Worldwide Monitoring (January 13, 2006).

16. ^ Stern, Yoav and Yossi Melman, "Israel says Hezbollah exchange deal is close", Ha'aretz, May 27, 2008. Retrieved on July 7, 2008.

17. ^ Keinon, Herb. "Soldiers set to be returned to Israel in 10 days", Jerusalem Post, June 29, 2008. Retrieved on July 7, 2008.

18. ^ "Another bad deal", Jerusalem Post, June 2, 2008. Retrieved on July 7, 2008.

19. ^ "UN identifying bodies presumed to be of Goldwasser, Regev". The Jerusalem Post (2008-07-16).

20. ^ "Coffins said to hold bodies of Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev taken to Israel-Lebanon border". Haaretz (2008-07-16).

the Naqoura border point with Israel. (Issam Kobeisy - Pool/Getty Images)