The release of Samir Qantar

I blogged a little earlier today about a side issue in the Israel/Hezbollah prsioner exchange. Now I look at a rather more meaty aspect. One of the prisoners Israel has released is Samir Qantar, the BBC describe his reason for being in an Israeli prison thus:

"Samir Qantar, in jail since 1979 for a deadly guerrilla raid in which he killed three Israelis, including a child.

The killings were particularly brutal, making his release controversial in Israel."

Hidden away at the end of the BBC article is slightly more detail:

"Qantar was serving several life sentences for murder for attacking a civilian apartment block in Nahariya in 1979.

A policeman, another man and his four-year-old daughter were killed. A baby girl was accidentally smothered by her mother as she hid in a cupboard during the attack.

Qantar has denied killing the older child, reports say."

Maybe we can find some detail about these disputed killings elsewhere. Let's try Sky News, their news section has this page which recalls:

"even more so when you consider the crimes for which Samir Kuntar has been serving 542 years in jail.

He led a boat raid from Lebanon on a northern Israeli seaside town in 1979. His gang killed an Israeli soldier and then searched for hostages. They entered the home of the Haran family and seized 28-year-old Danny Haran and his daughter Einat, aged four.

They took them to the beach and, according to witnesses, Kuntar shot Danny in front of his daughter as she begged him not to kill her father.

He then bludgeoned the head of the little girl repeatedly with his rifle butt until she was dead.

Meanwhile, in the Harans' apartment, Einat's mother Smadar accidentally smothered her other, two-year-old daughter to death, while trying to keep her quiet as they hid from the attackers."

Let's look at Wikipedia and see what they have to say about Samir Kuntar:

"On April 22, 1979, Samir Kuntar led a group of four PLF members who entered Israel from Lebanon by boat... The group departed from the seashore of Tyre in Southern Lebanon... The goal of the operation was to attack Nahariya, 10 kilometers away from the Lebanese border. They called their operation the Nasser Operation.

Around midnight they arrived at the coastal town of Nahariya. The four murdered a policeman who came across them. The group then entered a building on Jabotinsky Street where they formed two groups. One group broke into the apartment of the Haran family before police reinforcements had arrived. They took 31 year-old Danny Haran hostage along with his four year-old daughter, Einat. The mother, Smadar Haran, was able to hide in a crawl space above the bedroom with her two year-old daughter Yael, and a neighbor.

Shootout and capture

Kuntar's group took Danny and Einat down to the beach, where a shootout with Israeli policemen and soldiers erupted. Israel claims that Kuntar shot Danny at close range in the back, in front of his daughter, and drowned him in the sea to ensure he was dead. Next, he smashed the head of 4 year-old Einat on beach rocks and crushed her skull with the butt of his rifle. Kuntar denied killing the 4-year-old.

Back in the crawl space, Yael was accidentally suffocated to death by her mother's attempts to quiet her whimpering, which would have revealed their hideout....

Murder of Haran family

According to Smadar Haran, her last memories of Danny and Einat are the sight of them being led away at gunpoint by Kuntar. From her hiding place, she could hear Danny reassuring Einat, who kept asking for her mother. When Yael cried for her pacifier, Smadar covered her mouth to stifle her whimpering. She remembers her daughter's tongue licking and sucking on the palm of her hand. Later, doctors and paramedics explained that the toddler had been gasping for air.

In 1979, the Israeli newspaper Maariv newpaper described the attack as follows: After drowning Danny in the sea in front of Einat...., Kuntar turned his attention towards the 4 year-old. He took his rifle and then swung it across the toddler's head, knocking her to the ground. Kuntar then dragged the toddler a couple of feet to the closest rock he could find and laid her head down on a rock, with the intention of crushing it with the butt of his rifle. Einat, instinctively covered her head with her arms, Kuntar struggled with the toddler until he finally managed to clear her arms out of the way. Once her arms were out of the way, Kuntar repeatedly beat her on the head with the butt of his rifle and stomping on her body, until blood rushed out of her ears and mouth. Then, to ensure she was dead, Kuntar continued beating her over the head until her skull was crushed and she was dead."

And how did Israel treat this murderer? Hard labour and brutal treatment? No, as Wikipedia reports:

"During his imprisonment, Kuntar married an Israeli Arab woman who is an activist on behalf of militant prisoners, but divorced her. While they were married, she received a monthly stipend from the Israeli government, an entitlement due to her status as a wife of a prisoner. Also during his imprisonment Kuntar graduated from the Open University of Israel in social and political science."

