One point of detail: he took the life of a child *in front of the father.*
Lower than the lowest thing you can do.
Susan
On 21-Jul-2008, DoD <danskisanjar@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> It seemed such a ghastly trade, flesh and blood for two boxes of
> bones. Many criticized it. Some could not bear to watch it. But if
> anything showed the difference between Israel and Hezbollah in last
> week's exchange of two dead Israeli soldiers for five live prisoners
> and 199 corpses, it was not the trade itself.
>
> It was the reaction.
>
> In Israel, where the bodies of Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev arrived
> in black coffins, the mood was, according to re****ts, somber and
> mournful. Candles were lit. Prayers were recited. These two young
> soldiers, both students and reservists at the time, were captured in a
> cross-border raid two years ago by Hezbollah guerrillas, setting off a
> small war that ultimately left 160 Israelis and 1000 Lebanese dead.
>
> Because the Israeli military vows to never leave a soldier on the
> battlefield, negotiations were held to get the two men back, even
> though most believed they were dead. Hezbollah, which captured the two
> men to use them as bargaining chips, held firm to its demand that
> Israel free several prisoners, including one named Samir Kuntar.
>
> Not Kuntar, many Israelis said. He was serving life sentences for
> murdering three people in 1979: a police officer, a civilian named
> Danny Haran, and Haran's four year-old daughter, whose head Kuntar
> smashed on rocks and with his rifle butt. Haran's wife, hiding her
> other baby from Kuntar, covered her mouth to stop her whimpering. The
> child suffocated.
>
> Kuntar's killings were regarded in Israel as the most brutal form of
> terrorism. The thought of freeing him went against every fiber of
> justice.
>
> But last week, after almost 30 years behind bars, Kuntar was allowed
> to go by the Israeli authorities. And on Wednesday, he walked down a
> red carpet in Beirut and was kissed by the Hezbollah leader and
> cheered like a rock star.
>
> "Samir! Samir!" the crowd re****tedly yelled. This for a man convicted
> of sma****ng a child's head into pieces.
>
> You can take whatever side you like in the Israeli-Palestinian debate.
> You can argue who is entitled to land and statehood and borders.
>
> But you cannot defend the frenzied lovefest that took place for Kuntar
> in Lebanon, as if he were some long-lost statesmen, instead of a
> common murderer who did the worst thing you can do: take the life of a
> child. What religion condones that? What holy book says that is a good
> thing? A banner in Beirut, according to the New York Times, read "G-
> d's Achievement Through Our Hands."
>
> What G-d would have a child's murder on anyone's hands? How do people
> celebrate such a killer?
>
> Is it because the little girl was Israeli — and Israel is the enemy?
> Since when does a 4-year-old know of politics or war? Is it because
> Arab children get killed by Israelis? Yes, children undeniably die in
> bombings — on both sides. But an Israeli soldier who deliberately
> smashed a child's head on a rock would be tried as a criminal, not
> cheered like a hero.
>
> The total disregard for life of anyone who does not believe what
> Hezbollah believes stands in stark contrast to the value of life — and
> even of its demise — that Israel demonstrated in bringing those two
> bodies back. The families of Goldwasser and Regev were able to put
> their sons in the ground, to say goodbye, to end the wondering. That
> small act meant something to the government, which voted on the
> exchange. In the midst of the never-ending conflict Israel faces, that
> says an awful lot.
>
> Meanwhile, here is what Kuntar said to the cheering crowd: "I return
> from Palestine only to go back to Palestine. I promise families in
> Palestine that we are coming back, me and my brothers in the
> resistance."
>
> You'll note he never says the word "Israel." To men like Kuntar,
> Israel does not exist and should never exist. He and the terrorist
> group that freed him (and you can install Hezbollah into all the
> government seats you want, a terrorist group is still a terrorist
> group) want a world in which Israel has no place. The Jews should be
> driven into the sea.
>
> With a philosophy like that, it may be hard to expect remorse. But if
> you can justify Hezbollah calling a national holiday to cheer home a
> child murderer, there is no talking to you. There is only mourning —
> as there was over two coffins last week — for a world in which such
> things and such thinking can take place.
> http://jewishworldreview.com/0708/albom072108.php3
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