Posted by David Bernstein:
The Party of God's (Hezbollah's Hero):
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2006_07_23-2006_07_29.shtml#1154143478
As we all know, the current war in Lebanon started when Party of God
terrorists crossed into Israel and kidnapped two soldiers, murdering
others. The original goal was apparently to force a prisoner exchange.
In particular the Party of God seeks the release of Samir Kuntar, whom
Israel has refused to release in prior prisoner exchanges. [1]Who is
Mr. Kuntar, and why is he in an Israeli prison?
Mr. Kuntar is a killer. In 1979, at the age of 17, he and three
others, recruited by a Palestinian [terrorist] group ... launched a
small boat from the tip of Lebanon�s southern coast and came ashore
at the northern Israeli town of Nahariya. There, they killed a
police officer they encountered, before taking a family of four in
an apartment hostage.
The mother, Smadar Haran, had managed to slip into a crawl space
with her two-year-old daughter Yael and avoid detection. But as
police began to arrive, the gunmen took her husband Danny and
four-year-old daughter Einat down to the beach, where they shot
Danny in front of his daughter and smashed in her skull with a
rifle butt.
Apparently, Kuntar is a hero not only to the Party of God, but to many
Palestinians.
Kuntar should have been executed well over twenty years ago, not
necessarily in a pleasant manner. Unfortunately, Israel does not have
the death penalty except for Holocaust perpetrators, leading to
consistent-hostage taking to try to win the release of the likes of
Kuntar.
In any event, Kuntar came to mind because I received an email from a
reader suggesting that I try to understand things from the perspective
of the supporters of the Palestinian and Party of God terrorist
groups. Sorry, but while I'm reasonably well read on the radical Arab
perspective, whatever someone's grievance I refuse to "understand"
those who idolize cold-blooded murderers of children. [Remember [2]the
exhibit at a Palestinian university celebrating a mass terrorist
murder at Sbarro's Pizza in Jerusalem?] The fact that Kuntar is a hero
to the Party of God and to the Palestinian terrorist groups reveals
just about all one needs to know about them.
I recently read Rabbi Daniel Gordis's book, [3]Home to Stay, about his
aliyah to Israel. The book was only moderately interesting, mostly for
its account of how Gordis went from being an ultra-dove when he moved
to Israel to being much more of a realist after Camp David 2000.
Gordis did made one point in particular that stuck with me: living in
Jerusalem (one of the more "right-wing" parts of Israel), he never
heard a single Israeli ever express glee at civilian deaths on the
Palestinian side. Some accepted these deaths as the unfortunate price
of defeating the Second Intifadah, others protested against them, but
no one ever celebrated them, or expressed joy at the suffering of the
survivors. Contrast that with grisly recreations of pizzeria bombings,
candies being handed out in Palestinian areas when a terrorist murder
takes place, the celebrations in the streets in 9/11, and so on, and
you see the difference between a decent, modern society, and its
enemies.
References
1.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060728.wxmideastprison28/BNStory/International/home
2. http://www.kerenmalki.org/Press/NYT_Sbarro_Recreated.htm
3.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1400049598/sr=8-3/qid=1154142736/ref=pd_bbs_3/102-5185346-7417750?ie=UTF8
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