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07/16/2008

“horribly wrong”

Filed under: Israel, Lebanon, Media Bias, Terrorism — Tags: — Soccerdad @ 8:00 am

From the NYT:

Hero’s Welcome Expected in Lebanon for Captive of Israel
Perhaps Israel’s most reviled prisoner, Samir Kuntar, will return to a hero’s welcome when he crosses into Lebanon this week, 29 years after he left its shores in a rubber dinghy to kidnap Israelis from the coastal town of Nahariya.

That raid went horribly wrong, leaving five people dead, a community terrorized and a nation traumatized. Two Israeli children and their father were among those killed.

The Times then goes on to humanize Samir Kuntar pleading that he had a hard childhood. It also gives a rather abbreviated summary of the trial, quoting a doctor who testified that Einat was be

Point 1: Headline should read: Hero’s Welcome expected in Lebanon for Mass Murderer.
(See Elder of Ziyon)
Point 2: “Horribly wrong?” When armed terrorists infiltrate a country and attempt to take hostages it’s not surprising that people – often innocents – will die. The deaths of Danny Haran, his daughters and policeman Eliayhu Shachar were not unforeseen consequences of Samir Kuntar and his confederates. It’s not like he was driving to his prom, took his eyes off the road and plowed into a crowd of pedestrians. That would be something gone horribly wrong. The gang of terrorists entered Israel intent on committing acts of violence. They succeeded in committing violence, even if they had other plans in mind.

The Times goes on to recount the unfortunate circumstances of Mr. Kuntar’s youth and then provides a skewed summary of Kuntar’s trial designed to raise doubts about his role in the murders of Danny and Einat Haran. (A more complete account of the trial is available at Israel’s MFA website. h/t Backspin.)

It doesn’t just take 30 years of hindsight to humanize a murderer Honest Reporting notes that news organizations were doing it immediately after the bulldozer attack in Israel two weeks ago.

There was no excuse for the story in the Times. The reporter consciously made every effort to minimize Samir Kuntar’s guilt and raises no serious questions about societies that lionize such monsters. It’s not like Kuntar is remorseful.

Lebanese terrorist Samir Kuntar, whom Israel has agreed to free as part of a possible prisoner swap deal with Hizbullah, has vowed to continue engaging in terror after his release.

(h/t Solomonia)

Something did go horribly wrong. When a newspaper loses all its moral bearings and effectively defends the indefensible it loses its moral authority.

Kuntar deserves no sympathy, just some lead.
UPDATE: Jeffrey Goldberg via memeorandum:

If the raiders had succeeded in kidnapping Israeli civilians without murdering children, in other words, would it have gone just fine, by Craig Smith’s standards?

Alternatively James Taranto asks:

What does the Times think would have happened if the “raid” had gone right?

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

07/08/2008

Still the Samir?

Filed under: Israel, Israeli Double Standard Time, Media, Media Bias, Terrorism — Tags: — Soccerdad @ 11:00 am

Given the sympathy that the Washington Post once showed for Samir Kuntar in a news story, the editorial An Unwelcome Hero was welcome, if flawed.

If anyone ever deserved the title “baby-killer,” it is Samir Kuntar. Yet his freedom has been a popular demand in Lebanon and the cause of Lebanon-based gunslingers for almost three decades. Abbas’s gang hijacked the Achille Lauro in 1985 in a failed effort to win Mr. Kuntar’s release. After Abbas faded into semi-retirement in Saddam Hussein’s Baghdad, Hezbollah took up the Kuntar cause, attempting to get Israel to swap him for bodies of Israelis killed in Hezbollah raids.

That’s correct, however, I’m a bit troubled by the conclusion:

Great changes must take place across the Middle East before a lasting peace can be achieved. Israel must make territorial compromises and foster a dignified future for the Palestinians. But attitudes among Israel’s enemies must be transformed as well. A good place to start would be to declare that people such as Samir Kuntar deserve to rot in prison, no matter what the religion or nationality of the children they kill.

I’m not bothered by their wish that Kuntar rot in jail instead of seeing him executed; the Post’s editors don’t believe in the death penalty. It’s the mantra about great changes and how Israel must make “territorial compromises” and “foster a dignified future,” these are both programs that Israel has been engaged in for the past 15 years. For the Post’s correct complaint about Lebanon and Hezbollah it ignores the bigger problem: Kuntar and terrorists like him are heroes even to the so-called Palestinian “moderates.” For there to be peace in the Middle East great changes are necessary, but the greatest change is the acceptance by the Arabs generally, and the Palestinians specifically, of the Israel’s right to exist. Fifteen years of peace processing and Israeli concessions have not changed that fundamental problem.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

06/30/2008

This deal keeps getting worse and worse

Filed under: Israel, palestinian politics — Tags: , , , , — Soccerdad @ 10:00 am

The Israeli government has decided to swap a live terrorist for two dead soldiers.

