The appropriately named Samir Kuntar, at the age of 16, participates in a raid on the Isreali town of Nahariya. During that raid, this piece of human excrement takes a 31 year old father and his 4 year old daughter, shoots the father in the back, then drowns him, then smashes the head of of his daughter on beach rocks with the butt of his rifle. During his trial he says the hostages were killed by IDF and policemen. Evidence presented at the trial shows the daughters' brain tissue on the butt of his rifle. He gets sent to jail for 542 years.
Samir the $%&ing Kuntar
July 12, 2006Hezbollah launch a surprise attack on Israel, kill a few Israeli soldiers and kidnap 2, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev.
Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser
This provokes a month long war with Israel who, amongst other things, destroy most of southern Beirut, where Hezbollah has it's headquarters.
August 14, 2006
The war lasts a month until 14 August, where Israel fails to annihilate Hezbollah for various reasons, and end active hostilities. Hezbollah claim it as a victory.
Final toll:
Lebanon:
1109 Lebanese "civilians" deaths . I use the scare quotes(") around "civilians" because:
a. Hezbollah fighters don't wear uniforms.
b. Hezbollah is is not in the habit of releasing accurate death tolls of it's fighters. So 1109 is the total number of civilians + Hezbollah dead.
Israel:
44 Israeli civilians dead
119 IDF soldiers dead
July 16, 2008
In exchange for the soldiers Ehud and Eldad, Israel agrees to swap the bodies of 199 bodies of Lebanese and Palestinian militants, and 5 lebanese prisoners, including Kuntar. Officially the status of Ehud and Eldad is unknown, but unofficially the Israeli government knows that they are unlikely to be alive. Relatives of the soldiers find out when they see the two black coffins.
"Just hours earlier, Sgt. Regev's brother Eyal had been clinging to the hope that, despite the views of the Israeli government the two soldiers were dead, they might remain alive."
--NationalPost
Two coffins containing Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser
The recently hijacked by Hezbollah Lebanese government celebrate the return and give Kuntar and his mates a heroes welcome.
"Two Lebanese army helicopters then flew the men to Beirut, where President Michel Suleiman, Prime Minister Fouad Siniora and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri kissed them at the airport."
--NationalPost
The pretty much unanimous reaction from Western media sources and most of the world was of disgust. So much so, that the most important mouthpiece for Islamists today, the television station Al-Jazeera, who held a party to honor the Kuntar, was forced to apologise to the Israeli government, admitting it had breached it's own code of "ethics" with coverage praising Kuntar.
Clearly, even the genocide-minded Arabs and their apologists in the West realised that celebrating a convicted child-killer as a hero will not go down well, pretty much anywhere, and thus sadly further delegitimising the government of Lebanon in the eyes of the international community and their cause. I suspect that even such supporters for the Islamists cause such as our very own The Age might now have second thoughts about printing op-ed pieces from Islamist P.O.S although, somehow.I. doubt. it.
Many lebanese thought this was a disgrace as well, which makes this tragedy only more poignant. The fact that Hezbollah didn't even exist at the time Kuntar went on his murderous rampage, but now claim him as their own makes them doubly pathetic.
What does any of this mean? Not sure, however if you are dealing with a psychotic death-loving culture, maybe the best you can do is grant them their death-wish as quickly as possible.
Links
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7508715.stm
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/07/16/israel.swap/
3 comments:
Personally, I was hoping for the napalm drop to come in to welcome the prisoners home.
So, will Israel demand proof of life before agreeing to such an exchange in the future? Perhaps they thought there was some hope for their soldiers. I guess they will now remember the old pirate axiom:
Abandon hope all who enter here.
I think the gov't of Israel have only opened themselves to more of these demands, and it was explained to me by an Israeli that it was of paramount importance to get the remains at any cost, due to the sacredness of humanity to Israelis...you know that thing that the other guys don't have!
You can be sure that the Kuntar is on a death list though.
Ah! Good! Munich was such a good movie, we could do with another!
The Olympics! So topical!
Post a Comment