“We turned Kuntar into God-knows-what – the murderer of Danny Haran and his daughter, Einat. The man who smashed in the girl’s head. That’s nonsense. A story. A fairy tale. He told me he didn’t do it and I believe him. I investigated the event within the framework of the next book I am writing, about hostage-taking incidents. As far as I am concerned, it was no more than a newspaper report. I sat with him; he was very intelligent. He was a squad commander at 17. He told me that his motive for infiltrating Nahariya was to take hostages. He said [his organization] knew that would both humiliate Israel and get them media publicity.

“He told me: ‘If I had wanted to kill Danny and his daughter, I would have shot them in the house. I took them to the boat because I wanted hostages. I had no interest in hurting them. After I got them into the boat, wild gunfire started and I went back to help my squad on the shore. Danny, the father, kept shouting, “Stop firing, you crazy people.” He and his daughter were found shot in the boat. I was on a small rise, shooting at your forces, and the boat was 20 meters away in the water, with Danny and the girl.’”

For full article, visit http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1078849.html

Nachdem der Mörder Samir Kuntar von Israel im Austausch gegen die Leichen der von der Hisbollah entführten Soldaten Eldad Regev und Ehud Goldwasser freigelassen worden war, hatte der Beirut-Korrespondent des arabischen Fernsehsenders Al-Dschasira, Ghassan bin Jiddo, Kuntar als “panarabischen Helden” bezeichnet, schreibt die Haaretz. Bin Jiddo, der als Hisbollah-Sympathisant berüchtigt ist, hatte Kuntar in einer Live-Sendung auf Al-Dschasira persönlich begrüßt und ihm eigens eine Torte überreicht.

Zu der Entschuldigung kam es, nachdem das israelische Presseamt angekündigt hatte, fortan nicht mehr mit Al-Dschasira zu kooperieren. Daraufhin rang sich der Al-Dschasira-Direktor Khanfar Wadahes zu einer lauwarmen Distanzierung durch: Die Sendung widerspeche dem sendereigenen Ethikkodex, und dergleichen werde sich nicht wiederholen.

Fragt sich nur, was solche Worte bedeuten, solange jemand wie Ghassan bin Jiddo seinen Job behält.

By Faisal Assegaf

It wasn’t surprisingly if Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, 62 year, ready to hold mistake because he was so sure could be freed again from legal process. Even involved in bribe case, he refused requests to step down by most of Israeli people, included several figures in his party. Like politicians in Indonesia, he opted to stay until the court decides he is guilty.

Whereas, his popularity has decreased after recognizing accepted cash money from Morris Talansky, a Jews American businessman who deal with mini bar hotel. During 15 years, he got more than US$ 150,000.

This Kadima Party’s leader has affirmed those money donated for his campaign and not for personal interest. But Talansky who always giving cash money in envelope as demanded by Olmert vowed that his money also used to pay Olmert and his family’s trip to Sardinia beach, Italy, and to pay his hotel’s room in New York.

Olmert had five times freed from the court’s verdict. In 1970’s, Olmert was charged manipulated Likud’s money. This case has been solved out of court. In 1999, police investigated bribe accusation for campaign fund against Olmert Ariel Sharon. But in June 2004, Israeli Attorney General decided to close that case because hadn’t enough evidences. While became Trade, Industry and Labor Minister last year, he denied involved actively in an investment centre.

If this time he freed again, it’s not enough to recover his reputation that became worse since Israel lost in July 2006 war that killed his 156 soldiers. Even most of 1,200 people died were Hezbollah, Israel couldn’t destroy the capability of organization led by Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.

The Winograd Committee’s preliminary report in April last year concluded that Olmert, Defence Minister Amir Peretz, and Chief of Arm Forces General Dan Halutz were failed because the war has launched without a clear plan. The committee has been chaired by a retired judge Elyahu Winograd argued that those three officials were too hurry and without guide while decided to war.

