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: 2006-08-11 05:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-08-11 05:29 pm (UTC)Here's a movie idea: Congress is nuked at just the time a time machine is developed. We go back and get Alexander the Great or Marcus Aurelius or someone like that and bring them to current time and let them rule.
You think they'd give one of these guys 4 life sentences?
no subject
Date: 2006-08-11 05:37 pm (UTC)the reason they think the west are candy asses isnt an question of jail terms or the death penalty, its because we allow our emotions to be manipulated and tie the hands of our government. Because our liberal left consistently refuses to believe what they tell us directly to our face; that there is a war on, and it is us against them (the them is unspecificied).
I've notice a growing trend of people calling for a roman approach to these situations.
I understand the feeling but ...
no subject
Date: 2006-08-11 05:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-08-11 06:10 pm (UTC)I would be the greatest leader this country has ever had and the most despised because of it but niether I nor anyone else would want to live under my system of rule.
You see I believe far to strongly in personal responsibility, complicity of the governed and results orientated strategies ever to hold political power. Put me in office and Machiavelli himself will rise from the grave to tremble in fear.
Luckily, I am not now, and hopefully never will be, the person called upon to solve these and other problems of the world, because my solutions would make the Romans seem kind and gentle.
/ego rant