Release that scumbag Kuntar, and then cap his ass when he’s in Lebanon ala Mughniyeh

Agreed, my own feelings regarding the swap are in Meryl’s thread.

re blogging, this is temporary and is employment related, ie not a question of time, a question of politics just for now.

Why don’t you blog anymore? I miss you!

It may not be that government knew immediately (or was pretty certain) that Regev and Goldwasser were dead. But I have a hard time believing that they just came to that conclusion a few weeks ago. When the deal became imminent is when the government chose to let slip that the two were likely dead, but I believe that the government had known for awhile.

I agree that it’s not true that Israel attacked Hezbollah only to recover Regev and Goldwasser. Hezbollah had built up its strength in violation of 425 (with the acquiescence of the Lebanese government, the UN and the rest of the world). The crossborder attack was the tipping point, but it was not the sole reason for the war. (It makes it easier for Israel’s critics to say that Israel overreacted by claiming that Israel attacked only to recover the two soldiers. I think that’s what you mean by the “Arab ploy to re-write” what happened. )

You’re correct that contrary to what Ottolenghi wrote there was a need to attack Hezbollah outside of the violation of Israeli territory and the capture of Regev and Goldwasser.

Perhaps it would be better to put it as Elder of Ziyon did:
I cannot imagine the pain that the Eldad and Goldwasser families have been going through, but giving Hezbollah their stated prize – in which they give up nothing that is of any value to themselves – is doing nothing less than giving them total retroactive victory in the Lebanon war, by their own stated goals. We know by now that the UN forces in Lebanon are not enforcing their own mandate and that Hezbollah has more than recouped their losses from 2006, and now Israel is doing nothing less than conceding defeat.

The sickening piece of filth called Samir Kuntar was the only thing that stopped Hezbollah from being able to declare total victory. Now, victory is theirs.

Also, the state of events is already being blurred by time. Regev & Goldwasser’s fellow unit members were killed, a unit that went into hot pursuit across the border was also lost in ambush by Hezbollah, this was already within an hour or two a loss of 8 or 9 soldiers. Also, the initial attack itself was in conjunction with many many rockets fired at the northern border civilian populace as is cutomary as ‘cover’ for terrorist operations.

We tend to recall rockets as part of the event, but rockets preceeded the event, despite the Arab ploy to re-write that sequence then, and continuing until now. Israel must respond to defend the populace from rocket attacks, it must do so in the north, it must do so at ashkelon, at sderot. This is the basic purpose of government to defend its citizens. We cannot be outraged at the lack of will to carry this out on one border, and by the same token question this effort on another when it does happen.

Many questions, debates, etc on the Lebanon conflict will go on and with good reason & justification, but the effort initially should not be questioned I believe, and the escalation to war is unfortunately part of the reality that unfolded.

Please note I am not questioning SD’s knowledge of these events in the least.