July 16, 2008, - 11:11 am
Another Terrorist Giveaway: Sad Day in Israel is Just Another in Recent History of Terrorist Capitulation ; Hezbollah Strengthened
By Debbie Schlussel
**** UPDATE: Carl in Jerusalem has multiple important entries and video on Samir Kuntar and how Al-Jazeera and Hezbollah savages are celebrating the release of this murderer. All of it is must-read/must-view stuff. ****
As you probably know, today, Israel releases five Hezbollah terrorists–including Samir Kuntar, who brutally murdered a family–in exchange for the bodies of two dead Israeli soldier, who were certainly brutally and savagely tortured by Hezbollah, before their ultimate murder. A look at banners Hezbollah posted in English–for the world to read–tells us how nauseating this deal is, and how empowering it is to our enemies. And the deal does not even include the body or known location of Ron Arad–an Israeli soldier missing for decades (it includes a “report” on his past–big deal).
These Hezbo Banners Are All Over South Lebanon–There’s a Reason They’re In English . . .
Kuntar is most significant because in 1979, as a Druze terrorist for both the Shi’ite Muslim Hezbollah and the Sunni Palestinian terrorists, Kuntar shot an innocent Israeli father, Danny Haran, in front of his two daughters and wife. Then, Kuntar took Haran’s 4-year-old daughter, Einat, and smashed her skull with his rifle. Haran’s wife hid in a crawl space and accidentally suffocated their two-year-old daughter, Yael, to silence her cries, so Kuntar wouldn’t find and kill them, too.
Three innocent lives snuffed out for no legitimate reason and a family destroyed. An Israeli policeman was also killed.
It’s nauseating that Israel is doing this, but, as I’ve noted extensively on this site, it is, sadly, not the first such lopsided and ill-advised Israeli deal with terrorists. It is just the latest of many. Compared to those, this “deal” for dead bodies is actually “conservative”. In the past, Israel has exchanged hundreds and even thousands of terrorists for a few dead bodies and a live traitor/drug dealer Jew, who was working for Hezbollah, but was a buddy of Ariel Sharon.
If Israel were smart–if it was not suffocated by the wimpitude and appeasement of Ehud Olmert, Ariel Sharon, and the others who’ve engaged in these disgusting fool’s exchanges–the country would never have engaged in such trades over the years. And they’d stop doing them now.
But, instead, today, Israel trades a brutal, vicious murderer of a young family for dead bodies, something America hasn’t done yet–and I hope we never do.
Today, Israel strengthens Hezbollah tremendously. The terrorist group has a week of celebrations planned, and they will be welcoming this savage as a hero. Today’s Wall Street Journal details Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah’s personal involvement in the deal. I can’t imagine America on the phone with Bin Laden negotiating the release of Byron Fouty’s body or Nick Berg’s in exchange for the release of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to a hero’s welcome.
That’s exactly what releasing Kuntar is. As I noted recently, the Achille Lauro cruise ship was hijacked by Palestinian terrorists in the ’80s for Kuntar’s release. Leon Klinghoffer was murdered in his wheelchair and sent overboard to an unceremonious, brutal burial at see for the release of Kuntar. Neither Israel nor America budged at that time. We had heroes running things then–Ronald Reagan and people like Menachem Begin and Yitzchak Shamir.
I feel sorry for the families of Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser, the Israeli soldiers Hezbollah kidnapped and whose bodies will be returned. But their sons are dead, and bringing back their bodies does not in any way justify the release of this inhuman pan-Islamic terrorist. And wasn’t their release a condition of Israel ending its war with Hezbollah in 2006? It was, so why add this murderer and 4 others to “sweeten” this devil’s trade?
Trades like this, coupled with the capitulation of Olmert, will be Isreal’s death. Where once a country said no to terrorists, it had relative, de facto peace and far fewer deaths. Where it began to appease and self-amputate, mass murder became rampant, and its ultimate total destruction drew closer and more assured.
That’s why they are partying in South Lebanon, this week and thereafter. Samir Kuntar is not just the face of evil. His release is the face of Israel’s decline and withering.
My late father was especially disturbed about discussions surrounding the release of Kuntar. I am glad he is not around to see this despicable day in Israeli “history.” What a strange way to mark 60 years of survival.
* Read my commentary on past Israeli prisoner exchanges with Hezbollah and the Palestinians–includes details of previous terrorist prisoner trades.
*** From the commentary of Nina Keren, mother of released terrorist Samir Kuntar’s victim Danny Haran and grandmother of the two young children he murdered:
When I close my eyes at night, I see Einati’s black eyes, wide open in fear, not understand why her hero of a father was not saving her the rifle hitting her on the head.
For more than 29 years, I have sentenced myself to silence. The difficult incident, in which I lost my son, Danny, and my two granddaughters, Einat and Yael, in such indescribably cruel circumstances.
But today, just before you cut the sentence of this despicable murderer, I can no longer smother my screams.
Five life sentences were given to this same beastly person. In a few days, he will be freed, before even one life sentence has run out? How will I bear the moment when he crosses the borders and turns from a despicable monster to the new hero of Lebanon.
* Shmuel Rosner on “Live Terrorists for Dead Bodies: Why Does Israel Keep Agreeing to Prisoner Exchanges?”
It seems that both Israel and the U.S. are appeasing terrorists all over the world. Israel as you mentioned, and also the discussions w/Syria over giving up the Golan Heights. It looks like Israel will be stuck with Olmert for a while longer, thanks to recent parliamentary maneuvers. The US meantime is in the process of appeasing Iran, with high State Department officials meeting openly with Iran. That will certainly not make it easier for Israel to attack Iran, even if it was inclined to do so. It looks like Western Civilization has just lost its will to survive. Appeasement was disastrous in the 30s; it is just as disastrous now. Our enemies have the capabilities of mass destruction even more rapid than the mass destruction of the 30s and 40s. And in the meantime, we are all talking about Angelina Jolie and Christine Brinkley.
c f on July 16, 2008 at 12:19 pm