During the 2006 war nearly all businesses in the north of Israel closed. Many Israelis fled their homes here, heading south staying with friends, family and even occasionally strangers willing to take them in.

In Kiryat Shmona, a town close to the Lebanese boarder, this man stayed behind and tended to one of the few grocery stores that remained open to serve its neighbors.

He tells the story here of his experience and of the war's lasting psychological effects on him and his family.

For more on the 2006 conflict in Lebanon and Israel, and long-term aftermath, visit: http://www.civic-israel-lebanon.org/

Haifa's train depot was the scene of the deadliest attack in Israel during the 2006 war with Hizbollah. On July 16, shortly after nine in the morning missiles rained down on the city. One directly struck the train depot killing eight workers inside.

We visited the train depot in the hopes of getting inside to interview other workers or people who had survived the missile attack. We were turned away but found a mechanic across the street who received us warmly with stout coffee and offered his eyewitness account of what happened that day.

For more on the 2006 conflict in Lebanon and Israel, and long-term aftermath, visit: http://www.civic-israel-lebanon.org/

On a Thursday morning we left Tyre and traveled south to visit with more survivors and survey some of the other small towns. The first one we came to was Qana. Lebanese Christians believe this is where Jesus performed his first miracle, turning water to wine.

Qana also has a long, sad history of conflict. Perhaps most notably in 1996, when an Israeli missile attack hit a UN tent where the townspeople had fled for safety. Israel claimed a rocket launcher had been located nearby making the tent a viable target, but more than 100 civilians died that day.

In the 2006 war, Qana was peppered with clusters throughout the town and surrounding hills. This is the story of one small survivor.

For more on the 2006 conflict in Lebanon and Israel, and long-term aftermath, visit: http://www.civic-israel-lebanon.org/

Quelli che seguono sono brani di dichiarazioni rilasciate nei giorni scorsi a vari programmi televisivi dal terrorista infanticida Samir Kuntar, scarcerato da Israele il 16 luglio (in cambio delle spoglie dei due ostaggi assassinati da Hezbollah Eldad Regev ed Ehud Goldwasser).

TV Al-Manar, 16.07.08

Samir Kuntar: “L’arma è… una attitudine che è diventata una cultura della resistenza. È diventata la cultura delle generazioni che realizzeranno il sogno di annientare quella entità predatoria [Israele]. Permettetemi di commemorare un grande e leggendario comandante, l’eroe mujahid [combattente della jihad] e martire Imad Mughniyeh [il capo di Hezbollah per le operazioni terroristiche all’estero, responsabile di attentati con centinaia di vittime innocenti, ucciso a Damasco lo scorso febbraio). Voglio dire solo una cosa: Hajj Imad, saremo degni del sangue da te versato solo quando costringeremo questo nemico a rimpiangere i tuoi giorni”.

TV Al-Manar, 17.07.08

Samir Kuntar: “Ieri a quest’ora ero nelle mani dei nemici. Ieri a quest’ora ero ancora nelle loro mani. Ma adesso non c’è nulla che desidero di più che incontrarli di nuovo. Chiedo ad Allah di farlo accadere presto. Si illude chiunque pensi che la liberazione delle terre libanesi e delle Fattorie Shabaa [conquistate da Israele alla Siria nel 1967, ma dal 2000 reclamate dal Libano come pretesto anti-israeliano] possa portare alla fine di questo conflitto”.

TV Al-Jadid, 18. 07.08

Samir Kuntar: “C’è un morbo, in questa regione, chiamato Stato di Israele, che noi chiamiamo ‘entità predatoria’. Se non poniamo fine a questo morbo, ci perseguirà sino in capo al mondo. Per questo è meglio sbarazzarsi di lui”.

TV Al-Manar, 17.0708

Samir Kuntar: “Hezbollah ha continuato a cercare i dispersi, vivi o martiri. Non aveva nessuna ragione per compiere un’operazione in mio favore se non la sua fede nel valore della vita umana [sic]. Ricordo che il segretario generale [Nasrallah] una volta ha detto: ‘Se Samir Kuntar è in prigione, significa che tutto il Libano è in prigione’. Ecco il valore dalla vita umana”.

TV Al-Jadid, 21.07.08

Sceicco Atallah Hamoud, capo dell’Associazione Libanese per i Prigionieri e i Prigionieri Rilasciati: “Ecco un dono [un mitra] da parte della resistenza islamica per l’eroe liberato, il tenente colonnello Samir Kuntar. Mujahideen [combattenti della jihad] come Samir Kuntar e i suoi fratelli non si curano di se stessi perché hanno votato se stessi alla resistenza, alla causa, alla patria”.

Voce narrante: “Il dono speciale della resistenza si combina con le parole di Kuntar, che ha giurato che questo mitra farà la sua parte nel vendicare il sangue dei martiri”.

Samir Kuntar: “Questo è il più bel regalo, dopo la libertà stessa. Desidero porgere il mio saluto alla resistenza islamica e al segretario generale Nasrallah per la loro fiducia. Innanzitutto, questo è il modo con cui la resistenza islamica riafferma la sua fede in me come combattente. In secondo luogo, questo mitra farà la sua parte, ad Allah piacendo, nel vendicare il sangue di Imad Mughniyeh”.

TV Future, 22.07.08

Samir Kuntar: “Se mi domandate se ho ucciso degli israeliani, sì l’ho fatto, Allah sia lodato, e ne sono orgoglioso. Se ne avrò la possibilità, ad Allah piacendo, ne ucciderò ancora. Per quanto riguarda i bambini, questa è un’altra storia. Una ragazzina venne uccisa durante l’operazione, nel fuoco incrociato. In tutte le operazioni che comportavano la cattura di ostaggi israeliani, gli ostaggi vennero sempre uccisi dai proiettili delle forze israeliane. Lo stesso è avvenuto nella mia operazione”.

Intervistatore: “Cosa ha studiato [in carcere]?”

Samir Kuntar: “Scienze sociali”.

Intervistatore: “Ha completato il suo master?”

Samir Kuntar: “No, me lo hanno impedito. Altri fratelli [in carcere] hanno completato il master, ma a me l’hanno impedito per ragioni che non conosco”.

Intervistatore: “Intende completarlo ora?”

Samir Kuntar: “No. Ad Allah piacendo, farò un master diverso”.

Intervistatore: “In cosa?”

Samir Kuntar: “Un diploma di master in resistenza armata”.

Intervistatore: “Dunque Samir Kuntar questa sera sta dichiarando che…”

Samir Kuntar: “L’ho già dichiarato”.

Intervistatore: “Ha dichiarato che avrebbe fatto parte della resistenza, ma oggi lei sta dicendo che sarà un combattente armato e che condurrà operazioni militari per la resistenza islamica”.

Samir Kuntar: “Senza il minimo dubbio”.

Intervistatore: “E’ una cosa già decisa?”

Samir Kuntar: “Certamente, certamente, certamente. Lo dico tre volte”.

(Da: MEMRI, 23.07.08 )

Per il video di queste ed altre dichiarazioni di Samir Kuntar (sottotitoli in inglese) clicca qui

Israele.net

Nasrallah también cuenta que su actitud variará de acuerdo al trato de Israel con las "víctimas árabes y palestinas". De nuevo, vemos causas cruzadas. Hezbollah quiere entrometerse en temas que tocan a los palestinos para lograr popularidad en ese sector. Israel ya había dicho que no desea dar legitimidad al terrorista libanés entre los palestinos.

Al respecto, Ki-moon insta a Israel liberar palestinos para poder realizar otro intercambio con Hezbollah. Las declaraciones del Secretario General van en contra de la seguridad del Estado de Israel, favorecen el terrorismo, y considera positiva la injerencia de terroristas libaneses en temas palestinos.

