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July 18, 2008

Hezbollah Values: Cheering a Child-Killer

HEZBOLLAH VALUES: CHEERING A CHILD-KILLER; TAUNTING DEAD SOLDIERS' FAMILIES

Too little attention has been paid by the press to Hezbollah's cruelty in taunting the families of the dead Israeli soldiers. And while reporters have noted the joyful celebrations in the Arab/Muslim world over the release of the terrorist Kuntar, as well as four terrorists from Hezbollah, not enough have delved into the heinous nature of Kuntar's attack.

Here are two commentaries on what Hezbollah and Lebanon reveal about themselves when they celebrate the release of a man who bashed in the head of a four-year-old girl.

A Strange Kind of Hero (Boston Globe editorial)

A Moment of Moral Clarity (Gil Troy, Montreal Gazette)

Here's a gem from Steve Huntley of the Chicago Sun-Times,
Abbas Didn't Have to Honor Terrorist

Here is a blog item that includes a video clip of Hezbollah leader Nasrallah's cruel taunting. Where is the mainstream media on this aspect?

GLOBE EDITORIAL
A strange kind of hero
July 18, 2008

WHEN ISRAEL swapped prisoners and corpses this week with the Lebanese Shi'ite movement Hezbollah, a flood of propaganda immediately followed. Hezbollah's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, depicted the return of five prisoners and the remains of 199 Lebanese killed in the 2006 war with Israel as a way of achieving Hezbollah's original goal when it kidnapped two Israeli soldiers - an act that ignited the war.

Hezbollah's triumphalism serves a political purpose. It enhances the group's prestige within Lebanon and across the Mideast.

In Israel, the exchange of five prisoners for the bodies of the two dead Israeli soldiers was treated as a controversial affirmation of national values. Defense Minister Ehud Barak spoke of Israel's readiness to "pay the highest price" to retrieve its captured soldiers. Intelligence chiefs warned that Israel was inviting its enemies to kidnap new hostages to be traded for more prisoners.

But beyond all tactical and political considerations, there is something morally repulsive in the hero's welcome given the most famous - or notorious - of the Lebanese prisoners released by Israel. Samir Kuntar had been sentenced to 542 years in prison for killing four people during a raid in 1979. Kuntar executed a father, Danny Haran, in front of his 4-year-old daughter. Then he killed the little girl by smashing her head against a rock with a rifle butt.

This is the creature Nasrallah hailed as a resistance hero, the figure Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh called a "huge hero who sacrificed 30 years of his life for the Palestinian issue," the celebrity that Lebanon's president and prime minister saluted as a liberated freedom fighter.

All wars are inhumane. But not all warriors lose their humanity.
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Posted by LG at July 18, 2008 06:36 PM

Comments

I am appalled at the prisoner exchange.
Did the Israelis know that Eldad and Ehud had been killed? Did they not demand to know when and how they were killed?
What is the lesson Hamas learned from this exchange?

What a tragic mistake!

Posted by: Gunter Hiller at July 18, 2008 11:36 PM

WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO THE PRIDE AND FEELINGS FOR JUSTICE IN ISRAEL.
WHEN THEY FOUND OUT THAT THE TWO SOLDIERS WERE KILLED, THEY SHOULD HAVE IMMEDIATELY ATTACKED AND REVENGED THE LIVES OF THESE TWO YOUNG MEN.
ISRAEL IS SHOING SUCH WEAKNESS.
I HOPE THIS DOES NOT COME BACK TO HAUNT THEM.

Posted by: A.STRAHL at July 19, 2008 11:31 AM

ISRAEL SHOULD HAVE TRAILED THE "CELEBRANTS" OF THIS ACT ALONG WITH THE ANIMAL WHO DID IT ITSELF AND DROPPED NAPALM ON THE GROUP AS THEY ULULATED TO ALLAH IN PRAISE OF THIS ACTION. THE "WORLD" WOULD HAVE CONDEMNED THIS ACT? OH WELL!!

Posted by: marc at July 20, 2008 04:28 AM

"Hehe".. That was my reaction when I got to "..controversial affirmation of national values."
What values are we talking about exactly? The values of expulsion and dispossession of hundreds of thousands Palestinians from their homes and land in 1948?! or that of killing the children in Kana massacre in Lebanon? or that of racism against Asian and African Jews in Israel??? In the other side, there was a resistant action that sought the liberation of all Lebanese prisoners (which by the way are called war prisoners-not terrorists), and succeeded in proving the appreciative value for the human being, even if he was of different ethnicity ( kuntar is not Shiite, rather Durzi), in addition to others Sunni Palestinians.. I believe that IS a "controversial affirmation of national values", where lebanese values again surpass racist israeli values.

Posted by: BenJamin at July 23, 2008 02:35 AM

OH, so the comment get reviewed and revised prior display?!! heh, that exactly proves the weakness of this website, and its fear from the 'other' opinion.. I dare you to post my comment, end.

Posted by: BenJamin at July 23, 2008 02:42 AM

Really?
Lebanese values?? So great, so the lebanese civil war proved that lebanon is completaly non racist nor discriminatory? Or did the 1948 invasion prove that lebanon completaly supports jews?
Racism against african and asian jews?? I guess, granting them lands protection, education, welfare and commodities like that completaly constitute as racist doesn't it? Oh, or does israel consititue as a racist country bearing in mind that Israel is the only country in the region that is a true democracy, and not a monarchy or a single party presidential republic, of course, the fact that Arabs as a minority in Israel have more rights then in many arab countries, that they vote and elect their representatives in the Knesset?
As for the cuestion about the palestinian displacement, the arab countries refused to end the state of war and since the would be palestinian lands, gaza and the west bank were under Egyptian and Jordanian control respectivally the citizens claming to be palestianians would be ina state of war with Israel, therefore Israel would have to in no way allow such suicidal action as to permit the enrty of potenitaly hostile people, this isn't the first time it has been done in a war, and in no way does it constitute as a war crime, at least not in the UNs eyes. On the other hand, in arab countries jews were expatriated, even after the war ceased, and in contrary to the Israeli iniciative, in it was against International warfare statutes because jews are not necesarily Israeli. Currently there are many build your own home programs in Israel incouraging arabs to settle, contrary to PLO who doesn't let any refuge settle.
Kana? Do you mean the Qana massacre? In which Hezbollah put civilians in a military zone? Or to put it more clearly, in it's own headquarters. There was no way of knowing what was inside the building, the Israeli reconisaince didn't fin a trace of civilian lodging, so there it goes, and puttign civilians in a military zone is a popular hizbollah tactic, used to slow down advancing forces, or to make them doubt in using air or artilery strikes. Of course, Hezbollah would never target civilians would it? It would never shoot at civilians areas? would it?
Of course that those PLO and hezbollah arrested for are war prisioners, that doesn't mean they can't be terrorists, by the way, two countries being at war doesn't give the right to shoot civilians intentionally and deliberately if they are unarmed, maybee Samhir Kuntar didn't record hearing that part when fired a bullet from a 4 feet distance that shattered a 4-year old girl's head.

Posted by: Erick at August 10, 2008 01:40 AM

the weakness of this website, and its fear from the 'other' opinion

Yes, exactly- your opinion. No facts, no evidence, no reality. Just an infantile piece of rage with no sound basis and reliance upon the same old disproved pieces of propaganda. Anti-Israel rhetoric, in other words.

Don't worry "BenJamin". CAMERA will print your comments. We need to see just how delusional are people who support terrorists and child-murderers like Kuntar and the rest of Arafat's ideological pawns.

Posted by: Patrick at November 24, 2008 10:50 PM

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