Former Chief of Staff Dan Halutz is in favor of the deal.

And isn’t the price too high? According to Halutz, “Our nation is not like all other nations. Let’s face it, we have different sets of values, which I believe are the right values. In returning the soldiers we must act from the same place we acted at the time – from the Jewish place. Redemption of prisoners, mutual guarantee.

“Sometimes the sentiment must dictate a decision… And the main thing is that the soldier and his family should know that we will do everything for them – because we have been sentenced to many more years of hostility.”

For Halutz this deal ought to pre-sage a deal with Hamas to get Gilad Shalit back. Halutz’s predecessor Moshe Yaalon disagrees:

Former IDF Chief of Staff Yaalon sparked a row Monday when he said that security prisoners should not be released as part of prisoner exchange deals in which the demanded “price” is too high.

“When it comes to the question of a deal, I am one of those who call for the minimum, and in some cases we must even say we are ready to sacrifice in the face of what we are required to pay, because the payment price is much heavier than the price of losing the hostage,” he said.

Not surprisingly Yaalon was criticized by the Shalit and Goldwasser families.

Emanuele Ottolenghi has a question about how Israel handled the situation:

When did the government know that the two soldiers were in all likelihood dead? Was it immediately after Hezbollah’s incursion into Israeli territory, on July 12, 2006? If so, the government launched a military campaign of 33 days, that cost the lives of over 130 Israelis, in order to rescue the dead bodies of two. Some explaining is in order, if that is the case.

We’ve been down this road before. In 2004 Israel released hundreds of prisoners to get the bodies of 3 soldiers who had been killed in a crossborder raid by Hezbollah, violating the international border behind which Israel had retreated month earlier.

Israel released more than 400 prisoners Thursday in a long-awaited swap with the Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah in exchange for the return of an Israeli businessman and the bodies of three Israeli soldiers.

The German-brokered exchange was completed despite a suicide bombing earlier on a bus in Jerusalem that killed at least 10 bystanders and wounded about 50 in the deadliest attack on Israel in four months. The blast occurred near Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s official residence, but he was not in the area at the time.

“We are releasing another 400 Palestinians with a very heavy heart, because we know that these 400 will return very quickly to the cycle of violence,” Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Jonathan Peled said in Jerusalem.

This time again it was the Germans who helped facilitate the return of dead Jews. And the Washington Post adds, it was under the auspices of the UN.

The deal, which followed months of negotiation mediated by Germans under U.N. auspices, marked the first such swap between Israel and Hezbollah since 2004.

That’s the UN whose troops aided the 2000 cross border raid, protected Hezbollah and did nothing to enforce its own resolutions when violated by Hezbollah. It’s kind of like paying to getting your property back from the very thieves who stole it.

The New York Times reminds us that this was purportedly one of the reasons that Hezbollah carried out the raid two years ago.

Indeed, within minutes of the decision, Al Manar, the Hezbollah television station, hailed it as evidence of the group’s power. “What happened in the prisoner issue is proof that the word of the resistance is the most faithful, strongest and supreme,” Hezbollah’s executive council chief, Hashem Safieddine, was quoted as saying.

The July 12, 2006, raid by Hezbollah into Israel that captured the two soldiers was aimed at seizing bargaining chips for the group’s effort to free Mr. Kuntar and several other Lebanese.

So Israel has effectively handed a Hezbollah a victory with this trade.

And of course there’s the question of who will be next.

Three government ministers voted against the prisoner swap deal Sunday-Finance Minister Roni Bar-On, Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann and Housing Minister Zeev Boim.

The three said that the deal constitutes a victory for the Hezbollah. “After the release of Kuntar, who will be able to stop the release of [Tanzim head] Marwan Barghouti?” Bar-On said Sunday.

The families of Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser will get much needed closure. The question will be at what cost.

