What started all of this....
Aug. 10th, 2006 04:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pluralNearly a month ago, on the 12th of July, Hezbollah launched a raid across the Israeli border with the goal of kidnapping Israeli soldiers which could be used as bargaining chips to release Lebanese prisoners in Israeli jails.
I've heard many people speak of these prisoners, using words like freedom fighter and guerrilla. I've also heard people claim that these prisoners were just trying to defend their country (Lebanon) from the Israeli invaders.
The poster child for these Lebanese prisoners is Samir Kuntar. Not only is he a hero to many in Lebanon, but Nasrallah specifically required his release as a condition for any prisoner exchange.
I've never met the man, so I'll let Smadar Haran, a social worker, introduce him to you and tell you about when she met Samir in 1979.
"It had been a peaceful Sabbath day. My husband Danny and I had picnicked with our little girls, Einat, 4, and Yael, 2, on the beach not far from our home in Naharyia, a city on the northern coast of Israel. Around midnight, we were asleep in our apartment when four terrorists from Lebanon landed in a rubber boat on the beach two blocks away.
"Gunfire and exploding grenades awakened us. Desperately we sought to hide. Danny helped our neighbour climb into a crawl space above our bedroom. I went in behind her with Yael in my arms. Then Danny grabbed Einat and was dashing out of the front door when the terrorists came crashing in. They held Danny and Einat while they searched for me and Yael.
"I will never forget the joy and the hatred in their voices as they swaggered about hunting for us, firing their guns and throwing grenades. I knew that if Yael cried out, the terrorists would toss a grenade into the crawl space, so I kept my hand over her mouth. As I lay there, I remembered my mother telling me how she had hidden from the Nazis during the Holocaust.
"The terrorists took Danny and Einat down to the beach. There, one of them shot Danny in front of Einat so that his death would be the last sight she would ever see. Then he smashed my little girl's skull in against a rocket with his rifle butt. That terrorist was Samir Kuntar. By the time we were rescued from the crawl space hours later, Yael, too, was dead. In trying to save all our lives I had smothered her"
This man's freedom is their cause for war.
This man is the reason for the bloodshed.
This man is a hero?
I've heard many people speak of these prisoners, using words like freedom fighter and guerrilla. I've also heard people claim that these prisoners were just trying to defend their country (Lebanon) from the Israeli invaders.
The poster child for these Lebanese prisoners is Samir Kuntar. Not only is he a hero to many in Lebanon, but Nasrallah specifically required his release as a condition for any prisoner exchange.
I've never met the man, so I'll let Smadar Haran, a social worker, introduce him to you and tell you about when she met Samir in 1979.
"It had been a peaceful Sabbath day. My husband Danny and I had picnicked with our little girls, Einat, 4, and Yael, 2, on the beach not far from our home in Naharyia, a city on the northern coast of Israel. Around midnight, we were asleep in our apartment when four terrorists from Lebanon landed in a rubber boat on the beach two blocks away.
"Gunfire and exploding grenades awakened us. Desperately we sought to hide. Danny helped our neighbour climb into a crawl space above our bedroom. I went in behind her with Yael in my arms. Then Danny grabbed Einat and was dashing out of the front door when the terrorists came crashing in. They held Danny and Einat while they searched for me and Yael.
"I will never forget the joy and the hatred in their voices as they swaggered about hunting for us, firing their guns and throwing grenades. I knew that if Yael cried out, the terrorists would toss a grenade into the crawl space, so I kept my hand over her mouth. As I lay there, I remembered my mother telling me how she had hidden from the Nazis during the Holocaust.
"The terrorists took Danny and Einat down to the beach. There, one of them shot Danny in front of Einat so that his death would be the last sight she would ever see. Then he smashed my little girl's skull in against a rocket with his rifle butt. That terrorist was Samir Kuntar. By the time we were rescued from the crawl space hours later, Yael, too, was dead. In trying to save all our lives I had smothered her"
This man's freedom is their cause for war.
This man is the reason for the bloodshed.
This man is a hero?
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no subject
Date: 2006-08-10 10:38 pm (UTC)except for the italics, its all my own
[granted I've gotten much of my information from other places]
[but the composition was from scratch]
I can write all fancy when it suits me ya know.
and
I always label and introduce any email type forwards I post.
no subject
Date: 2006-08-10 10:59 pm (UTC)Suppose that the story is substancially true. It would still be heart rending and terrifying without the loft and the final impression in the child's eyes.
And oh yes, some people of childbearing age are children of Holocaust survivors, but it's not too common as the years elaapsed increase.
no subject
Date: 2006-08-10 11:12 pm (UTC)This incident happened in 1979, the facts of that night are well established and confirmed by everyone present that night (including Samir).
Obviously the section is not the hasty and breathless immediate reporting of an event right after it happened but rather a long term reflection upon a tragic event in ones past, which in my mind, explains much of the polish of the writing.
I've edited the post to include a referrence to the year as to hopefully forestall further confusion.