Ok, sorry for the previous mess. Now you can all comment :)

This isn’t an opportunity for media spin. Today is a day of mourning for us here - we now know unequivocally that two soldiers are dead. The Goldwasser and Regev families are mourning while the mother of Einat Haran and the widow of Danny Haran has to see the man who destroyed her life walk free. Was Samir Kuntar tortured? He looks pretty healthy, he also managed to earn two degrees while incarcerated and he has pledged to continue “fighting” - if you can call murdering children and civilians that. Let Hezballah and the Lebanese government celebrate all they like. Go ahead and call us murderous occupiers who deserve what they get. I for one don’t care. I’m glad the Goldwasser and Regev families have some closure, I’m glad we did the right thing. I frankly don’t care what anyone else thinks.

Is all all all Lebanon Kuntar and Hizb.? Egypt Jordan and perhaps Syria have made their stand. Is this what Lebanon is perparing for its people? Is Lebanon going to be the tip of the Iranian sword? Killing POW and little girls?
Next time when an Israeli Government will decide on war what then?

I am not impressed by the fact that you seem to give equal credibility to both sides. The fact is he DID willfully attack and kill an innocent family, which is inexcusable. I hope Mossad planted a chip in his a** which will blow him up at the precise moment of his appearance at the rally. I wouldn’t bet on the guy’s long life. Hezbo won’t trust him and will suspect he was brainwashed and switched sides.

To ck and others: don’t think the Lebanese all agree. Most see this guy as a thug and a murderer and frankly wonder why you let him go.

ck and the rest. today is a day of national mourning for Lebanon as well. I initially wrote a comment to that effect here, but since that option was disabled, I I ended up posting a version of it on my semi-abandoned blog. Lebanon (and those idiots dressed in white) should be ashamed for valorizing scum like that. Others pay tribute to and name streets after humanist pioneers and actual contributors to society; our sorry kind celebrates thugs and murderers. Pity the nation!

What good PR for Israel would this ever be? Kuntar is a criminal. Hezbollah a criminal organization. Thugs reunite with thugs and Israel only gets dead bodies. How is this good PR for Israel?

Sure. There are two sides to this question — just like there are two sides to the question of whether the 9/11 attack was an inside job, whether the Holocaust ever happened, and whether the earth is flat. The fact that some people insist on disputing the indisputable truth that this guy is a remorseless child-killer won’t absolve him of what he did.

By wildly celebrating this kind of brutality, Lebanon will be signaling to the rest of the world that it would like to remain outside of modern civilization, ensconced in Hezbollah’s backward medieval world. We in the West will be happy to move forward without it.

The Lebanese government officially backs Hezbollah’s narrative.

What Lebanese government?

So what’s the message here..?
Murder a Jewish child and her father,
and become a Lebanese national hero..??
Shame on your president and PM who are collaborating with this circus.
.

Disgusting!!! Immoral!! A day that will be remembered as a day of shame. Wait till you travel overseas with your Lebanese Passport. Wait till you hear the comments from the people around you. And next time Hezbollah will attack you fellow lebanese and start havock, don’t expect anyoone around the world to pity you. You deserve it as you are Pro-Zibballah. Sleiman, Siniora, Jumblatt, Geagea Hariri and the rest… you are all from the same basket as Kanso, Wahhab, Nasrallah,Berri, etc…

What kind of people eulogize a person like Samir Kuntar? A phrase that used to get a lot of play in days gone by was, “One man’s terrorist is another’s freedom fighter”. I never believed that there was place for criminal psychopathic personalities in the argument though. When the terrible My Lai massacre played out in Vietnam 40 years ago there was an attempt to apply justice to the guilty. When the various murders of unarmed civilians and torture of prisoners have taken place in Iraq they rated punishment. A heroes’ homecoming welcome celebration? Maybe justice wasn’t applied equally and in full strength but nobody came up with the sick idea of giving them hero status. What’s the standard to be used to measure a great man being released from prison – think Nelson Mandela for a start. Pity the followers of Hezbullah that they have no legitimate role models to learn from. The gulf that separates these people is as wide as the gulf that exists between civilized humanity and the moral primitives. Peace is not quite yet around the corner and the Dark Ages still have a lot of life left to run.