That’s why, Olmert has depended his hope on release of Staff Sergeant Eldad Regev and Mayor Sergeant Ehud Goldwasser who were kidnapped by Hezbollah on 12 July 2006. The incident that also killed three other Israeli soldiers has triggered the 34 days war between two sides.

But the 16 July agreement with the most powerful Shiite group in south Lebanon failed to raise his image. Otherwise, the prisoner swap has reaffirmed Israel’s lost in the war two years ago. Thounsands of Israeli people have been sorrowed welcoming the arrival of bodies of Regev and Goldwasser. On the other hand, Hezbollah’s supporters in Beirut and southern Lebanon have cheered the arrival of Samir Qantar and his colleagues like heroes. Domestically, Olmert has been blamed and laughed by Lebanese people.

Whereas, he has paid high cost to bring back those two dead bodies. Israel has released five prisoners, included Samir Qantar, and 199 bodies of Hezbollah fighters. Qantar was convicted four times life sentenced after murdered a father and his 4 years old daughter, and two polices in Nahariya in 1979. At the time, he was just 16 year old and that strike was carried out along with three members of the Popular Front for Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).

It’s not this time, Israel lost from Hezbollah that has been recognized by the US and Israel as a terrorist organization. The same deal was reached in 2004 also forced Prime Minister Ariel Sharon released 400 Palestinian prisoners and 59 bodies of Hezbollah fighters for an Israeli civilian and three Israeli soldier bodies.

His last opportunity has depended on Shalit release. Olmert has been ran after by time because in the next mid September there will be election for a new Kadima’s leader. He will face three strong opponents: Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz, and Public Security Minister Avi Dichter. The elected leader will also replace Olmert’s position as a prime minister.

Therefore, he is most likely ready to pay more expensive than the price of Regev and Goldwasser to bring Shalit that was held on 25 June 2006 in safe. His chance is still open because Shalit has sent two letters through the International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC). He has said he was safe.

Hamas has asked release about 1,400 Palestinian prisoners, included their three senior members: Hassan Salami, Abdullah Barghuti, and Ibrahim Hamad. Al-Bayan newspaper has reported that Olmert was agree to exchange Shalit’s release with Marwan Barghuti, a leader of two intifadahs in 1985 and 2000. He was in jailed in Hadarim prison, Nataniyah, about six kilometers from Tel Aviv. The father of four children has been convicted for five times life sentenced.

It seemed 1,400 Palestinian priosoners plus Marwan Barghuti isn’t a negotiable price. It’s very match for Shalit that has become Olmert’s last gambling to keep his position as the 12^th Israeli Prime Minister.

This article was published on Koran Tempo daily, 2 August 2008

A response to the criticism over the Montreal Gazette Op-Ed “A moment of moral clarity“

Jerusalem Post, July 27, 2008

How do you welcome a child murderer as a hero?” I asked in a recent Montreal Gazette op-ed, responding to Israel’s hostage exchange with Hizbullah. I noted that “depending on the tone, this question becomes an attempt to clarify, or an expression of outrage. Stated calmly, ‘How do you welcome a child murderer as a hero?’ can be a factual question – such as the one that faced Lebanese leaders this week as they proceeded to celebrate the freeing of Samir Kuntar from an Israeli prison, where he had been held since 1979 for murdering four-year-old Einat Haran, her father Danny Haran and a policeman. Stated angrily, ‘How do you welcome a child murderer as a hero?’ is the question Israelis are asking – and the rest of the civilized world should be asking, too.”

The article was titled “A moment of moral clarity.” I lamented decades of relativistic and self-flagellating propagandizing blinding Westerners from distinguishing between civilized and barbaric behavior whenever Westerners were in the right. Nevertheless, I insisted, the prisoner exchange illuminated the differences between the Lebanese and Palestinians who celebrated a child killer and the many Israelis who mourned the deaths of Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser.

I concluded: “We want to side with the country that moves heaven and Earth to bring its boys home, to protect its citizens; not with the country of bloodthirsty mobs deifying cowards who smashed the skull of a four-year-old girl with a rifle butt on a lovely Mediterranean beach. We learn about a people by observing whom they love and whom they hate. Joy is fleeting and often triggered by base instincts. Sometimes collective anguish is a sign of moral strength, not national weakness.”