What A delightful chap Samir Qantar sounds, just the sort of person that the Fatah Palestinian Government would disown... Oh sorry, it appears not

"Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday sent his regards to the families of Lebanese terrorist Samir Kuntar and the other four Lebanese prisoners scheduled to be transferred to Hizbullah. Abbas praised the prisoner swap and congratulated the Kuntar family."

How about his village do they have any misgivings about having a child-killer back in their village? It appears not:

"In Kuntar's home in Abey, streets were decorated with banners welcoming the return of the former member of the radical Palestine Liberation Front. "Samir Kuntar is the conscience of Lebanon, Palestine and the Arab nation. Abey welcomes the hero, prisoner Samir Kuntar," reads one sign."

At least one Lebanese has misgivings, All the Beirut News opines:

"I am very happy that Lebanese prisoners long held in Israeli jails are to be finally released. Many of these prisoners fought against the Israeli army in Lebanese territory. They are heroes. However, there is a prisoner whom I may no be so proud of and he is Samir Qantar. At the age of 16, Samir Qantar and his team departed from Tyre, Lebanon by boat to the ‘Israeli’ town of Naharyia in 1979. It seems to me that the targets were civilian, not military, and that in the fight at least one child was killed (the Israelis say Qantar crushed her skull, while he says that she was caught in the crossfire). His act of aggression that day is considered to be the greatest crime to be committed in the so-called State of Israel. Liberation of one’s land never comes through that kind of violence. Better yet is no violence at all. Whether he killed a little girl or not, combatants of any kind targeting civilians is amongst the most dishonourable of acts. Having said that there are two things I would like to point out: 1) No matter the oppression of the enemy, oppression never justifies hatred, vengeance, murder (which is not, as some claim, the targeting of Israeli soldiers on Lebanese land), or any of the derivates of the above. Today in Lebanon, Hizbullah encourages ‘honour’ and ‘dignity’ yet in a very warped sense. The killing of civilians by the Israeli Army (and they are far more numerous and intentional that Hizbullah’s fighters ever were) are condemned but little is said about Arab acts of terror (not to mention those committed by regimes against their own people). I as a Lebanese declare that we have the right to resist occupation, but such a right never licenses us to do wrong or to laud, yet alone condone, such acts...."

Of course All the Beirut News then goes on to blame Israel for "oppressing the Lebanese and Palestinians for six decades now. They have thousands of prisoners, they regularly target and kill civilians, they have driven millions of Palestinians from their lands and homes" and so on. But the fact that even such as this site have misgivings over the actions of Samir Kunrat must speak volumes, not that the BBC would agree.

Once again Israel swaps live murderers for murdered soldiers, because Israel has a moral obligation to bring its soldiers home, meanwhile Lebanon declares a national holiday to mark the swap. and the return of murderers. I think that tells you all you need to know about the difference between Israel and its neighbours. Front Page would seem to agree with me,

"Israel’s neighbors are gearing up for celebrations. For those Israelis who still have the stamina to look, these events will again reveal the chasm between Israel’s life-affirming Jewish-democratic culture and the unchanging Middle Eastern jihad-and death-culture of its neighbors.

This week most of the Olmert government’s live-terrorists-for-dead-soldiers swap with Hezbollah will be completed including the freeing of Samir Kuntar and four other live, dangerous Lebanese terrorists.... Israeli analyst Jonathan Spyer noted that “the news of the planned swap has been greeted with enthusiasm from politicians on both sides of the [Lebanese] divide.”

Against the Hezbollah-led, mostly Shiite bloc stands the March 14 Sunni-Druze-Christian bloc. Yet new Christian president Michel Suleiman (whose affiliation vis-à-vis the two blocs is a matter of dispute) and Sunni prime minister Fuad Saniora (considered anti-Hezbollah) are poised to give Kuntar and the other four terrorists a state welcome today at Beirut International Airport. Saniora said Hezbollah’s “success … in the negotiations [with Israel] is a national success for the party and for the struggle of the Lebanese because it secured national goals.…”

As for Druze leader and sharp Hezbollah-foe Walid Jumblatt, he's planning to visit Kuntar (also Druze) and congratulate him on his return, which he called a “national occasion.” Spyer reports that “other March 14 leaders spoke in similarly glowing terms.” The Lebanese daily As-Safir reported plans to make the day of the terrorists’ return a national holiday. Already today the road from the Israeli border to Sidon, and Kuntar's hometown of Abey, are hung with banners.

Israeli Middle East scholar Barry Rubin notes that “no one in the Arabic-speaking world will say a single negative word about Kuntar’s deed or his being made a hero, despite a small liberal minority’s disgust.”"

Gerald A. Honigman has an interesting article on this matter in Mich News that you may want to read.

Sand Monkey has his own opinion on this matter and well wortha read it is too.