Ahora, si queremos luchar contra el terrorismo no le podemos otorgar validez al ataque indiscriminado de civiles. Aislar una organización terrorista es tarea difícil; pero se hace aún más difícil cuando cuenta con ayuda de otros países y apoyo político desde esferas tan altas de poder. Y ya que hablo de aislamiento, algo va a haber que hacer en estos casos -intercambio de prisioneros- en los que es necesario negociar con terroristas. Porque tanto Israel, como el mediador alemán de Naciones Unidas, no negociaron con Líbano, sino directamente con Hezbollah. Quitando poder al gobierno libanés y favoreciendo el desarrollo de un Estado terrorista dentro de otro.

No sólo hay que pensar en el terrorismo de hoy, sino en las consecuencias de nuestras acciones en el mañana. Darle autoridad a quienes hoy no la detentan ni la merecen, legitimará el accionar terrorista en futuras causas.

Otro aspecto del terrorismo actual se vio con claridad ayer a la mañana, cuando por segunda vez en lo que va del mes un árabe de Jerusalem del Este toma una excabadora y la utiliza para matar gente. Esta clase de incidentes son los más difíciles de prevenir, sobre todo si el terrorista lo decide todo por sí solo y utiliza elementos cotidianos para atacar. Estos ataques sólo perjudican a los árabes israelíes, que de continuar esta modalidad se van a ir quedando sin trabajo por temor a estos incidentes.

Israel está considerando volver con la política de destruir casas de árabes israelíes terroristas. No sé si es efectivo o actúa como deterrence para futuros ataques. Lo concreto es que: desde que las casas de terroristas no son demolidas; creció substancialmente la cantidad de árabes israelíes involucrados en terrorismo.

A propósito, leía el paper del profesor John Mueller de Ohio y su enfoque cripto-matemático del tema. La idea es que los posibles blancos de terrorismos son casi infinitos, y la posibilidad de que un blanco específico sea atacado efectivamente es casi nula. Por lo tanto, no vale la pena agregar medidas de seguridad en todos los aspectos de la vida diaria; conviene ocuparse de los daños. Sólo tiene sentido prevenir cuando se trata de toda una clase de elementos excesivamente peligrosos, por ejemplo la clase "aviones".

"La solución" a esta amenaza es no hacer nada. Sólo ocuparse de hacer menos vulnerables los blancos que puedan llegar a causar gran pérdida de vida o daño económico o político; y no ocuparse de la infinita lista de potenciales blancos. La guerra contra el terrorismo hay que llevarla a su territorio, no pelearla en el nuestro. De lo contrario, restricciones y protecciones limitarán la libertad de nuestros civiles. No podremos mantener nuestro estilo de vida; eso es lo que quieren los terroristas, no debemos entrar en su juego del miedo.

In his letter Ban said: "I strongly commend Israel's readiness to engage in another release of Palestinian detainees and welcome Hezbollah's willingness in principle to further contribute to the solution of the humanitarian cases."

Ban said he hoped the next releases lead to "further humanitarian moves."

I suppose this is the inevitable outcome of Israel's capitulation to the demands of Hezbollah. Remember that "prisoner" swap?

After releasing child-killer Samir Kuntar (or Kantar, or Quntar, or whichever transliteration is least offensive) in return for the bodies of Udi Goldwasser and Eldad Regev (soldiers murdered by Hezbollah in a 2006 cross-border raid), Kuntar was hailed throughout the Arab world -- particularly in Lebanon -- as a national hero. And it's not because he's become a peacemaker.

On Tuesday he was interviewed by Lebanon's Future TV:

Interviewer: Are you considering completing your master's?
Samir Al-Quntar: No. Allah willing, I will do a different one.
Interviewer: In what?
Samir Al-Quntar: A master's degree in resistance.
Interviewer: What form will it take?
Samir Al-Quntar: Military...
Interviewer: So Samir Al-Quntar is declaring tonight that...
Samir Al-Quntar: I've already declared this.
Interviewer: You declared that you would be a member of the resistance, but today you are declaring that you will be a resistance fighter, and that you will carry out military missions for the resistance.
Samir Al-Quntar: Without the slightest doubt.
Interviewer: The Islamic resistance?
Samir Al-Quntar: Yes.
Interviewer: Is that a done deal?
Samir Al-Quntar: Absolutely, absolutely, absolutely. I say it three times.

Nice. That's what the UN terms a "humanitarian move."

So in return for two dead Israeli soldiers, Israel is likely to get more dead or wounded Israeli soldiers. And possibly (probably?) more dead or wounded Israeli civilians too. That is, after all, Kuntar's MO.

And don't think Hamas isn't itching to get in on the action. Let's not forget they still hold Gilad Shalit, hopefully alive. What monsters will they want released in return?

Gerusalemme, 19 lug. (Adnkronos) - Il partito libanese sciiita Hezbollah minaccia il rapimento di altri soldati israeliani, dopo lo scambio recentemente effettuato fra le salme di due militari sequestrati e cinque detenuti libanesi. Lo ha detto il vice capo della milizia di Hezbollah, Sheikh Naim Kassam, in una intervista ad un giornale del Qatar, ripresa dalla radio dell'esercito israeliano. Kassam ha dichiarato che il partito Hezbollah e' in stato di guerra con Israele e ha accusato lo stato ebraico "di continuare a infiltrare i cieli del Libano rapresentando una serie minaccia". Il vice capo della milizia ha aggiunto che Hezbollah deve ancora vendicare la morte del suo alto esponente Imad Mugniyah, perito in febbraio nell'esplosione della sua auto a Damasco. Il partito sciita ha sempre accusato Israele dell'attentato, che invece nega.

di Anna Rolli

Alcuni giorni fa, due soldati israeliani sono stati restituiti alle loro famiglie nella bara, dopo due anni di straziante dolore e di inutile speranza. I miliziani di Hezbollah li avevano rapiti e poi uccisi nell'estate del 2006, lasciando tutti all'oscuro sulla loro sorte.

Alcuni giorni fa, Samir Kuntar, il mostro che nel 1979, sulla spiaggia di Naharia, aveva assassinato un giovane padre di fronte alla figlioletta di 4 anni e poi aveva afferrato quest'ultima per le gambe sfracellandole il visetto e la testolina sugli scogli del mare...Samir Kuntar, dicevo, è tornato in Libano, accolto ed acclamato dagli Hezbollah come un eroe.

Alcuni giorni fa, in Cisgiordania, a nord -est di Gerusalemme, in una piccola località chiamata Kfar Nahalim, alcuni soldati israeliani hanno arrestato un palestinese di 27 anni, di nome Abu Rachma, che stava manifestando contro il muro di difesa. Tra l'arrestato e i giovani soldati sono corse alcune male parole e uno di questi ultimi ha sparato, a distanza ravvicinata, un proiettile di gomma in direzione delle scarpe del giovane palestinese che è stato colpito all'alluce del piede destro che si è gonfiato. Un medico militare lo ha prontamente soccorso e constatato che l'alluce in questione era guaribile in pochissimi giorni perché "si trattava di offesa molto leggera" (l'alluce non era rotto ma solo tumefatto) lo ha rimandato a casa.

L'intera scena, però, era stata filmata con una cinepresa amatoriale da una ragazzina palestinese di 14 anni appostata alla finestra di casa sua. Il risultato è stato il seguente: stamattina il video è andato in onda sui telegiornali di tutta Italia e di tutto il mondo e la propaganda anti-israeliana, com'era prevedibile, si è scatenata.

Nel frattempo, in Israele, per ordine del procuratore generale, la polizia militare dopo aver visionato il video stava già svolgendo tutte le indagini del caso, il soldato era già stato arrestato e rinchiuso nel carcere militare di Akko in attesa del completamento delle indagini e del rinvio in giudizio e il portavoce dell'esercito israeliano dichiarava: "L'accaduto è grave. Il soldato non ha rispettato né gli ordini né il regolamento militare che prevede tassativamente di salvaguardare l'integrità fisica di chiunque sia fermato o arrestato. Il comportamento di un singolo ha rappresentato un grave danno per l'immagine dell'esercito...".