INEVITABLY, THE gravitational physics of the Middle East conflict kicked in and the article triggered a backlash. Shortly after the article appeared, the leading headline in the Gazette’s “Letters to the Editor” section proclaimed “Troy overlooked the deaths in Lebanon.” The letter-writer said I ignored the hundreds of Lebanese and Palestinian children Israel killed since 2000 “in contrast to the 123 Israeli children who have died since 2000. Clearly, Israel does not celebrate life and certainly does not share Canadian values as Troy would have us believe.” Another letter, headlined “Israel is also unjust,” blasted Israel’s “illegal occupation of Palestinian and Lebanese territories.”

These reactions proved my point. Rushing to indict Israel, the critics ignored the obscene spectacle of the Kuntar homecoming. They missed the essential moral difference illustrated by Israel’s heartbreaking “hostage” exchange. Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev were reluctant citizen-soldiers, compelled to defend their country. Whatever violence they unleashed while serving – or whatever violence Israel unleashed after they were ambushed – never triggered any street festivals. Treating violence as a necessary last resort is very different than celebrating violence as proof of national self-worth. It would be immoral if Israelis refused to defend themselves, considering the assaults they endure. It would also be immoral if Israelis delighted in the deaths of any innocents, be they children or adults.

Yes, dead is dead. An individual is no better off being killed by an errant shell than being slaughtered in a targeted terrorist attack. But the rules of war distinguish between the two incidents, emphasizing not just the killers’ intentions but their reactions to the deaths.

We can and should debate how much Western soldiers, including Israelis, ignore the consequences of their actions. But there remains a huge moral gap between the ethical imbroglios of the Israeli soldier forced to fight and the canonization of violence that has overwhelmed Palestinian culture.

HERE THEN is the Palestinians’ great moral blind spot – and the chief sin of their uncritical fans. The Palestinian approach to violence has become increasingly pornographic – meaning focused on arousal. Initiating violence for effect rather than to defend oneself or advance strategic goals, seeking carnage to stimulate national pride, is a particularly twisted and sterile form of warfare. We have become too used to terrorism, too inured to its nihilistic nature. We risk losing our capacity for outrage as we observe and rate the constant attempts to choreograph just the right dance of death that will destroy the most, generate maximum news coverage, strike the greatest terror in Israeli hearts. Terrorists turns cafes into targets, and bulldozers – vehicles for building – into weapons of destruction not realizing the destructive force such actions unleash in their own society, and their own souls.

Addicted to the drama, lazily sticking to the established plot lines, reporters focus on how much these “operations” succeed or fail – the greater the damage the greater the success. But these journalistic narratives overlook what this pornographic approach to violence does to a people’s collective soul. We are who we worship. A society that deifies child killers and rampaging bulldozer operators, a culture of martyrdom that venerates the violent, is a nation destined to fail, not to build.

This addiction to terrorism has derailed the Palestinian national movement, poisoning what it touches. The Palestinian soul has been curdled by repeatedly toasting the brutality of a Samir Kuntar, the thuggishness of the bulldozing maniacs Husam Taysir Dwayat and Ghassan Abu Tir. The evidence is obvious but obscured by political correctness. Watching Gaza fritter away the opportunity the disengagement offered, seeing it develop into a hellacious slum rather than develop; observing the West Bank’s stagnation; witnessing the violence Hamas and Fatah forces unleash against each other – all illustrate the perils of this kind of pornography.

Alas, the false prophets of false equivalence, the cheerleaders for the cheerless, the mass enablers of Palestinian violence, would rather overlook the evidence. Instead, they do what they do best – bash Israel – targeting those who dare defend Israel in print and, most important, in uniform.

The writer, a professor of history at McGill University, is the author of Why I Am a Zionist: Israel, Jewish Identity and the Challenges of Today. His most recent book, Leading from the Center: Why Moderates Make the Best Presidents, has just been published by Basic Books.

