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 ****p Achille Laura in 1985. Terrorists
led by Abu Abbas (who was later given safe haven in Baghdad by Saddam
Hussein) took the ****p captive and threw Klinghoffer overboard. But
few recall that the ****p 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 =97 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 s****ting 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 =85 on the return of the heroes of freedom =85 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 op****tunity 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 =97 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?
http://jewishworldreview.com/cols/charen071808.php3
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