Nel frattempo è di oggi la notizia ( riportata da Maariv) che a Gaza, Aiad Sokar, un palestinese di 35 anni, è stato condannato a morte, senza regolare processo, con l'accusa di aver fornito informazioni agli israeliani riguardo gli spostamenti dei combattenti della Jhiad islamica. La sentenza di morte è stata consegnata a Ramallah, alla segreteria del presidente Abu Mazen, per l'autorizzazione a procedere. Quasi nessuno ne parla, come tutti sappiamo, una condanna a morte nel mondo arabo fa infinitamente meno notizia di un dito ferito per colpa di un soldato israeliano.

(Agenzia Radicale, 22 luglio 2008 )

     How did I possibly miss this!  I've been on the road waaaay to long it appears.  Yes, what you are seeing is two Italian U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) soldiers saluting the coffins of dead Hezbollah terrorists/murderers/scumbags in the city of Tyre in southern Lebanon last week.  The large picture on the truck is of the dead world parasite Imad Mughniyeh who got ironicly blown-the-hell-up in February in Damascus.   For a refresher on Imad see my previous Another piece of global trash whacked post.

    The UNIFIL is mandated to disarm Hezbollah in southern Lebanon and and act as a buffer between Lebanon and Israel.   When the hell does the lease on the U.N. HQ in NYC run out?  Time to turn that area into a Imax theater, or something else useful.  I hope the Italians snatch these two pathetic jackasses, and their commander, back home for embarrassing good soldiers everywhere.

Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, Dan Gillerman, said he was "shocked and horrified" by the photograph and that it was time for the saluting soldiers to go.  "I think they should be recalled and be sent back to whichever country they came from," said Gillerman. "I think they've definitely compromised their impartiality and have in a very big way, in a very serious way, compromised the integrity of the United Nations."

The UNIFIL  said the salute was "nothing out of the ordinary".  

No shit!  This is very ordinary for the U.N.

H/T Fla. Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen & Weasel Zippers

(Tayyar.org)

Un incident important a secoué le camp de Ain El Helwe en cette fin de semaine. Cet incident, selon les milieux palestiniens, contribuera à apaiser les tensions entre les différentes organisations et factions armées à l’intérieur du camp qui se sont traduites par l’assassinat du responsable militaire de « Jind El Cham », Chehade Jawhar accusé d’avoir participé au meurtre des quatre magistrats à Sidon ainsi qu’à nombre d’autres crimes. Parallèlement, les deux obstacles de l’arsenal du Hezbollah et des relations avec la Syrie semblent compliquer la tâche à la Commission de rédaction de la déclaration ministérielle.

Et malgré que les membres de la Commission de rédaction se sont engagés à garder le secret sur les échanges ayant eu lieu, et malgré le discours optimiste adopté et notamment de la part du premier ministre Fouad Siniora, les observateurs pensent néanmoins que la fumée blanche ne s’élèvera pas lors des deux séances que tiendra la Commission aujourd’hui et demain. Le président de la république et l’Assemblée sont pourtant pressés de voir naître la déclaration ministérielle. Michel Sleiman voudrait que la déclaration ministérielle du cabinet d’unité nationale soit enfin adoptée afin qu’il complète le dossier qu’il va porter à Damas pour la négociation des relations libano syriennes dans le cadre du contenu de cette déclaration. Le président Berry, quant à lui, attend cette déclaration pour fixer les dates des séances de discussion et considère que chaque jour qui passe est perdu. Mais il semblerait qu’être impliqué dans les négociations des dossiers sensibles soit différent de, guetter de l’extérieur la naissance d’une déclaration ministérielle qui soit l’équivalent d’un agenda à l’attention du gouvernement pour les 10 prochains mois –qui sont des mois électoraux par excellence- ainsi qu’une feuille de route pour les relations libano syriennes que souhaitent Damas et Beyrouth suite à « une révision complète de ce qui était… » selon les propres termes du ministre syrien des Affaires Etrangères Walid El Mouallem qui se rend aujourd’hui à Beyrouth afin de débuter cette « révision » et de donner au président Sleiman une invitation officielle écrite de la part du président Assad. Et il est clair que le legs important dans le cadre des relations libano syriennes pèse de tout son poids sur la Commission de rédaction de la déclaration ministérielle ainsi que sur la rencontre du président Sleiman avec le ministre El Mouallem. La déclaration et la rencontre se recoupent au niveau de ce point et posent la base des solutions. La déclaration constituant le premier pas nécessaire à une évolution qui ne manque pas de complications.

Dans ce cadre, certains observateurs imputent ce retard à une divergence entre les déclarations des piliers du 14 mars qui témoignent d’une grande ouverture vis-à-vis des questions conflictuelles, et notamment l’arsenal du Hezbollah, et l’attitude de ses représentants au sein de la commission de rédaction qui insistent à employer le passé concernant les armes du Hezbollah et qui restent très fermés s’agissant des relations avec la Syrie.

D’un autre côté, l’opposition pense que les articles de la déclaration devraient être inspirés de la commission du dialogue national qui a réglé la question des relations diplomatiques avec la Syrie alors que la question de l’arsenal du Hezbollah est comprise dans la stratégie de défense. Et si aucun accord n’est obtenu au sein de la commission concernant ces deux questions, ces dernières seront traitées lors de la séance de discussion qu’animera le président de la république au conseil des ministres, ce qui pourrait épuiser le peu de temps dont dispose ce gouvernement et l’empêcher de se retourner vers les questions économiques et sociales plus pressantes, alors qu’il serait recommandable que le Liban profite du climat régional positif pour atteindre la stabilité avant que le vent ne tourne. C’est à cette éventualité que le président Berry aurait fait référence en disant : « Evitons de perdre le temps…nous disposons d’une chance fragile que nous devons saisir ». A partir de là, les observateurs pensent que la Syrie a une grande responsabilité et un rôle essentiel dans la redéfinition des relations entre les deux pays pour les placer dans leur cadre adapté et amender la convention de fraternité afin de la rendre équilibrée pour enfin redessiner les frontières.

Les observateurs pensent que la rencontre prévue entre Assad et Sleiman constitue un test de leur capacité à définir les relations libano syriennes une seule et dernière fois sur des bases solides et claires afin qu’elles résistent à toutes crises intérieure ou extérieure.

Ibrahim Najjar : Le tribunal n’est pas en danger mais l’exécution prend plus de temps que souhaité

Akram Chayyeb : Annulation de la convention avec la Syrie et des accords transparents ultérieurement

Issam Abou Jamra : Les 11 ministres sont la minorité de blocage et il faut boucler le dossier des détenus en Syrie

Le Mufti Jozo : Nous avons libéré quelques détenus et le pays est maintenant l’otage du Hezbollah et de l’Iran

Cheikh Naim Kassem : Nous sommes ouverts à la discussion du rôle de la résistance

Ali Hassan Khalil : Il faut précipiter l’annonce de la déclaration ministérielle

Kuntar was convicted in 1979 of dragging 4 year-old Einat Haran and her father, Danny, from their Nahariya apartment to a nearby beach, where he murdered the little girl by smashing in her head with his rifle butt and killed her father by shooting him in the back and drowning him in the Mediterranean. Danny's wife, Smadar Haran, hid with the couple's 2 year-old daughter, Yael, in a crawlspace in their apartment. But she accidentally smothered Yael to death while trying to keep her from crying out by placing a hand over her mouth.

You can read Smadar Haran's first-hand account of that terrible night here. Last week Yedioth Ahronoth published the transcripts of Kuntar's trial, including the forensic evidence that showed Einat's brain tissue was found on Kuntar's rifle. The article was translated into English and can be read here.

Kuntar's act of terror is commonly considered the worst in Israel's history. But the fact is that there are many terrorists sitting in Israeli jails who have been convicted of much worse crimes and who are responsible for killing far more civilians. The story of what Kuntar did resonates so strongly here because it involves infanticide, and because it is so nightmarishly reminiscent of the Holocaust. We all grew up with the stories of Jewish mothers who smothered their babies while trying to keep them quiet during Nazi raids of the ghettos during the Holocaust, and of SS men who killed Jewish babies by smashing their heads against walls.

So what a shock it was to see Kuntar greeted as a hero in Lebanon. How could the head of state and the head of government line up alongside Hezbollah leaders and Druze leaders to kiss a child murderer on either cheek?