In an UN-brokered and decidedly unbalanced trade, Israel turned over the remains of 199 terrorists, the living Kantar and four others in exchange for the mutilated bodies of two Israeli soldiers, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev. Captured by Hezb’allah inside Israel in 2006, the young Israelis did not long survive capture by Hezb’allah, certainly not long enough to be exchanged. Kantar, however, was healthy, even portly as he received a red carpet welcome, with speeches and songs of victory. A large photo of a weeping Israeli woman was featured on the stage; there are no innocents in the ideology of Hezb’allah. All Jews must die, even four-year-old little girls. Katyusha rockets are gleefully aimed at Israeli schools, hospitals and apartment buildings.

Kantar was embraced and applauded; afterwards he gave a stiff-armed Nazi salute. It is the common salute of Hezb’allah. Mein Kampf is a best seller in the Muslim world.

We have all seen the pictures of children dressed as suicide bombers, the toddlers holding Kalashnikovs, the grade school students happily reciting poems glorifying genocide. The masked gunmen strutting for the cameras are teenagers, the fighters who launch rockets are in their early twenties. Whole generations have come of age without education, indoctrinated in an ideology of Islamic fanaticism and blind hatred, kept destitute and embittered, the most efficient way to breed terrorists. With the help of Syria and Iran, funding from Islamic nations and charities, and aid from the ever-gullible West, the perpetual “refugees” never build schools and hospitals, but arsenals that become ever more sophisticated.

American Thinker: Breeding Evil: Hezb’allah’s Children.

Yeah, but that doesn’t worry a bit: they are far away…

Technorati Tags: Hizbullah, terrorism, Lebanon, Israel, Nazi+salute, Kantar, Syria, Iran,

Kuntar giura che ucciderà altri israeliani

Quelli che seguono sono brani di dichiarazioni rilasciate nei giorni scorsi a vari programmi televisivi dal terrorista infanticida Samir Kuntar, scarcerato da Israele il 16 luglio (in cambio delle spoglie dei due ostaggi assassinati da Hezbollah Eldad Regev ed Ehud Goldwasser).

TV Al-Manar, 16.07.08

Samir Kuntar: “L’arma è… una attitudine che è diventata una cultura della resistenza. È diventata la cultura delle generazioni che realizzeranno il sogno di annientare quella entità predatoria [Israele]. Permettetemi di commemorare un grande e leggendario comandante, l’eroe mujahid [combattente della jihad] e martire Imad Mughniyeh [il capo di Hezbollah per le operazioni terroristiche all’estero, responsabile di attentati con centinaia di vittime innocenti, ucciso a Damasco lo scorso febbraio). Voglio dire solo una cosa: Hajj Imad, saremo degni del sangue da te versato solo quando costringeremo questo nemico a rimpiangere i tuoi giorni”.

TV Al-Manar, 17.07.08

Samir Kuntar: “Ieri a quest’ora ero nelle mani dei nemici. Ieri a quest’ora ero ancora nelle loro mani. Ma adesso non c’è nulla che desidero di più che incontrarli di nuovo. Chiedo ad Allah di farlo accadere presto. Si illude chiunque pensi che la liberazione delle terre libanesi e delle Fattorie Shabaa [conquistate da Israele alla Siria nel 1967, ma dal 2000 reclamate dal Libano come pretesto anti-israeliano] possa portare alla fine di questo conflitto”.

TV Al-Jadid, 18. 07.08

Samir Kuntar: “C’è un morbo, in questa regione, chiamato Stato di Israele, che noi chiamiamo ‘entità predatoria’. Se non poniamo fine a questo morbo, ci perseguirà sino in capo al mondo. Per questo è meglio sbarazzarsi di lui”.