Meryl wonders if there might be some advantage to Israel that may occur on account of the release of Kuntar for the bodies of Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser:

There’s one tiny point of light at the end of this dark tunnel. I think that Israel may be clearing up all the details of her prisoners and KIA hostages as a way to clear the decks for action in Gaza. In other words: If Israel has her captives back, whether they are alive or dead, she can then start clearing out the terrorist rat’s nests with a clear conscience, and without fear that it is causing their deaths.

The only problem with that idea is that Israel just agreed to a one-sided ceasefire with Hamas in Gaza. Daled Amos asks if there’s a different consideration in play

Is it a coincidence that this exchange is taking place now, at the same time that Olmert is attempting peace negotiations with Lebanon?:

For those of you who are concerned about Samir Kuntar’s suffering in jail, Israelly Cool has some details:

Did I mention that Kuntar got married, received conjugal visits from his wife, and earned a college degree all while in prison?

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

06/29/2008

Breaking: Samir Kuntar to be freed

Filed under: Israel, Lebanon, Terrorism — Tags: , , , — Meryl Yourish @ 9:24 am

Looks like Israel is creating more reasons for Hezbullah, Hamas, and other terrorists to kidnap more Israelis. They’re freeing Samir Kuntar and other Lebanese prisoners for what is now declared the corposes of Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser.

The cabinet approved Sunday the prisoner exchange deal with Hizbullah, which will facilitate the return of IDF captives Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser. The motion was carried with a majority of 22 ministers.

Earlier, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert urged his ministers to vote in favor of the deal. “At the end of a long process, I have reached the conclusion that as the Israeli prime minister I must recommend that you approve the proposal which will bring this painful affair to an end – even at the painful price it requires us to pay,” Olmert said during Sunday’s cabinet meeting.

I’m not an Israeli. I don’t understand why the nation will allow terrorists to hold it hostage this way. But I do understand cause and effect, and incentives. Israel has just guaranteed that Hezbullah will try to kidnap more soldiers. Next up: the Hamas swap for Gilad Shalit.

There’s one tiny point of light at the end of this dark tunnel. I think that Israel may be clearing up all the details of her prisoners and KIA hostages as a way to clear the decks for action in Gaza. In other words: If Israel has her captives back, whether they are alive or dead, she can then start clearing out the terrorist rat’s nests with a clear conscience, and without fear that it is causing their deaths.

Mind you, I have a tendency to see the glass half-full, so this may be entirely wishful thinking. But maybe it isn’t.

06/02/2008

AP misinforms the world

Filed under: AP Media Bias, Israel, Lebanon, Terrorism — Tags: , , , , , — Meryl Yourish @ 7:00 am

Two versions of the same story went out about the Hizbullah/Israel trade of remains for a prisoner. In the earlier version, the background on the Samir Kuntar story went like this:

A larger swap is extremely emotional for Israelis because it would likely involve Samir Kantar, the longest-serving Lebanese prisoner.

Kantar is serving multiple life sentences for infiltrating northern Israel in 1979 and killing four Israelis, including a 28-year-old man, the man’s 4-year-old daughter and two Israeli policemen.

He was convicted of killing the girl by smashing her head against rocks and then with a rifle butt. During the incident, the girl’s mother smothered a 2-year-old daughter to death while hiding from Kantar.

There’s no context. Someone at the AP made it look like Smadar Haran just killed her baby. Two of the early versions went out with the above misinformation. But then, someone noticed. The updated story:

The release of Kantar would be particularly difficult for Israelis to accept.

He is serving multiple life sentences for infiltrating northern Israel in 1979 and killing four Israelis – a 28-year-old man, the man’s 4-year-old daughter and two Israeli policemen.

Kantar repeatedly smashed the young girl’s head against a rock and crushed her skull with a rifle butt. Her mother, while trying to silence the cries of her other daughter, accidentally smothered the 2-year-old.

There’s still not enough context—but let Smadar Haran tell you what happened.

They held Danny and Einat while they searched for me and Yael, knowing there were more people in the apartment. 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. I knew that if Yael cried out, the terrorists would toss a grenade into the crawl space and we would be killed. So I kept my hand over her mouth, hoping she could breathe. As I lay there, I remembered my mother telling me how she had hidden from the Nazis during the Holocaust. “This is just like what happened to my mother,” I thought.

The AP couldn’t get the details of the attack right. They implied that the mother was a murderer. And they felt it was not important enough to name the victims. Bad enough that Israeli victims of terror are almost never named, while the terrorists have their names plastered all over the news. But for the AP to misinform the world on the reason Yael Haran died—that’s inexcusable.