Well said Battal!!

He murdered a child’s father in front of her own eyes and then murdered her. And yes, I consider him equally responsible for the death of the Haran baby. Such actions are disgusting and reprehensible no matter who performs it, Jew or Lebanese. I hope other Lebanese realize that this man is a threat to them, too. If Samir Kuntar is extreme enough to murder Jewish children, I have no doubt that he would be willing to murder the children of his Lebanese enemies.

Speaking for myself, I cannot stand to see myself associated as a Jew with the likes of Baruch Goldstein. I hope that many Lebanese feel the same about Samir Kuntar, as I cannot imagine any sane man thinking well of that monster.

I am going to second CK here–people here are terribly torn up. The media is trying to spin…but most of us are not buying it. The whole thing is incredibly painful on so many levels.

It is comforting to know that there are Lebanese who are not actively celebrating Kuntar’s return. Even if you don’t particularly like Israel…knowing that Kuntar is not seen as a hero by all gives hope that maybe someday, relations may be better.

Sad day. I wonder if any Lebanese Shiite are reading this. If so, I have a question for you.
I’m sure you have plenty of heroes to hold dear, and yes, I understand how someone who fought Israel (whom you consider an enemy) can be seen as a hero. But this guy didn’t fight Israeli army. If you noticed, nobody considers him a monster for killing our policeman. Sadly, we are enemies today.

But how does willingly smashing a child’s skull makes one a fighter and a hero?

As a Lebanese, I’m really sick about this whole thing. I’m so ashamed that the government is treating this criminal thug as a hero. If he did indeed kill that little girl, her father (and inadvertently her baby sister), he should be imprisoned for life. With all of the atrocities committed by Israel against the Palestinian and Lebanese people, innocent civilians no less, I don’t see how we can give this guy hero status. I can’t even stand to look at his face.

Also, no one is commenting on the 1,000+ Lebanese killed in July 2006 for this guy. Was it worth it, Nasrallah?

I believe that Quntar did assassinate the little girl and her father because the story dates back to 1978, when nobody knew about him. Also the Israelis committed war crimes in Lebanon: in my Beirut street in September 1982, they shot at point blank with explosive bullets four people, an 8 y.o. girl and her father who were Palestinian civilians, the janitor of the building next to ours,and a Soudani servant…
That said, Samir Quntar is not national hero, he is a disgrace for Lebanon.

I still have nothing against the people of Lebanon. I look forward to the day when we can get past all this, when the extremists no longer hold entire populations in their thrall, when we can all just chill and live in peace.

Who is Kuntar?

Clearly he is the national hero of Lebanon - this is set in stone by a national holiday and the bowing and scraping by all 3 of Lebanon’s Presidents. The world has been scammed. This is the true Lebanon.

“Hezbollah on the other hand will point to the huge crowd expected to celebrate tomorrow and ask the world: How could all these people be wrong?”

Nasrallah is correct. The “world” will agree that Lebanon is now officially a state sponsor of terrorism and is only awaiting it’s new name. Nassi will let you know what it will be.

Congrats guys.

For the naive commentators posting on how puzzling it is for Kuntar to be celebrated as a hero I have a simple answer.

Israel calling someone a murderer is not the be all and end all of the matter.

Those celebrating do not for a second believe Israel’s accusation.

what he did, is what every israeli is taught to do, Who has killed more innocence, israelis or arabs? the israelis kill kids everyday not only in front of their family but in front of cameras and yet israel is a civilized country and arabs are butchers? without these people who sacrificed, israelis would still occupy %30 of lebanon. And you can talk all the crap you want about the resistance but guess what you can’t do shit about it, All the march 14th were kissing ass today and looked like little monkeys dont forget that, They made the biggest celebration for these guys, Not for anyone else.

Who is Kuntar? Quite simply, according to “official,” Lebanon, he IS Lebanon, a symbol of it and the Hezbollah narrative is the Lebanon narrative.