TV Al-Manar, 17.0708

Samir Kuntar: “Hezbollah ha continuato a cercare i dispersi, vivi o martiri. Non aveva nessuna ragione per compiere un’operazione in mio favore se non la sua fede nel valore della vita umana [sic]. Ricordo che il segretario generale [Nasrallah] una volta ha detto: ‘Se Samir Kuntar è in prigione, significa che tutto il Libano è in prigione’. Ecco il valore dalla vita umana”.

TV Al-Jadid, 21.07.08

Sceicco Atallah Hamoud, capo dell’Associazione Libanese per i Prigionieri e i Prigionieri Rilasciati: “Ecco un dono [un mitra] da parte della resistenza islamica per l’eroe liberato, il tenente colonnello Samir Kuntar. Mujahideen [combattenti della jihad] come Samir Kuntar e i suoi fratelli non si curano di se stessi perché hanno votato se stessi alla resistenza, alla causa, alla patria”.

Voce narrante: “Il dono speciale della resistenza si combina con le parole di Kuntar, che ha giurato che questo mitra farà la sua parte nel vendicare il sangue dei martiri”.

Samir Kuntar: “Questo è il più bel regalo, dopo la libertà stessa. Desidero porgere il mio saluto alla resistenza islamica e al segretario generale Nasrallah per la loro fiducia. Innanzitutto, questo è il modo con cui la resistenza islamica riafferma la sua fede in me come combattente. In secondo luogo, questo mitra farà la sua parte, ad Allah piacendo, nel vendicare il sangue di Imad Mughniyeh”.

TV Future, 22.07.08

Samir Kuntar: “Se mi domandate se ho ucciso degli israeliani, sì l’ho fatto, Allah sia lodato, e ne sono orgoglioso. Se ne avrò la possibilità, ad Allah piacendo, ne ucciderò ancora. Per quanto riguarda i bambini, questa è un’altra storia. Una ragazzina venne uccisa durante l’operazione, nel fuoco incrociato. In tutte le operazioni che comportavano la cattura di ostaggi israeliani, gli ostaggi vennero sempre uccisi dai proiettili delle forze israeliane. Lo stesso è avvenuto nella mia operazione”.

Intervistatore: “Cosa ha studiato [in carcere]?”

Samir Kuntar: “Scienze sociali”.

Intervistatore: “Ha completato il suo master?”

Samir Kuntar: “No, me lo hanno impedito. Altri fratelli [in carcere] hanno completato il master, ma a me l’hanno impedito per ragioni che non conosco”.

Intervistatore: “Intende completarlo ora?”

Samir Kuntar: “No. Ad Allah piacendo, farò un master diverso”.

Intervistatore: “In cosa?”

Samir Kuntar: “Un diploma di master in resistenza armata”.

Intervistatore: “Dunque Samir Kuntar questa sera sta dichiarando che…”

Samir Kuntar: “L’ho già dichiarato”.

Intervistatore: “Ha dichiarato che avrebbe fatto parte della resistenza, ma oggi lei sta dicendo che sarà un combattente armato e che condurrà operazioni militari per la resistenza islamica”.

Samir Kuntar: “Senza il minimo dubbio”.

Intervistatore: “E’ una cosa già decisa?”

Samir Kuntar: “Certamente, certamente, certamente. Lo dico tre volte”.

(Da: MEMRI, 23.07.08 )

Per il video di queste ed altre dichiarazioni di Samir Kuntar (sottotitoli in inglese) clicca qui

Israele.net

[Being Civilized]

Comment: Those familiar with the field of Middle Eastern Studies know the culture debate (i.e. blaming all the ills of Arab/Muslim society on culture, rather than on hard political, economic factors etc.) is nothing new. French scholar Maxime Rodinson referred to the tendency of ‘Orientalists’ (or scholars of the Orient, which has now become a dirty word) to attribute all actions of Muslims to their religion as Theologocentrism. Mahmood Mamdani of Colombia University has a good survey of the culture debate in his Foreign Affairs piece Wither Political Islam?, in which he sides against the culturists.

