Boker Tov Boulder lists a number of prisoner releases and some of the crimes committed by the released terrorists.
Elder of Ziyon finds that the “moderate” country of Lebanon is celebrating the release of the murderer Kuntar.
Israel Matzav looks into the malaise Israel suffers from that led to the release.
This Ongoing War contrasts Israel’s values with that of its enemies.
Daled Amos has misgivings about Misgav.
Israelly Cool presents Trivia Time. The answer, I’m sure is someone who is usually described as pro-Western or “moderate.”
Meryl wishes Israel would lavish a generous parting gift on Samir Kuntar.
Treppenwitz weighs in with Let the enemy decide the rules:
These useful idiots pleaded for the IDF to spare the poor, hapless Lebanese who were caught between Israel’s mighty army and Hezbollah’s well entrenched forces… pointing out that the Lebanese deserved mercy because they are a modern, secular people just like us.
‘Moderate’ Lebanese blogs were linked, and the grand old days when Beirut was known as the ‘Paris of the East’ were invoked repeatedly… while doctored photos of burning Beirut neighborhoods became like fixed wallpaper behind the media’s talking heads who dutifully read Hezbollah scripts about Israeli atrocities.
Ignored was the fact that these cosmopolitan Lebanese had watched approvingly for decades as Hezbollah set up rocket batteries and supporting military infrastructure in their towns and villages. Ignored was the cover and support these poor secular Lebanese willingly provided to Hezbollah for a generation.
Ha’aretz illustrates the kidnapping. The Regev and Goldwasser families put on a brave face.
Shlomo Goldwasser, the father of Ehud Goldwasser whose body was returned to Israel Wednesday morning as part of a prisoner exchange with Hezbollah, said after seeing the his son’s coffin that he and his wife did not want to see their son’s body because they prefer to remember him as he was.
Background on the mediator.
Officially, Conrad’s mediation effort has been on behalf of the UN secretary general, because the return of Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser is part of Security Council Resolution 1701, which brought an end to the Second Lebanon War.
Except that the return of Regev and Goldwasser according to 1701 was supposed to be unconditional. Not only has Hezbollah re-armed under the watchful eye of UN forces, the UN refuses even to insist that the terms of 1701 be obeyed in this case. Not to mention that the kidnapping itself and the presence of Hezbollah in southern Lebanon violate 425.
Ron ben Yishai on the speech we won’t hear from Olmert.
Therefore, even though we recently acquired credible information that Goldwasser and Regev are no longer alive, the government decided, on my recommendation, to approve the deal and ignore the warnings issued by the Mossad and Shin Bet chiefs. Had the Second Lebanon War ended in clear victory, had the Winograd Commission not criticized my conduct, and had my public and moral status not been eroded in the wake of the Talansky affair, I may have acted differently. Yet in my current status, I had no choice.
Danny Haran’s brother feels “defeated.”
Israel gets ready to pay interest on the transaction:
The feeling is shared by many in the IDF Northern Command, where senior commanders estimate that after two years of quiet, Hizbullah may use the period immediately following the swap to strike at Israel. While the possibility of another kidnapping attack against IDF soldiers is being taken into account, there is also a fear in the IDF that Hizbullah may try to infiltrate an Israeli town along the northern border.
No wonder it’s being called Hezbollah’s ultimate victory.
Crosposted on Soccer Dad.
Meryl,
Can you please explain to me, as an American citizen, why I should continue to support Israel in light of the fact that it no longer is willing to fight for itself?
Why should I, or any other American,fund a country that so easily gives into terrorists?
Why should America give – or allow the purchase of – advanced and secret weaponry to a country that, at the end of the day, will hand it over to our enemies?
I have long been a strong and stubborn supporter of Israel. Enduring much abuse in both the work place and at church for doing so.
If Israel is unwilling to stand up for itself why should I?
I am, as one of the commentators in the links above states, simply sick to my stomach with grief.
It seems as though, once again, Jews will willingly walk into the Death Chambers.
It only took 63 years to turn “Never Again” into “May I have another Please?”.
So many points, where do I begin?
Oh. First, I edited the line breaks in your comment. If you’re going to upload from a text editor, please use wordwrap.
Second, the Jews did not “willingly” walk into the death chambers. Take another read of what actually happened to the Jews of Europe. There were many, many Jews who rebelled and fought and died. The Warsaw Ghetto wasn’t the only example. Also, stop and think about what you’re saying. Guards at gunpoint, who beat and murder Jews pretty much all the time, forced Jews into the death chambers. Or lied and told them they were going to the showers. There was no “willingness” to die, unless you’re talking about those whose will to live was broken. And I’m sure there were some. But they were in the minority.
I’d also love to hear your explanation as to how unarmed civilians with no military training—grandmothers, grandfathers, children, middle-aged men and women—how were they all supposed to resist soldiers with machine guns? I guess you blame the Rwandan genocide on the victims’ unwillingness to fight back, too? And Darfur?
