Israeli President Shimon Peres pardons child killer
I believe this is the first time Israel has released an Arab terrorist with actual blood on his hands—an unrepentant child killer—in exchange for two soldiers who are already dead...
Israel to Swap Prisoners With Hezbollah Wednesday:
The Israeli government said it will swap prisoners with the Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah on Wednesday, closing a chapter between the enemies two years after they fought an inconclusive war.
The prison service said Sunday Israel would free five Lebanese, including the perpetrator of one of the most notorious attacks in Israeli history. In exchange, Hezbollah will return two soldiers it captured in a cross-border raid that sparked the 2006 war. Israel believes the soldiers are dead.
Swap prisoners? This is not a prisoner swap. This is Israel handing over a child killer for two dead soldiers. And on top of that, President Shimon Peres has pardoned Samir Kuntar, "the perpetrator of one of the most notorious attacks in Israeli history":
In (a) letter addressed to Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann, Peres wrote "I want to stress the obvious – in this decision there is no forgiveness or absolution for the murderer's heinous actions. I will not forget, and I won't forgive."
He will not forgive? But he will pardon. I don't think Kuntar will notice the difference. Or care:
Meanwhile, final preparations were being made Tuesday evening on the Lebanese side of the border for the prisoner exchange between Israel and Hizbullah, with gunmen belonging to the Shiite group setting up a stage adorned with the photos of Kuntar and the four other terrorists who are slated for release.
Kuntar's brother, Bassam, told Reuters "after 30 years of waiting - I was only a year and a few months old (when he was captured), I never knew him except through pictures and letters. The moment I meet him will be exceptional".
"It's a moment I've always dreamed of and that stayed in my imagination," he said, adding that fireworks, gatherings and billboards had been prepared to mark his brother's return.
There will be no fireworks for the Israeli soldiers, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev. There will be a gathering. For the funerals. Hezbollah's plan worked:
Samir Kuntar, in case you didn't know, is the main guy that Hezbollah kidnapped the 2 israeli soldiers to get back.
As part of the deal, Israel was supposed to receive information on missing airman Ron Arad:
Israel also will receive a report on missing airman Ron Arad, whose plane crashed in Lebanon in 1986, and body parts of other Israeli soldiers.
Well, they got the report, for what it's worth:
After nearly two years of negotiations through German mediators, Israel's government approved the release on June 29, but it took several weeks to work out final arrangements. The Israeli announcement came a day after the government received a report from Hezbollah on a missing Israeli soldier who disappeared in Lebanon two decades ago. That report was one of the last sticking points.
In the report, Hezbollah said it does not know what happened to Ron Arad, an Israeli air force navigator who was captured alive after his fighter jet went down in Lebanon in 1986, Israeli officials said.
According to the document, Hezbollah believes that Arad is dead, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the report was not released to the public. The Israeli Cabinet is expected to discuss the report on Tuesday.
Israeli officials said the report contains two new pictures of Arad and parts of a diary he kept in the 1980s. The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because the material has not been made public, said the diary and the pictures had only "sentimental value" and did not shed light on Arad's fate. The Hezbollah report offered some new lines of inquiry, but no definite information, they said.
Almost laughable. This was a sticking point but when Hezbollah said, hey we don't know what happened to him, Israel said, OK, just wondering. Here's your terrorist back.
Charles Johnson:
It’s hard to imagine any way this can result in anything good. It will encourage the terrorists to continue taking more hostages, and lets them know they don’t even have to keep their hostages alive.
When you reward certain behavior, you will get more of it. Israel needs a change in leadership, and soon.
What a dope. Olmert is already in deep trouble. Time to change the lot of them. Probably the only thing that could save them is an attack on Iran to divert attention from their corruption.
Posted by: Scott Allan | July 16, 2008 at 11:47 AM
On June 30, Caroline Glick had this to say:
Despite the government's best efforts to put a brave face on the decision, the deal with Hizbullah is arguably the most humiliating step ever taken by a government of Israel.
I must say I agree. The families of the dead soldiers understandably wanted them back but at what cost to Israel? And what about the family of those who were killed by Kuntar? And what about those other nameless Israelis whose lives are now at risk because of this decision? As Glick wrote here on June 27:
That Israel will pay a price in blood if the deals go through is a certainty. That more Israelis will meet the fates of Schalit, Regev and Goldwasser is a certainty. The only thing we do not know today is the names of the victims. They could be any one of us. Indeed, they are all of us. For all of us are equally targeted simply by virtue of the fact that we are Israelis.
Caroline Glick needs to be running Israel.
Posted by: Julie | July 16, 2008 at 12:34 PM