While it’s clear that culture cannot account for all of these ills, let’s face it, the ‘victory’ rallies for Samir Quntar in Beirut and elsewhere in Lebanon — given what he did — epitomize a deep sickness in Arab culture and society. In what other region would the populace consider ‘victory’ as involving a war that results in 1,200 deaths and many more maimings, a ruined country and $5 billion in economic damages, all for the perceived humiliation of Israel and the successful return, among other lesser prisoners, of this unsavory character, Quntar? What kind of inferiority complex must there be for that to constitute ‘victory’?

To be fair, as the below Jerusalem Post article points out, not all Lebanese are in fact happy about Quntar’s release — not because he killed a baby — but because many of them who are opponents of Hizbullah worry about the domestic implications of another Hizbullah victory.

(Jerusalem Post) — “(Eyal) Zisser said the response in Lebanon was completely different from one that would have been seen in Israel due to cultural differences. Israel wouldn’t use the return of soldiers for political gain, and the celebration in Israel would have been about “the return of the individual,” and not victory, he said. “This is something you can only find in primitive societies,” said Zisser.

So why is there a need to celebrate the return of a terrorist known to have killed a child? “When you have an ideology that Zionism is the epitome of evil, when you dehumanize your enemy, you can justify anything,” said Litvak. “He didn’t kill a child. He killed a Zionist.”

Moshe Maoz, a professor of Islamic and Middle Eastern studies at Hebrew University, said the need to defeat Israel was deeply entrenched in the Arab culture.

“Anything they can recover from the feeling of humiliation [following past losses against Israel] is welcome,” Maoz said… Click for full article

Un Paese democratico e un alluce tumefatto

di Anna Rolli

Alcuni giorni fa, due soldati israeliani sono stati restituiti alle loro famiglie nella bara, dopo due anni di straziante dolore e di inutile speranza. I miliziani di Hezbollah li avevano rapiti e poi uccisi nell’estate del 2006, lasciando tutti all’oscuro sulla loro sorte.

Alcuni giorni fa, Samir Kuntar, il mostro che nel 1979, sulla spiaggia di Naharia, aveva assassinato un giovane padre di fronte alla figlioletta di 4 anni e poi aveva afferrato quest’ultima per le gambe sfracellandole il visetto e la testolina sugli scogli del mare…Samir Kuntar, dicevo, è tornato in Libano, accolto ed acclamato dagli Hezbollah come un eroe.

Alcuni giorni fa, in Cisgiordania, a nord -est di Gerusalemme, in una piccola località chiamata Kfar Nahalim, alcuni soldati israeliani hanno arrestato un palestinese di 27 anni, di nome Abu Rachma, che stava manifestando contro il muro di difesa. Tra l’arrestato e i giovani soldati sono corse alcune male parole e uno di questi ultimi ha sparato, a distanza ravvicinata, un proiettile di gomma in direzione delle scarpe del giovane palestinese che è stato colpito all’alluce del piede destro che si è gonfiato. Un medico militare lo ha prontamente soccorso e constatato che l’alluce in questione era guaribile in pochissimi giorni perché “si trattava di offesa molto leggera” (l’alluce non era rotto ma solo tumefatto) lo ha rimandato a casa.

L’intera scena, però, era stata filmata con una cinepresa amatoriale da una ragazzina palestinese di 14 anni appostata alla finestra di casa sua. Il risultato è stato il seguente: stamattina il video è andato in onda sui telegiornali di tutta Italia e di tutto il mondo e la propaganda anti-israeliana, com’era prevedibile, si è scatenata.

Nel frattempo, in Israele, per ordine del procuratore generale, la polizia militare dopo aver visionato il video stava già svolgendo tutte le indagini del caso, il soldato era già stato arrestato e rinchiuso nel carcere militare di Akko in attesa del completamento delle indagini e del rinvio in giudizio e il portavoce dell’esercito israeliano dichiarava: “L’accaduto è grave. Il soldato non ha rispettato né gli ordini né il regolamento militare che prevede tassativamente di salvaguardare l’integrità fisica di chiunque sia fermato o arrestato. Il comportamento di un singolo ha rappresentato un grave danno per l’immagine dell’esercito…”.