Yeah, being an armchair quarterback to atrocities is easy. Being there, not so much. When I was a teenager, my friends mothers—three sisters—were all concentration camp survivors. They never uttered a word about it, so far as I know. I guess they weren’t three of the willing ones, as they survived.
Now to your other question, about why you should give a damn about Israel. Israel IS standing up for herself, but she is doing so in a different way. I don’t agree with what she did. I don’t think you should trade live terrorists for dead soldiers. But the vast majority of Israelis do. They thought that the return of their sons was more important than the risk that animal Kuntar would kill again. Or any other risk incurred by such a bad trade.
And as to “Never Again”: You mistake the meaning of “Never Again.” Most non-Jews do. It doesn’t mean that there will never be another genocide. What it means is that never again will Jews rely on others to defend themselves. And the subtext, as Alex Bensky likes to point out, is, “And if again, not just us.” Meaning that if Iran DOES launch that nuke, they will rain down fire upon themselves as well.
And lastly, the reason you should support Israel: Because she is a democracy in the midst of dictatorships and thugocracies. Because of all the countries in the Middle East, Israel alone is our true friend. She will never attack us, never sponsor terrorists that will hurt us, and works with us to defeat the terrorists in the world. Israel trained our soldiers in street combat before they went to Iraq. Israel exchanges intel with us regularly about our enemies in the Gulf. Israel gave us valuable information after a Syrian pilot defected with a modern Russian MIG. And lastly, Israel is our ally. If it weren’t for Israel taking out the Osirak reactor in Iraq, the Gulf War could have cost us tens of thousands of soldiers.
So do like I’m doing: Be angry for today. Then suck it up and chalk it up to something that Israelis chose to do, and move on.
By the way, Anon, I have another question for you.
How on earth can you support the United States of America after the murder of 241 American soldiers, mostly Marines, by Hezbullah went completely unavenged?
Why should Israel support a nation that doesn’t fight back against terrorists? If America is unwilling to stand up for itself, why should Israel?
We can play this game all day.
You ask
“How on earth can you support the United
States of America after the murder of 241
American soldiers, mostly Marines, by
Hezbullah went completely unavenged?”
I am an American citizen. I support my
country right or wrong, hoping of course,
she will never be in the wrong.
But how can I ask my children to risk
their lives to support a country that
frees a child murderer for two bodies?
And make no mistake, we citizens of the
United States are in the cross hairs because of our support of Israel. Since
Israel refuses to defend itself from either Hizbollah or Hamas, why should we continue our support?
Due to the actions of the feckless Israeli government, some 1200 Lebanonese and some 140 Israelis died in 2006.
Today that same government completed the same deal it could have gotten without going to war back then. One can make the case, then, that Israel committed a crime against Humanity in 2006.
Did anyone happen to catch all the photos of the nice Lebanese people holding up signs of Nazarella and Kuntar and cheering them on,or the President of Lebanon calling the baby bashing murderer a hero and true patriot?
It disgusted and angered me beyond words. If there is any decent person left in that horrible place,that is ashamed and embarrased by this gross display of brazen depravity,I feel sorry for them, the rest I could care less about. I don’t know how the good Israeli people stand being surrounded by such rattlesnakes for neighbors.
Anon,
We would be in the cross hairs of the terrorists even if there was no Israel. We are the chief representative country of modernity and liberty, which is what the jihadists among the Muslims are fighting against. Arab hostility to the USA goes back to Nasser in the first Eisenhower Administration. He chose, quite deliberately, to focus the hostility of the Pan-Arab Nationalist Movement against the USA. At the time the USA had an arms embargo on Israel, so his hostility wasn’t due to our lavish support of Israel in wars with the Arabs. At that time such support was nonexistent. Basically, the Islamists have inherited the hostility their rivals the Pan-Arabists started, and added the motive that we, as sole superpower, stand in the way of Muslim expansionism. If the new Caliphate is to be established, whether it’s bin Laden’s Wahhabi version or Iran’s Shi’a version, the US must be destroyed.
But I believe there is an even deeper reason for America to support Israel. Today antisemitism and anti-Americanism have become two sides of the same coin. Scratch someone under the influence of the one psychosis and you’ll almost always find he is also under the influence of the other psychosis. Americans and Jews, our fates are linked, and we shall stand or fall together.
Hi Meryl. Thanks for the link/mention.
Sorry about that nasty anon-o-rash you have there. A little ‘STFU’ cream should clear that right up. :-)
Sounds to me, Anon, like you’re another of those fair-weather friends. Accusing Israel of war crimes is beyond the pale here.
I don’t buy that you’re a supporter. I think Treppenwitz is right. Your commenting rights are pulled.