It DOESN’T matter what brainwashing the Israelis attempt, the leadership of Lebanon has answered the question you pose about who Kuntar is, for you and the world. This bell will not be unrung.

lol ali! Your right, resistance is futile. But remind us who blew up 13 little children today in Iraq? Oh yes, it was the jooooos not the arabs. Who killed thousands and thousands of people in the Sudan? Oh yes it was the jooos not the “arab” janjaweed.

30% of lebanon occupied? you sure it was not 32.5%

I know and understand that you are brainwashed, blind and believe everything is a conspiracy (which is the normal arab way) so I don’t want you to believe anything I say, nor do I expect you to understand anything I say but, consider that the reason for israeli occupation of lebanon for all those years was precisely because of “these” people. Your heros! Oh sorry you didn’t know that lebanon had a civil war kirmel the arabs, and that the poor palestinians were attacking the joooos daily, or that our arab government did nothing to stop them, and that the arabness and hence loyalty of our politicians made sure that the civil war lasted 15 years and 150,000 lives too long,
Please, when you have the mindset of an infant rather than let people know it, go and fight for the sacred “cause”, but do it in the golan or better yet go to tel aviv but stop doing it from lebanon.

exchanging captured soldiers is one thing but Kuntar is a criminal child killer dog and should be behind bars, not in lebanon. The man afterall was found guilty in a country with respect for laws, that same can not be said of lebanon. If that were so then hizbzballah would not be allowed to exist nor would it want to. Alas one thing is true about you Ali, and so many others, neither you, your heroic divine iranian persian slaves or our scum politicians will comprehend how much of what was left of lebanon died today.

tfeh!

Ali, Israel invaded Lebanon because it was being attacked from South Lebanon by Palestinian fedayin since the late 60’s. The PLO did not liberate a single inch from Palestine by using Lebanon as a base for attacking Israel.

The Palestinian actions justified the occupation of the South for 22 years and caused the plight of hundred of thousands of Shiaa and Christians Lebanese citizens who had to flee the South to find shelter in the misery belt around Beirut. Others who stayed in the South joined the SLA whose troops were mostly Shiaa.

After year 2000, there was no reason to attack Israel from Lebanon, the freedom of Quntar cost us 1200 dead and billions of dollars in damages…You might say this was Israeli savagery; however, we knew how they would react…

On the other hand, Hezbollah and its supporters don’t realise that they are not alone in Lebanon, that 40% of the Shiaa don’t support Hezbollah and that 60+% of the Lebanese are not Shiaa. Lebanon is a multi-confessional country that breaks whenever a community pretends to dictates its will on other Lebanese communities, that was the case of the Maronite and the Sunni communities before the war and that is the case of the Shiaa community now. I hope you use your judgement as an educated human being and not as a blind supporter of autocratic sectarian party.

To Guy,

I am a Shiite from south lebanon.
I want to start by saying, may the dead rest in peace whatever side they belong to. It takes one who suffered loss to know how bad it is to loose a dear one. I want to say, I felt very bad seeing the faces of the 2 soldiers parents and families. I know they were not exactly on a peace spreading mission in Lebanon. I know that they and their co-soldiers in IDF were here dropping bombs on us, and terrifying us. I grew up under the bombs of IDF. My school was hit by bombs several times, and I lost schoolfriends while we were in class. I lost school friends in targeted bombing that used to happen at 1:30 pm when the school buses take us home.I can probably write a book with daily stories of terror childhood memories. IDF soldiers used to round up every male above 16 in my village and take them to jail, regardless if there was a reason or not, and they would surely come back with scars to speak for it. but that is not the point i am trying to make.