In our paranoid Middle East insane asylum, a lot of those people who greeted Kuntar with open arms didn't believe he committed the crimes of which he was convicted in a court of law.  In our paranoid Middle Eastern insane asylum, facts are dismissed as propaganda - or ignored because they distract from political agendas, which are far too often followed blindly, at the expense of ordinary human compassion. And a psychopath is embraced by political leaders who are using him to gain or maintain power. Michael Young explains here why Walid Jumblatt, the Lebanese Druze leader who two months ago was comparing Hassan Nasrallah to Hitler, lined up with the Hezbollah leadership to greet Kuntar as a hero.

Chen Kotes-Barr, an Israeli journalist who works for Maariv newspaper, met and interviewed Kuntar weekly for four years. This past Friday, her feature article was published in Maariv's weekend supplement. I translated and edited a somewhat abridged version that was further edited and published in the Guardian this past Saturday. You can read the Guardian's version here.

Below is my longer translation of Ms. Kotes-Barr's piece. As you will see, it sheds substantial light on Kuntar's background and dubious motives. Or, as Linda Grant puts it here:

By his own admission, Kuntar came from a wealthy family and was educated at private schools. He is not Palestinian, he is Druze. Despite or perhaps because of his bourgeois background, he became involved in the Marxist-Leninist organizations of that period.

Kuntar fits no model of the impoverished refugee driven to despair by occupation. Nor can he be seen within the context of Iranian-backed Islamism. When he emerged from prison last week it was as a relic of a bygone age: of that era of self-appointed middle-class revolutionaries, like the Weather Underground and Baader-Meinhof Gang.

In my own youth I occasionally met people like Kuntar, their heads addled with Marxism-Leninism. Doris Lessing's novel The Good Terrorist anatomizes the mindset. But no one ever gave them, as they did Kuntar, a Kalashnikov, or military training, and so they escaped Kuntar's fate, lacking the opportunity.

I, Samir Kuntar

Over a period of four years, correspondent Chen Kotes-Bar of Maariv newspaper met regularly with Samir Kuntar. The PFLP militant, who was convicted of leading the grisly 1978 terror attack in the northern Israeli town of Nahariya, was freed this week in a controversial prisoner exchange. This is the first time his story, as told to a female Israeli journalist, has been published.

Introduction:

For the first year, my conversations with Samir Kuntar were difficult. Our meetings, which began in February 2004, took place in the prison library – just the two of us, unaccompanied. Our conversations were open, and they lasted for hours. Samir spoke to me in Hebrew. He brought tea and biscuits, and he chain-smoked. Over the 29 years he spent in Israeli jails, I was the first and only Jewish Israeli woman he met and spoke with to face-to-face.

“I’m talking to you about reality,” Kuntar said, each time we met. “I am not trying to ingratiate myself with you.” As we slowly built up some kind of trust, we stopped talking about politics and turned to personal subjects – like prison life and his own life. “Don’t go with slogans and clichés,” he implored. “Just write the facts.” He showed me photographs of his family in Lebanon. He prepared a list of Hebrew-language books on the Arab-Israeli conflict for me.

I told him about my father, who survived Auschwitz, and about my 5 year-old son. Each time I wrap him in a towel after his bath, I told Kuntar, I think of Danny Haran and his daughter Einat. About the terror attack in Nahariya.

The girl’s death was a tragic incident, answered Kuntar. He insisted that he had not killed her. What does it matter, I told him, you shot at them. If you had not landed on the beach at Nahariya in your rubber dinghy, Einat Haran would still be alive. He never expressed any remorse.

I did not try to understand, to resolve or even to interpret. I just wanted to get to know the man. “I met the enemy,” Samir said, when I asked him how he would explain our meetings to his children. “I met the enemy and I saw that he has a face.”

Shortly after the Second Lebanon War, Kuntar understood that he would be released from prison. He became an enthusiastic supporter of Hezbollah, and he became more extreme in his opinions. His expressions of anger, as he once described them, turned into expressions of hatred.

He once said that, if someone had told him 30 years ago he would sit and talk to an Israeli woman, a Jew, he would have said it was impossible. But the years had taught him that “it was possible to listen to every human being in the world.” On another occasion he told me that he saw me as a neutral player in the conflict. “No,” I answered. “You cannot neutralize me.”

****

“My name is Samir Kuntar. I am prisoner number 562885.

I was born in the village of Abiya, on Mt. Lebanon. My father worked in Saudi Arabia as a chef for Albir Avila, the international hotel chain. He was a well-known chef, in high demand. He used to come home once every two months, always laden with gifts like clothes and perfumes. For the last birthday I celebrated at home, I remember that my parents bought me a leather jacket and my father baked me a layer cake.

My mother is a homemaker with a very strong personality. When she decides something, that’s it – you can never change her mind. My family is Druze, secular and well off. We are three brothers and five sisters. We have a beautiful house that overlooks Beirut, with a view of the airport from the balcony.

One winter evening in 1968, around 9 or 10 o’clock, we heard explosions. The whole house trembled. When the noise started, we went outside and saw huge flames rising from the airport, lighting up the sky like flares. I stood and watched, unable to move. I had never seen anything like it. That was the IDF raid that took place in December 1968, after the attacks on El Al planes.

The first time I heard of Israel? I was six-and-a-half.

I was a quiet, introspective kid. I attended a private school, where I did very well. In the afternoons, after school, I’d go with my friends to hunt birds with a slingshot, or swim in the river. In winter, when there was a snowfall, we’d mess about outdoors and take photos of one another.

Occasionally my father took me to Beirut. When I saw the refugee camps on the edge of the city, I asked my father what they were. He explained to me, ‘Son, those are Palestinians. The Israelis drove them out of their country, and they’re not allowed to return.’

We were fans of the Nejmah football team, and of the singer Fayrouz.

I dreamt of being a soldier. I wanted to go to the military academy and become an officer. But then in April 1975 the academy was closed, because of the civil war. So I spent a lot of time at home, hanging out with my friends, talking about teenage stuff. We didn’t talk about politics. I read comic books – I had a subscription, because I really loved comics – and I watched the news. Then I joined the Scouts – the branch that was sponsored by Kamal Jumblatt’s Progressive Socialist party. My parents really admired Jumblatt; they even hung his photo on the living room wall.

We used to have Scout meetings twice a week. Activities were divided by age, and they were for boys only. We did mostly social activities, like picking olives in a nearby village. Or physical activities, like rock climbing, hiking and running.

I wanted to fight. By then there were pictures of Arafat on the streets, and posters about the Palestinian revolution, and Palestinians used to collect donations door-to-door. I said, “Singing and going hiking with teenagers is not for me.” I went to the head of the Socialist party movement and said, “Let me go fight the Phalangists.” He answered, ‘You’re too young.’ I was 13-and-a-half at the time. I loved action and I was idealistic. Representatives of Ahmed Jibril’s Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) - General Command, were recruiting candidates for military training from my village, so I convinced one of them to let me enlist. Each afternoon at 5 o’clock, a car would collect me and take me to the training camp. That’s where I shot a gun for the first time - a Kalashnikov. It was fantastic.

At first no one suspected a thing at home, but after a few days my father found out. He was a man of peace; war was the last thing you would associate with his character. Seeing that I was completely high on adrenaline, he said, ‘Why don’t you go abroad, to Amsterdam?’ The company he worked for had a branch in Amsterdam. I didn’t want to go. I said, ‘Dad, no. I am not leaving this place.’ But he wouldn’t give up. He showed me photos of Amsterdam; still I wasn’t interested. Pretty soon we were arguing, and everyone at home started to nag me. ‘You’re still young, forget about all this stuff.’ My father said, ‘I will send you anywhere you want to go. Just choose a destination and I’ll take care of everything.’ But he could not say anything to change my mind.”