Nel frattempo è di oggi la notizia ( riportata da Maariv) che a Gaza, Aiad Sokar, un palestinese di 35 anni, è stato condannato a morte, senza regolare processo, con l’accusa di aver fornito informazioni agli israeliani riguardo gli spostamenti dei combattenti della Jhiad islamica. La sentenza di morte è stata consegnata a Ramallah, alla segreteria del presidente Abu Mazen, per l’autorizzazione a procedere. Quasi nessuno ne parla, come tutti sappiamo, una condanna a morte nel mondo arabo fa infinitamente meno notizia di un dito ferito per colpa di un soldato israeliano.

(Agenzia Radicale, 22 luglio 2008 )

Last week, Israel exchanged Samir Kuntar and four Hezbollah fighers for the bodies of Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, two reserve soldiers who were abducted after being mortally wounded during a cross-border raid that sparked the Second Lebanon War on July 12, 2006.

Kuntar was convicted in 1979 of dragging 4 year-old Einat Haran and her father, Danny, from their Nahariya apartment to a nearby beach, where he murdered the little girl by smashing in her head with his rifle butt and killed her father by shooting him in the back and drowning him in the Mediterranean. Danny’s wife, Smadar Haran, hid with the couple’s 2 year-old daughter, Yael, in a crawlspace in their apartment. But she accidentally smothered Yael to death while trying to keep her from crying out by placing a hand over her mouth.

You can read Smadar Haran’s first-hand account of that terrible night here. Last week Yedioth Ahronoth published the transcripts of Kuntar’s trial, including the forensic evidence that showed Einat’s brain tissue was found on Kuntar’s rifle. The article was translated into English and can be read here.

Kuntar’s act of terror is commonly considered the worst in Israel’s history. But the fact is that there are many terrorists sitting in Israeli jails who have been convicted of much worse crimes and who are responsible for killing far more civilians. The story of what Kuntar did resonates so strongly here because it involves infanticide, and because it is so nightmarishly reminiscent of the Holocaust. We all grew up with the stories of Jewish mothers who smothered their babies while trying to keep them quiet during Nazi raids of the ghettos during the Holocaust, and of SS men who killed Jewish babies by smashing their heads against walls.

So what a shock it was to see Kuntar greeted as a hero in Lebanon. How could the head of state and the head of government line up alongside Hezbollah leaders and Druze leaders to kiss a child murderer on either cheek?

In our paranoid Middle East insane asylum, a lot of those people who greeted Kuntar with open arms didn’t believe he committed the crimes of which he was convicted in a court of law.  In our paranoid Middle Eastern insane asylum, facts are dismissed as propaganda – or ignored because they distract from political agendas, which are far too often followed blindly, at the expense of ordinary human compassion. And a psychopath is embraced by political leaders who are using him to gain or maintain power. Michael Young explains here why Walid Jumblatt, the Lebanese Druze leader who two months ago was comparing Hassan Nasrallah to Hitler, lined up with the Hezbollah leadership to greet Kuntar as a hero.

Chen Kotes-Barr, an Israeli journalist who works for Maariv newspaper, met and interviewed Kuntar weekly for four years. This past Friday, her feature article was published in Maariv’s weekend supplement. I translated and edited a somewhat abridged version that was further edited and published in the Guardian this past Saturday. You can read the Guardian’s version here.

Below is my longer translation of Ms. Kotes-Barr’s piece. As you will see, it sheds substantial light on Kuntar’s background and dubious motives. Or, as Linda Grant puts it here:

By his own admission, Kuntar came from a wealthy family and was educated at private schools. He is not Palestinian, he is Druze. Despite or perhaps because of his bourgeois background, he became involved in the Marxist-Leninist organizations of that period.

Kuntar fits no model of the impoverished refugee driven to despair by occupation. Nor can he be seen within the context of Iranian-backed Islamism. When he emerged from prison last week it was as a relic of a bygone age: of that era of self-appointed middle-class revolutionaries, like the Weather Underground and Baader-Meinhof Gang.