I am not proud of Samir Kuntar if he did indeed kill a child, nor I would be proud of anyone who would kill a child. Most people here though do not believe the story as told in the Israeli version. I for one did not hear this version until recently, and if it is true, I would actually be disgusted to even look at his face.
I do not believe in revenge. killing another human being does not bring back the dead, and more importantly does not heal anyone. It only creates misery somewhere else. and we have had enough misery, enough pain for generations to come.
Do not make the mistake of thinking that southern lebanese people are heartless. It is just very hard to erase 30 years of occupation, daily humiliation, killing and destruction. People here really fought with their bare bodies to get back their homes, land and sons. and I am not talking about HA. I am talking about every day people, who in reality just want to go on with their lives. We are NOT all HA. and many of us Shiite do not feel represented by them, and actually condemn some of their actions. But we all believe that occupation was wrong, and fighting it was rightful. we believe the way palestenians are treated is also wrong, and occupation of their land is wrong.there are 2 sides of every story. Unfortunately in this story there are dead people on both sides and misery on both sides.
I hope there will be a day where actually we can just live and let live. This day however will require great concessions from both sides.
For now there are 2 families in Israel, and 199 familes in Lebanon , Palestine and other arab countries who received their sons and daughters in coffins. May all the dead rest in peace, and may their families wounds heal.

shekshuka you make me laugh hahaha when are you gonna do something about it

Kheireddine. why do you think they were attacking israel? Because their land was stolen if someone comes and focefully takes your home are you gonna smile and give them coffee?

[...] bloggers are not alone; A quick look at the dozens of denouncing comments in one of my previous posts, and you get the general pulse of the disgusted [...]

I have to say that as an israeli it really surprised me to see the bloggers here. Thank God for the internet, because otherwise i would think that ALL Lebanese are supporters or Hizballah. Yes i know that israel is not perfect, and that israel has done some things that we need to be ashamed of (the treatment of palestinians in the occupied territories, and actions and events during the two lebanon wars) but i want to correct the words of TOGUY at 10:23pm - “they weren’t exactly on a peace spreading mission”. What happened was that Hizballah crossed over to the israeli side, they were on ISRAELI land when they ambushed the soldiers, shot a missile on their vehicle and then pulled them out and dragged them into lebanon. The Israeli soldiers were not in Lebanon, Hizballah was in Israel. The other thing I wanted to share is the inhumaness of Nassrallah. Prisoners in israel are treated for health problems, they get and send letters and packages from their families and the red cross, and the red cross visits them to make sure they are not mistreated. Samir Kuntar earned TWO university degrees in israeli prisons at the expense of the Israeli tax payer. Prison anywhere is not a country club, but compare the treatment of Samir Kuntar who bashed in the head of a four year old girl against a rock with the butt of his rifle in front of her father’s eyes, and compare that with nassrallah’s treatment of our two soldiers - Nass refused to even tell us if they were alive or dead! not to mention let anyone visit them, or see them, or receive letters from them. That is so cruel i am speechless. That’s what he did last time, too, after the war when he had the despicable drug dealer Elchanan tenenbaum. he said to the families of the missing soldiers - you will know if your children are alive or dead on the day we make the swap. Then you will know if you receive a coffin or your son back. How cruel and vicious can this man be? And what does it say about those people in Lebanon who see him and kuntar as heroes?
Finally, i want to also refer to the comment about whether or not people believe israel stories about kuntar killing Einat Haran. This is not the israeli version of what Samir Kuntar did - Samir Kuntar himself said that’s what he did in a televised interview with Geraldo Rivera, an American Journalist. and he kep saying - i didn’t mean to, it was an accident. Really. what a despicable human being. A hero, smashing the head of a four year old girl.
My grandmother tells me of days when she would go with her family to vacation in Beirut. What a beautiful city! she said it was like the Paris of the Middle East. The mountains and the snow - like Switzerland of the middle east. Inshallah, let there be peace between us, and we can come visit again and you can come see how beautiful our country is….

Thanks “ali” for making my point…LOL!

ًWell, Israel have killed thousends of children and families in Palistine and Lebanon, it’s people consedir thier military as a hero and they are bround of it. So why Lebanon can not celebrate one of its hero too?

So Kuntar killed a four year old Zionist, so what? She would have grown up to serve in the Zionist army and to kill/oppress Palestinians. How many children have the Zionists killed? An Zioinst killed, no matter at what age, equals a Palestinian spared.

I don’t feel pity for the Israelis at all. Let them shed alligator tears over their rotting corpses of “soldiers.” Let’s welcome back our heros.