The training

“The military training course lasted six weeks. It was led by the PFLP, but the participants were unaffiliated with any organization. We slept 60 to a tent and practiced climbing ropes, running and shooting. We were given political lectures and they showed us films about Israel. We lived for the stories about the Yom Kippur War in 1973 – how we succeeded in destroying the myth of the invincible Israeli soldier. We read about the fighters who successfully attacked Israeli towns like Kiryat Shmona and Maalot [in 1974 the DFLP attacked a school in Maalot, killing 21 high school pupils – LG]. We admired them.

At the end of the course we were allowed to apply for membership in the PFLP. The welcoming committee was composed of five men in uniform, but without any ranks because the PFLP was Marxist. We were forbidden to salute, for the same reason. They asked me annoying questions, like ‘Are you completely convinced of the suffering of the Palestinian people?’ and ‘Why do you want to join the organization?’ Everyone had to choose a nom de guerre, so I chose Nabil Ahmed Kassam. I was given a new uniform and an ID card with the PFLP logo. It showed my blood type and my rank: ’combat soldier. ’

When the PFLP split in 1976, I stayed with the Palestine Liberation Front (PLF) that was led by Abu Abbas and I went to officers’ training. I studied tactics, topography, weapons, engineering and communications. There were also courses in ideology. I finished seventh in my class. I was 15 years old.”

The commander of the Nahariya operation

When he was 16 years old, having spent 11 months in a Jordanian prison following a failed terror operation, Samir Kuntar was given leadership of a cell and assigned to attack Nahariya, an Israeli coastal town located about 10 kilometers south of Lebanon.

During that notoriously brutal attack, Kuntar dragged 32 year-old Danny Haran and his 4 year-old daughter, Einat, from their apartment to the nearby beach. He killed Haran by shooting him in the back and then drowning him, while Einat watched. According to forensic evidence and eyewitness court testimony, Kuntar then killed the 4 year-old girl by smashing her skull against the rocks with the butt of his rifle. Her mother, Smadar, hid in a crawlspace with 2 year-old Yael, but accidentally smothered her to death while trying to silence the toddler’s cries. The Nahariya attack is considered the most brutal in Israel’s history. It is seared on the collective Israeli consciousness.

“I chose three comrades for the mission: Abdel Majed Aslan, Mhana Salim Al-Muayed, and Ahmed Al-Abras. I was the commander. We were given special training in weapons and in sea operations – swimming at night with full gear, navigating a rubber dinghy, and so on. The training was very extensive, because several previous attempts to infiltrate Israel by sea had failed.”

The mission: to kill civilians

“During our training, we recorded our wills. Everyone wrote his own will, and the political leader corrected the technical errors. I wrote, ‘To my comrades in the organization, to all my comrades in all the Palestinian organizations, today I sacrifice myself for Palestine…We are proponents of peace and this is the way to obtain the peace in which we believe. I do this in the name of the all the Palestinian mothers, for their happiness and their future. I do this for all the Palestinian fathers, and I hope that, with my acts, I will contribute to their future return to their birthplace, so that every Palestinian family will be permitted to raise its children in harmony. Peace to everyone.’

Two weeks before Kuntar and his comrades set out on their mission, Abu Abbas informed the cell leader that his destination was Nahariya. In a meeting that took place in the organization’s Beirut ‘war room,’ Abu Abbas showed Kuntar a map of the Israeli town and gave him a detailed operational briefing.

“Abu Abbas told us there was a 99 percent probability that we would not return. It was clear that we were going to kill civilians. We defined the operation as ‘Wounding Israelis.’ We said that every Israeli civilian is in fact a soldier.

I went back to my village to visit my parents for the last time. After dinner, I kissed my parents and my sisters and brothers goodbye, and I went to Beirut.”

Nahariya

“We called the mission ‘Al Nasser,’ for the former president of Egypt. This was after Sadat visited Israel. We set out on the rubber dinghy at 10 p.m. on April 21, 1979. The sea was stormy and it was cold. The journey to Nahariya took about four hours, because we traveled slowly to avoid making noise.”

Upon landing on the beach in Nahariya, Kuntar and his comrades followed the instructions they had been given in Beirut – which included finding a police officer and killing him. So they knocked on the door of a private house and called out in Arabic via the intercom, frightening the inhabitants into calling the police. They killed Officer Eliyahu Shachar in a hail of bullets – Kuntar boasts that he alone shot 30 bullets – and, just to make sure they had achieved their goal, they lobbed an RPG at the police vehicle.

The four terrorists continued to a nearby multi-story apartment building on Jabotinsky Street, about two blocks from the beach. They planned, said Kuntar, to abduct two or three people and take them back to Lebanon.

“We walked up some stairs and I kicked open the door of an apartment,” recounted Kuntar. I told Majed to take the right, while I took the left. Majed opened the bedroom door and someone inside – I guess he heard the noise - shot him twice in the forehead. He managed to say, ‘They shot me,’ before he fell.

I doubled back, entered the bedroom and saw the man who shot Majed. He was an older guy, with a long nose. I pulled the trigger on my pistol that was equipped with a silencer, but nothing happened. I tried again, but still nothing. I tried using my Kalashnikov, but it was jammed. That guy was lucky.

I yelled downstairs, ‘Someone get up here.’ Ali came up the stairs. I told him, ‘Toss a grenade in there, I’ve gotta fix my weapon.’ The explosion made everything go black. The guy in the bedroom disappeared. I was pretty sure he was dead, but I fired a few more shots just to make sure. Then we went downstairs. The stairwell was dark, but there was light under the door of one of the apartments. We broke in. That was the Haran family’s apartment.”

Murder. Why we did not commit suicide.

“Dan Haran was standing there, looking at us. The little girl was with him. When we arrived, he was sitting on the bed, as if he were waiting for someone. But as soon as we entered the bedroom, he stood up. He started talking to me in English. I didn’t understand much; just a few words. He was trying to explain that I should not hurt him. I told my comrade in Arabic, ‘Don’t shoot.’

I tried to calm him down with gestures. I said to him, ‘Come.’ He started speaking to me in a mixture of Hebrew and English. He held his daughter tightly. The little girl did not make a sound. She was wearing pyjamas. I tried to tell him to leave her there, but he did not understand. I tried telling him ‘Come.” But he did not want to come with me. I understood that he was trying to give the police time to arrive. He was afraid.

My comrade, Muhammad Ali, did not understand why we were waiting. I tried explaining to Haran again, using Arabic and hand gestures. He understood, but he was completely unwilling to come with me. I tried to separate him from the little girl. Then I heard shots outside. It was 2.45 a.m. I said, ‘He is delaying us.’

I grabbed him in a hurry, with the girl still in his arms. I said to him, ‘Yalla, imshi [‘Let’s go, move it’]. We left the building surrounding Haran, who was holding his daughter in his arms, and went down to the beach. Haran kept halting and talking, trying to delay us. But we had to get to the boat. They were waiting for us in Lebanon.

As we approached the rubber dinghy, we heard a lot of voices. Then shots were fired in our direction.

We approached the boat from the rocks, and Ali took Danny on board. That’s when they started to shoot at us really hard. I returned fire, but it wasn’t enough. Ali and Danny got off the boat. I ordered everyone to take a position on the rocks and return fire. Danny was behind us. His daughter was near him. Haran waved at the soldiers and called out to them in Hebrew. They alerted the area and continued to fire heavily. I ducked down to put a fresh magazine into my rifle. Haran waved again, while they were still firing, and he was wounded.

The little girl screamed. That was the first time we heard her. That’s it. I don’t remember anything else.

The battle continued until around 5.30 a.m. Ahmed was wounded in the forehead. Ali was killed. I took five bullets and lost a lot of blood. I was not focused.

Before the operation, I had instructed everyone to prepare explosive suicide belts. Ali prepared his belt and asked me, ‘So, should we blow ourselves up?’ I told him, ‘Not yet. Wait for the soldiers to get closer. I don’t want us to die alone.’ I knew that if Ahmed detonated his belt, we would all blow up. The soldiers got closer, but Ahmed didn’t detonate the belt. To this day, I do not know why.

What happened to the girl? During the interrogation they told me, ‘You must admit that you wounded the girl with your rifle.’ I told them, ‘Write whatever you want.’ I did not see anything and I did not hear anything. It was total chaos there. I was focused on the goal. I don’t mind admitting to things that I did. I don’t want to admit to things that I did not do.”

