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.

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….

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.