06/01/2008

One step closer to Samir Kuntar’s freedom

Filed under: Israel, Lebanon, Terrorism — Tags: , , , — Meryl Yourish @ 10:09 am

I’ve been reluctant to write about this, because it simply enrages me. The murderer who comitted one of the most heinous crimes in Israel’s history is about to be set free.

Israel needs the death penalty to prevent more trades like this in the future. If Samir Kuntar had been executed 29 years ago, Israel would not be exchanging him for Israeli prisoners (who may not even be alive) Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, who were kidnapped specifically for this cause. Once again, the Arab world learns that terrorism pays. And Kuntar is going to be released to commit more murder, which he has already promised he will do. The process has begun, and is probably winding to its inevitable end.

Hizbullah terrorists have returned Israeli body parts that they’ve held since 2006 for this very purpose.

Hizbullah on Sunday handed over to Israel remains of an unidentified number of Israeli soldiers killed in the Second Lebanon War, al-Manar television reported.

The body parts’ transfer was completed shortly after 3 pm, and the remains were taken for identification to the Abu Kabir Forensic Institute in a Magen David Adom ambulance along with representatives of the Army Chaplaincy.

[...] A Hizbullah official, Wafik Safa, reported of the remains’ transfer at the Lebanese coastal border town of Naqoura minutes after Lebanese-Israeli citizen Nissim Nasser was released by Israel after serving a six-year jail term for spying for Hizbullah.

It’s step two in the future transfer. This was step one:

Nasser is believed to have been released as part of a future prisoner swap deal with Hizbullah, which would include the return of kidnapped Israeli soldiers Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser and the release of six Lebanese prisoners, including murdered Samir Kuntar.

If Samir Kuntar’s name is familiar to you, it’s because he and his fellow terrorists murdered two police officers and the Haran family.

On the night of April 22, 1979, a terrorist cell of four operatives landed on Nahariya’s shore from Lebanon. They surrounded Amnon Sela’s villa on the water front and pressed the interphone buzzer.

Sela and his wife noticed the suspicious figures carrying backpacks and assumed they were burglars. Police forces quickly arrived at the scene.

Eliyahu Shachar, a 25-year-old officer who was also the shift commander arrived at the scene first. He was hoping to red-handedly catch the burglars, but a bullet shot through his neck when he exited his vehicle. The terrorist cell headed by Kuntar moved on to the Haran residence, where they murdered the father Danny Haran and his daughters Einat, 4, and Yael, 2.

What the article does not tell you is that Samir Kuntar killed Danny Haran in front of his daughter Einat, and then he smashed Einat’s skull on a rock. Smadar Haran’s first-person account was published in the Washington Post.

Outside, we could hear the men storming about. Desperately, we sought to hide. Danny helped our neighbor climb into a crawl space above our bedroom; I went in behind her with Yael in my arms. Then Danny grabbed Einat and was dashing out the front door to take refuge in an underground shelter when the terrorists came crashing into our flat. They held Danny and Einat while they searched for me and Yael, knowing there were more people in the apartment. 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. I knew that if Yael cried out, the terrorists would toss a grenade into the crawl space and we would be killed. So I kept my hand over her mouth, hoping she could breathe. As I lay there, I remembered my mother telling me how she had hidden from the Nazis during the Holocaust. “This is just like what happened to my mother,” I thought.

Yael died. She was inadvertently smothered by her mother to keep her from giving away their hiding place.

More than one family was ripped apart by Kuntar. The brother of one of the police officers they shot was interviewed by Ynet last week.

“After my brother’s murder, my mother would visit the cemetery every single day and sleep near his grave,” said Haim. “She died of grief eight months later at the age of 44. My father became an alcoholic who would sit at home drinking constantly. Four years later, the alcohol beat him and he passed away at 51.”

[...] A year after his brother’s murder, Kuntar was transferred to Beersheba Prison and placed on kitchen duty. Their meeting was inevitable.

“The first time a saw him I could hardly believe my eyes. I wanted to kill him and it was simply unbearable,” said Haim. “I repeatedly asked to have him transferred from there because I couldn’t deal with seeing him around, but he stayed on. He knew exactly who I was and remembered me from his trial. Every time he saw me in the kitchen he would stare at me and smile.”

This is the subhuman scum that will be released soon. I can only pray that the Mossad sends an assassination squad after him to do what should have been done in 1979. If Kuntar is freed, may his life be short, and his death quick. And as painful as possible.

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