* * *

It should be emphasized that Samir Kuntar’s version of the events of April 22, which have been articulated here in his voice for the first time, is different from that of the security service personnel and Israeli civilians who were present.

According to the Israeli security services’ reconstruction of the incident, Officer Eliyahu Shachar was killed after he exited his vehicle and fired two warning shots into the air. Kuntar’s cell responded with a massive burst of shots. A teenager who was sitting in the car, together with two more police officers, was wounded in the leg and ran to hide behind some bushes. According to the eyewitnesses, the RPG was fired at a nearby wall – not at the police vehicle, which was damaged by flying shrapnel.

Also contradicting Kuntar’s testimony is that of Smadar Haran, Danny Haran’s widow, who hid with the couple’s 2 year-old daughter Yael in a tiny crawlspace above the bedroom. She has no recollection of hearing Kuntar trying to convince Danny to leave little Einat behind. “It was a terrible and chaotic night, but I find it very difficult to believe that any such conversation took place,” said Smadar.

Brigadier General (reserve army) Yossi Schur, a resident of Nahariya whose home was near the site of the attack, heard the shots and was one of the first to find the police officer, 24 year-old Eliyahu Shachar. After checking his pulse to confirm he was dead, Schur radioed for help and continued in the direction of the beach, where the firefight was ongoing. “…suddenly I heard the blood-chilling scream of a young girl. Just as I yelled, ‘Halt!’ Samir Kuntar stood up and began shooting at me from a distance of 5 meters. Three bullets hit me in the chest, and I fell. During his interrogation by the Shin Bet, Kuntar said that he twisted the little girl’s leg in order to make her scream, so that we would stop the assault. And we did, indeed, cease firing after she screamed. After I fell, the firefight continued.”

Samir Kuntar and Ahmed Al-Abras were wounded and captured at 5.30 a.m. Mhanna Salim Al-Muayed was killed during the exchange of fire.

During his trial Kuntar denied responsibility for the murder of the Haran family, despite the evidence of the pathologist, which proved that Einat Haran was killed by the force of a blunt instrument – most likely a rifle butt. The pathologist’s report also showed that Einat’s brain tissue was found on Kuntar’s rifle.

Torture and the wish to die, quickly

Samir Kuntar describes the physical torture he underwent during his interrogation. “On the second day of my interrogation, they started to talk about the girl. They asked how she was killed, who shot her.’ Only later did they start telling me that she had died from the blow of a rifle butt. I stuck with my story, but they insisted I had killed her. They took me outside and shackled me. Here, I still have the scars on my wrists. For five days they kept me shackled to an iron bar, with my arms up. I was in a standing position, so when I got tired or fainted all the pressure was on my wrists. Every so often, a soldier would beat me with a rubber hose. They practiced karate on my body. I was blindfolded and they would not allow me to sit or lie down. After they had finished beating me, they immediately returned me to the interrogation room.

My interrogator, Abu Zaken, kept insisting that I would write out a full confession. I hated him; he was a monster. He asked me where I had trained, for how long, and so on. But I did not tell. The little bit I did tell was just old wives’ tales. During those five days, I just wanted to die. I couldn’t take it anymore – the beatings, the humiliations, the curses. And the megaphones they put on my ears, with the noise of sirens at full volume. That made me faint.

I was kept in a tiny, windowless cell that was painted red. Bread, water and carrots were passed through a slit in the door three times a day. Sometimes a little cheese. I was kept in shackles and there was not enough room to lie down. Every few weeks a soldier would empty the slops bucket. After a while, the interrogations were less frequent.”

Five months later, Kuntar was transferred to a prison for political prisoners. His cellmate was Kozo Okomoto, the Japanese Red Army militant who perpetrated the Lod Airport Massacre in 1972.

The trial

In November the trial of Samir Kuntar began at the Haifa District Courts. It lasted for three months. “I thought it was a circus,” said Kuntar. “There were 52 witnesses. I testified for 90 minutes, in Arabic. The sentence was handed down on January 29, 1980. I got five life sentences plus 48 years inside. At the trial I heard for the first time the names of Eliyahu Shachar, Einat, Danny Haran and Smadar Haran, who survived.”

“Smadar took me on as her personal project. She just could not understand that it wasn’t personal. I didn’t come from Lebanon with a note that said, ‘Haran family.’ I came as part of a conflict in which I was convinced I had to participate. I did what I did for my people, for my country. I did not steal, I did not break into a car.

Even if I sit in jail for a hundred years, I will never change my opinions. This is what I believe. You are all banging your heads against the wall. You are playing a zero sum game, and both sides are losing. The solution is for the stronger side to compromise. You are the stronger side. You are the occupiers. If you don’t compromise, things will not work out. Those are my opinions. I, in my eyes, am a Palestinian. It is as if you were to ask an IDF soldier if he regretted having fired shots. You don’t ask soldiers that question.

You say I am a terrorist with ‘blood on his hands.’ That is a cynical phrase. You have blood on your hands, too. Every Israeli citizen who pays taxes to the state has blood on his hands. All of you.

People who commit acts of terror, like me, are not bloodthirsty. You cannot say that I woke up one morning, without knowing anything about the Palestinian nation, without having grown up in the conflict, and decided to commit an act of terror. No, of course not. It was a process, and it was connected with my political and ideological roots. It is also not a question of age, of how old I was. Young people are more motivated, it’s true. So age was a factor, but not a deciding one. I was not unusually attracted to Palestinians. I always believed, even when I was young, that we cannot enjoy our lives while letting the next generation be consumed by the conflict. I wanted to fight for the Palestinian nation. I believe that, by sacrificing my life for the people to whom I am connected, I committed a moral and humane act. I was not a mercenary soldier.”

Prison. Zionism in Hebrew

In prison, Kuntar taught himself Hebrew and went on to earn an undergraduate degree in the humanities from the Open University of Israel. “I took a course on the Holocaust. I received a mark of 90 percent for a course on strategies of the Second World War. I learned about Pearl Harbour and Operation Barbarossa. I started studying for my Master’s degree, but they would not allow me to complete it.

I read a lot. I hardly slept at night. I don’t like to sleep. I like to experience every minute of life, even in jail. I ordered books via the canteen. I made an effort to read every new book about the army, security, wars that happened here, Zionism. I am anti-Zionist, not anti-Jewish. I am against the politics of Zionism. I think the establishment of the State of Israel was a mistake, but I do not hate Jews. I sent some of my books to Lebanon, so I will have them at home when I return. You have to know the people you are fighting against. I listen to Israeli music, and I read Israeli novels, too.”

The deal. Nasrallah made it happen.

“I don’t know when I became a symbol. It was a process. I think it started with the hijacking of the Achille Lauro, in 1985. I was told the hijackers mentioned my name, and some of the prison guards told me I should be ready to be released. I stayed in jail, though. Over the years they released prisoners who committed much worse acts than I. They freed Al-Abras in the Jibril deal.

I became the longest-serving political prisoner in Israel. I became a spokesman and a representative of the political prisoners. I have participated in every single hunger strike and protest that took place over the last 28 years. Starting from 1984, I led the hunger strikes. Every single thing we were granted – a bed, clock, civilian clothes, television, radio – everything was the result of a strike. They gave us rights and then they took them away.

And then you made me into your bargaining chip. That was in 2004, when I was in Nafha Prison. There were hundreds of smuggled mobile phones at Nafha. I spoke with Kassam, Nasrallah’s deputy, around the time when Israel was planning to trade hundreds of prisoners for Elchanan Tennenbaum and the three [dead – LG] soldiers.

I had never heard of Hezbollah before I was captured. I learned about them in jail. Today I love Hassan Nasrallah very much. Very much. He always keeps his promises. If it weren’t for him they would never release me, and I would end my days in jail.”