Hi to the Shiaa poster from the South.

Thank you for writing.

I think you should write your childhood memories. Please realize that we also know very little.

I do not think all the Shiaa are supporters of HA. This would be the same as saying all Jews support killing Arabs. And I do understand the reasons why HA is so popular, they actually help their people in day to day, in things that the govt doesn’t.

Fighting is a different thing - not cause I think it’s somehow wrong to fight our military. But because I think Shiaa ended up suffering for a cause that is not their own. Whatever you may have learned, Israel really never had an ambition to expand its territory by conquering Lebanon. West Bank and Gaza, yes. Lebanon, no. We’d love to have open borders with you, trade, travel. Not once have I personally heard an Israeli, even the most right-wing one, talk about his desire to control Lebanon. It’s not a part of the discourse, not even the most nationalist one.

What is hard for me to understand is why people in Lebanon love these conspiracy theories. “Israeli version of the events”.. Notice that Israel didn’t make any story about the HA fighters that were returned with Quntar. They fought our army, were captured, imprisoned, and now exchanged. The Israeli outcry is not about the fact Shiaa (or Druze as in the case apparently is of Quntar) or Palestinians decide to fight. It’s their right. A few years back there was an attack in Tel Aviv, a guy shot and killed a bunch of soldiers next to a base. There was no outcry although this is clearly horrible for their families. It was an attack on the military.

Do I believe that Israeli soldiers committed crimes no different from Quntar’s? Yes. I believe we have monsters too. The difference is, they will never boast of it, it is something they will have to hide because the minute this is known their lives will be hell.

Saudi, Ali, et al - yes, you can celebrate someone as a military hero for fighting Israelis. Celebrate the other 4 guys who were returned. But doing what Quntar did is not fighting, don’t you think?

And yes, I agree, 30 years of occupation are very very hard to erase. I don’t think we need to erase. We need to learn, on both sides. So do write your memories. And I hope to visit Lebanon one day - I hear it’s an amazing place.

[...] The PR Battle Over Samir Kuntar [...]

“This is not the israeli version of what Samir Kuntar did - Samir Kuntar himself said that’s what he did in a televised interview with Geraldo Rivera, an American Journalist. and he kep saying - i didn’t mean to, it was an accident.”– Posted by sad day

Where can we find this alleged interview to watch for ourselves? I for one am not in the habit of just taking a person’s word for it….

Dear Mar,
I am glad you do not take people’s word for things. You should always question.
I heard a well known Israeli
broadcaster (Ehud YA’Ari) on Israeli network speak about an interview he was present at with Geraldo Rivera and Samir Kuntar, but I searched the internet and could not find it. My apologies.

I did find an article in the Guardian about an interview with Samir Kuntar that was published originally in the Israeli newspaper Ma’ariv. If you chose to discount anything that has an Israeli source, there’s nothing I can do to convince you that Samir Kuntar is a despicable human being for brutally murdering a four year old girl.
My point is not to argue with you, my point is to say, let’s keep the conversation going between PEOPLE, so people on both sides can see that not every lebanese is Israeli hating Hizballah, and not every Israeli is an Arab hating Jew.

It’s understandable if you are upset at Israel for its treatment of the Palestinians, or like the Shia post writer from South Lebanon. There are many people in Israel who disagree with the government’s decisions regarding Palestinians and peace. It is NOT ok if you feel that the best way for you to show how upset you are is by smashing the skull of a four year old against a rock.

Samir Kuntar is not a Palestinian, he wasn’t displaced from his home - what’s his beef with the Israelis?

Look at the post from AL Adl:
“So Kuntar killed a four year old Zionist, so what? She would have grown up to serve in the Zionist army and to kill/oppress Palestinians”
After reading such a post, is there any wonder Israelis think Arabs are brainwashed to hate Jews of all age, civilians and soldiers?
Al Adl and people like him who think it is ok to murder a four year old girl are not making peace any more possible.

If you want to read the interview, Here is the link:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jul/19/lebanon.israelandthepalestinians
Your Southern neighbor.