Release from jail

“When the war began, I felt pride. Our people have finally begun to value human life, as you did once. I hoped the abducted soldiers were alive. I knew they were more valuable alive, and I wanted the price to be high. I heard the parents of the abducted soldiers speaking. Things like that lower the barriers. I knew that if they had released me in 2004, your soldiers would not have been abducted. There would not have been a war at all. You are responsible. You behaved with stupidity and arrogance. After the 2004 prisoner swap I told one of the guards at Nafha, ‘Listen, there is going to be a war over me. Remember that.’ I knew that there would be a deal and I would be released. That it was just a matter of time.”

“What am I going to do now, after my release? I really don’t know. I feel as if I am going to another world. I need to sit and digest my new situation. If I had been imprisoned at an older age, it wouldn’t be so difficult. But I came to jail as a teenager. This is the first time I will experience life on the outside as an adult. I need to learn how to drive, to go to the bank, to buy things at the shops. I have never held money in my hand.

The thing I need most now is privacy. In 2004, when I was supposed to be freed, I bought a house, 40 meters from the beach, in Beirut. The house is waiting. I want to be alone. I want to have my own key, so that I can come and go whenever I please, to drink coffee on the balcony, to smoke a cigarette, to go down and swim in the sea and go jet skiing.

Addendum to the Maariv article:

“My place will always be on the front lines”

by Arik Weiss

In interviews with the Israeli media, Samir Kuntar has presented himself as a moderate pragmatist. But his statements in other contexts have revealed a slightly different picture

In the few interviews that Samir Kuntar granted the Israeli media over the 29 years he was in jail, he presented himself as a moderate who no longer believed in terrorism against civilians. He even sent a letter of condolence to Shimon Peres after the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin in 1995. “With pain and with sorrow I have just received the shocking news of the murder of the leader of peace, Yitzhak Rabin. May his memory be blessed,” wrote Kuntar. “We have all lost a great leader, who planted in our hearts the value of loving humankind and who wished to stop the cycle of bloody violence.”

But in letters that were smuggled to the Arab press over the years, a slightly different picture emerges. In 2003 the Lebanese magazine Al Safir published an interview with Kuntar in which he said, “I am a guarantor for the release of the prisoners. I am a weapon in the hands of Hezbollah. Our release is not a preparation for the disarming of the Resistance, but rather proof that our method is the correct one. The weapons of the Intifada must remain in order to strengthen the standing of the Palestinians.”

Over recent years Bassam Kuntar, Samir’s younger brother, established a website calling for his release [samirkuntar.org, but it’s been disabled since his release. – LG]. The site was translated into Hebrew, English and Arabic, but the texts in the different languages do not match. According to one of the articles on the site, “On the day I left the beach of Tyre I was sad, but at the same time I was bursting with happiness because I knew that I was going to fulfill my obligation: to kill Jews. I no longer had any patience. I knew that I had to sacrifice myself.”

In a letter he sent to Hassan Nasrallah that was published on the website, Kuntar wrote, “I bless my brothers in the Hezbollah and call upon them to return to the battlefield against the Zionist occupiers. I strongly recommend the participation of more young men and women from all over Lebanon and the Arab world in the armed struggle.”

In another letter he sent to Nasrallah after the assassination of Imad Mugniyah, Kuntar promised that “[my] place has always been on the front lines of the battle…which is soaked with the blood of the dearest people. I will continue in my path until the final, complete victory.”

At an elaborate ceremony welcoming him back to Lebanon this past Wednesday, Kuntar, dressed in a Hezbollah army uniform, said, “I swear by Allah that I will continue in the path upon which I started.”

The Canadian Internet service provider iWeb recently removed three websites powered by Hamas and Hizbullah - both designated as terrorist organizations in Canada. Jonathan Halevi, co-founder of the Orient Research Group Ltd. and a senior researcher of the Middle East and radical Islam at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, had filed a complaint after discovering that an official Hamas website was being hosted in Canada. After reporting that Hizbullah may be activating sleeper cells in Canada, CBC questioned iWeb about two additional websites, one promoting Hizbullah and the other in support of Hamas, both of which were eventually taken down.

According to Halevi, as much as 95% of online activity powered by terrorist organizations, including al-Qaeda and Hamas, is hosted by American servers.

"Nobody is getting sued for supporting terrorist organizations on the Web. There is an urgent need for an international Internet police," he said.

The papers and analysts took great satisfaction in painting the winners and the losers in this trade-off and in doing so, managed not to paint the heroes and the villains in this scenario.

The winners, and this I think is unanymous, were Hezbollah and the Lebanese, there en-masse to welcome home their hero Samir Kuntar (or Qantar). The losers were the Israeli government who fell short this time of being able to claim even the moral victory on this occasion, as their critics were so vocal that it pretty muched drowned out the significance of the sacrifice.

The choice to enter the 2006 Lebanese conflict was a direct result of the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Elad Regev, a conflict that the Israeli public is still smarting from. The conflict itself was handled badly, the soldiers ill-prepared, faced an enemy that were far better equipped and a far cry from the unorganised guerilla militia that they experienced in the first Lebanese conflict.

At the time the winners, both in the battle of public relations and human conflict were Hezbollah. It strengthened their claim to mainstream Lebanese conflict and painted the Israelis to be less than competent, and perhaps in the most skilled slight of hand, showed Israel to be unfair agressors. Evevryone remembers the Israelis having to explain their bombing of seemingly civilian centers during the war. Hezbollah had quite ruthlessly used civilian shields for their rocket launching sites and knew well that the casualties were a cheap price to pay for the PR victory they would claim over the Israelis.

The winners and the losers. It is pathetic, but we have the need to categorise, the incessant need to point the finger of blame. The real winners? Hezbollah have achieved their short term aims, but those with foresight predict that the worst is yet to come with Nasrallah readying to use this as a platform to launch yet another offensive that will catch Israel off-balance. All they have to do is find another staged incident that will act as a trigger, similar to the kidnappings.The real losers? Once again, the families of the kidnapped soldiers as well as their comrades who gave their lives in the futile conflict to return them home safely.

It was most likely that the two soldiers were either dead or badly injured and dying by the time they were dragged accross the border in Lebanon. By all accounts they were ambushed at point blank range, which didnt leave them much of a chance. Finally, when the coffins were delivered last week the Goldwasser and Regev families could bring some closure to this tragic chapter in their lives, but the overriding feeling was futility as the many more families counted the human cost of trying to recover two corpses. The moral victory was lost of them. Politically, this is yet another vote of no-confidence in the Israeli political system, which is run like an old-boy's club of ex-soldiers who really have no place leading a country. Corruption might be grabbing the headlines, but incompetence has been a far more serious and recurring theme for as long as I care to remember.

On the otherside of the border, the talk was of unity, victory and freedom as terrorist and murderer Samir Kuntar was welcomed home. The headline prisoner in the exchange, Kuntar is famous for being the longest held detainee in an Israeli prison(, or so his website says http://web.archive.org/web/20070817040847/http://www.samirkuntar.org/).

As I read the marginalised articles that covered the return of the Israeli coffins and the funerals that followed, the stories about Kuntar's heroic homecoming grabbed all the headlines, online and in the English press. I guess the BBC reckon it makes better news, or a more interesting read or perhaps it just fits in better with their philosophy of supporting the underdog and general media bias.

The Guardian lead with an interesting double page spread, in which they featured Chen Kotes-Bar's interview of Kuntar in an Israeli Jail over the past few years ( http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jul/19/lebanon.israelandthepalestinians ). As usual, the article attempts to humanise the monster, whilst also keeping the audience captive in the circus horror sort of way. From looking at the accompanying pictures of Kuntar, I cant help but judge him as a crazed fanatical killer merely from his photograph.

Lets face it, the photo of him hugging these two kids doenst fool anyone. You'd rather leave your kids unsupervised with Joseph Fritzl, than with this boggle eyed James Bond henchman.

Kotes-Bar, who is significantly introduced as a Journalist and daugher of an Auschwitz survivor, asks the usual questions regarding the incidents that took place the night that lead to the deaths of Israeli Danny Haran and his two daughters, amongst others. In his defence, and perhaps quite genuinely, Kuntar recollection of the exact events of that night is quite hazy. There was a lot of confusion that night and ultimaely "The girl's death was a tragic incident, answered Qantar. He insisted that he had not killed her." But Kotes-Bar quite rightly states that no matter whether it was intended "What does it matter, I told him, you shot at them. If you had not landed on the beach at Nahariya in your rubber dinghy, Einat Haran would still be alive. He never expressed any remorse."

There are certain things about his account that are very unsettling. Its hard to believe that Kuntar was just 16 at the time he set out in his dinghy to attack innocent Israeli civilians, but just as all murderers often try to find some sort of pre-destined justification for their attacks he describes finding Haran and his daughter as if they had been waiting for him to come and ruin their lives: "Dan Haran was standing there, looking at us. The little girl was with him. When we arrived, he was sitting on the bed, as if he were waiting for someone." I dont know why this observation is significant other than a fatalistic remembrance of the event that somehow eases his guilt. Other than the Dan Haran being shot in the back and his daughter Einat having her skull crushed by the butt of his rifle, Kuntar indirectly caused the death of Haran's other daughter who was most tragically smothered to death by her own mother, whilst she was trying to stifle her cries so that they were not discovered hiding.

This is Hezbollah's hero. This makes the headlines.

Who is the ultimate winner? Perhaps only the grim reaper.

]]> http://frstan.wordpress.com/?p=27 Mon, 21 Jul 2008 23:22:31 +0000 frstan http://frstan.wordpress.com/?p=27 Hanno raggiunto il Libano i cinque detenuti libanesi liberati da Israele in cambio dei resti dei soldati Eldad Regev e Ehud Goldwasser. Lo ha mostrato la Tv Al Manar, la stessa che nella mattina di mercoledì aveva mandato in onda la consegna delle bare degli israeliani. Tra i cinque, tutti miliziani di Hezbollah catturati da Israele nel 2006 anche Samir Kuntar, condannato a cinque ergastoli nel 1979 che sorridente ha salutato dal finestrino. Al loro arrivo, le auto sono state prese d'assalto dai fotografi e Quntar è sceso per stringere le mani ad una piccola folla. Gli altri quattro ex prigionieri non sono stati ancora mostrati alle telecamere.Il commentatore di al Manar ha affermato che si tratta delle prime immagini di al Quntar da 30 anni.A Beirut sono echeggiate raffiche di mitra al cielo in segno di giubilo e nella sala vip dell'aeroporto di Beirut, dove sono attesi i cinque ex prigionieri, la folla ha applaudito a lungo. Per loro sono stati organizzati grandi festeggiamenti. Al tempo stesso dal Libano in direzione di Israele viaggia un furgone della Croce Rossa Internazionale con una cassa contenente parti di corpi di soldati israeliani uccisi in Libano nel conflitto del 2006 che gli Hezbollah hanno deciso di restituire. Sono andati secondo gli accordi, dunque, gli scambi di prigionieri tra Hezbollah e Israele. In cambio della restituzione dei due soldati, Israele ha promesso di liberare anche altri 200 miliziani «martiri» arabi morti «in operazioni di resistenza» lanciate contro Israele dal Libano negli ultimi trent'anni.

Fonte: http://www.unita.it/view.asp?IDcontent=77194

Understanding It– The Moral Gulf

July 18, 2008 by TruthJustice

http://islamofascism.wordpress.com/2008/07/18/understanding-it-the-moral-gulf/

Tags: Hezbollah, Hizballah, Islamofascism, Israel, Lebanon, War on terror West

In an emotionally sensible yet nevertheless strategically foolish decision, Israel has handed over Samir Kuntar, four other Lebanese militants captured in the 2006 war, and the bodies of 200 Lebanese and Palestinian fighters. In exchange it receives the bodies of Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, the soldiers captured by Hezbollah on the eve of the war, and a report on the status of the missing navigator, Ron Arad.

I won't link to many articles covering the details of this lop-sided deal. However, there were a couple of things that stood out in amongst the flurry of newspaper ink. Amal Saad-Ghorayeb wrote a very perceptive piece in openDemocracy:

[T]he very nature of the current exchange, as well as its strategic implications, renders it a zero-sum game in which Israel loses and Hizbollah again emerges triumphant. In implementing it, Israel will effectively fulfil the Hizbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah's "truthful promise" to secure the release of Lebanese prisoners held by Israel (the original aim of the operation Hizbollah carried out on 12 July 2006 when it abducted two Israeli soldiers on the Israel-Lebanon border) and reconfirm his oft-repeated slogan: "just as I always used to promise you victory, now I promise you victory once again". The overall impact will be to give these popular catchphrases the appearance of strategic foresights....

If the deal's substance is hard enough for Israel, its strategic implications are also a major cause of concern, on four grounds.

First, the prisoner-exchange constitutes a tacit admission of Israel's responsibility for the July-August 2006 war, which wreaked mass destruction on Lebanon and resulted in the deaths of over 1,200 (mainly civilian) Lebanese....

Second, the exchange-deal - as well as establishing Israel's responsibility for the 2006 war - confirms the Winograd commission's assessment of Israel's defeat in it. Its formidable military machine failed then both to eliminate Hizbollah's military capacity and to win the unconditional release of its two prisoners....

Third, in agreeing to the deal Israel cannot seek solace in the fact that it is submitting to the will of the international community or the diktat of international law. The prisoner-exchange will be conducted under the auspices of the United Nations; but it bears recalling that United States Security Council Resolution 1701 (which ended the war on 14 August 2006) - while appealing for an "urgent settling" of the issue of the Lebanese prisoners - adopted Israel's idiom by stipulating the "unconditional release of the abducted Israeli soldiers" (rather than calling for a swap). In this manner, Hizbollah appears to have succeeded in defying not only Israel, but the will of the international community as well.

Fourth, by recognising Hizbollah rather than the Lebanese government as its negotiating partner, Israel has inadvertently undermined the latter and thus further exacerbated its own position. Hizbollah's own response to criticism within Lebanon of its priority in this respect (such as from the politician Amin Gemayel) has always been that no Lebanese government has ever sought the release of Lebanese prisoners through diplomatic means; a case in point is the current government of Fouad Siniora, which has not used the diplomatic leverage it enjoys with the United States and Europe to resolve the prisoner issue. The result is that Hizbollah emerges as the force in Lebanon that can deliver, thereby perpetuating an important political dynamic - of the non-state actor which functions as the de facto state versus the state non-actor which merely enjoys the status of de jure state.

This distinction in part answers the question raised by a leading member of Lebanon's governing 14 March faction, the Druze leader Walid Jumblatt,: "how is it that some of us [in Lebanon] have the right to conduct negotiations for the return of prisoners, to conduct negotiations with Israel", while the state - if it engages in similar negotiations - is "accused of collaborating with the enemy"? The key point is that the Lebanese de jure state, without a defensive strategy or policy, lacks the power (vis-à-vis its enemies) and the moral authority (over a significant segment of Lebanon's population) to negotiate deals of this kind, least of all with a foe as militarily superior and popularly anathematised as Israel. If the Lebanese state, in its current capacity, were to negotiate directly or indirectly with Israel, it would be the result of US-Israeli pressure to do so; whereas groups like Hizbollah and Hamas are engaged in such negotiations because they have forced Israel to submit to them.

The Guardian (H/T The Angry Arab -- great to see him refer to The Guardian as "white supremecist"!) carried an interview with Samir Kuntar where he disputes the Israeli narrative. Predictably, the PFLP fighters were trying only to take Danny Haran hostage, and even told him (in Arabic) to leave his daughter behind. Equally predictably, returning fire from Israeli police probably killed Danny and his four year old daughter. Except,

Samir Qantar's version of the events of April 22, which have been articulated here in his voice for the first time, is different from that of the security service personnel and Israeli civilians who were present.

And,

During his trial Qantar denied responsibility for the murder of the Haran family, despite the evidence of the pathologist, which proved that Einat Haran was killed by the force of a blunt instrument - most likely a rifle butt. The pathologist's report also showed that Einat's brain tissue was found on Qantar's rifle.