In my own youth I occasionally met people like Kuntar, their heads addled with Marxism-Leninism. Doris Lessing’s novel The Good Terrorist anatomizes the mindset. But no one ever gave them, as they did Kuntar, a Kalashnikov, or military training, and so they escaped Kuntar’s fate, lacking the opportunity.

Samir Kuntar, home at last

I, Samir Kuntar

Over a period of four years, correspondent Chen Kotes-Bar of Maariv newspaper met regularly with Samir Kuntar. The PFLP militant, who was convicted of leading the grisly 1978 terror attack in the northern Israeli town of Nahariya, was freed this week in a controversial prisoner exchange. This is the first time his story, as told to a female Israeli journalist, has been published.

Introduction:

For the first year, my conversations with Samir Kuntar were difficult. Our meetings, which began in February 2004, took place in the prison library – just the two of us, unaccompanied. Our conversations were open, and they lasted for hours. Samir spoke to me in Hebrew. He brought tea and biscuits, and he chain-smoked. Over the 29 years he spent in Israeli jails, I was the first and only Jewish Israeli woman he met and spoke with to face-to-face.

“I’m talking to you about reality,” Kuntar said, each time we met. “I am not trying to ingratiate myself with you.” As we slowly built up some kind of trust, we stopped talking about politics and turned to personal subjects – like prison life and his own life. “Don’t go with slogans and clichés,” he implored. “Just write the facts.” He showed me photographs of his family in Lebanon. He prepared a list of Hebrew-language books on the Arab-Israeli conflict for me.

I told him about my father, who survived Auschwitz, and about my 5 year-old son. Each time I wrap him in a towel after his bath, I told Kuntar, I think of Danny Haran and his daughter Einat. About the terror attack in Nahariya.

The girl’s death was a tragic incident, answered Kuntar. He insisted that he had not killed her. What does it matter, I told him, you shot at them. If you had not landed on the beach at Nahariya in your rubber dinghy, Einat Haran would still be alive. He never expressed any remorse.

I did not try to understand, to resolve or even to interpret. I just wanted to get to know the man. “I met the enemy,” Samir said, when I asked him how he would explain our meetings to his children. “I met the enemy and I saw that he has a face.”

Shortly after the Second Lebanon War, Kuntar understood that he would be released from prison. He became an enthusiastic supporter of Hezbollah, and he became more extreme in his opinions. His expressions of anger, as he once described them, turned into expressions of hatred.

He once said that, if someone had told him 30 years ago he would sit and talk to an Israeli woman, a Jew, he would have said it was impossible. But the years had taught him that “it was possible to listen to every human being in the world.” On another occasion he told me that he saw me as a neutral player in the conflict. “No,” I answered. “You cannot neutralize me.”

****

“My name is Samir Kuntar. I am prisoner number 562885.

I was born in the village of Abiya, on Mt. Lebanon. My father worked in Saudi Arabia as a chef for Albir Avila, the international hotel chain. He was a well-known chef, in high demand. He used to come home once every two months, always laden with gifts like clothes and perfumes. For the last birthday I celebrated at home, I remember that my parents bought me a leather jacket and my father baked me a layer cake.

My mother is a homemaker with a very strong personality. When she decides something, that’s it – you can never change her mind. My family is Druze, secular and well off. We are three brothers and five sisters. We have a beautiful house that overlooks Beirut, with a view of the airport from the balcony.

One winter evening in 1968, around 9 or 10 o’clock, we heard explosions. The whole house trembled. When the noise started, we went outside and saw huge flames rising from the airport, lighting up the sky like flares. I stood and watched, unable to move. I had never seen anything like it. That was the IDF raid that took place in December 1968, after the attacks on El Al planes.

The first time I heard of Israel? I was six-and-a-half.

I was a quiet, introspective kid. I attended a private school, where I did very well. In the afternoons, after school, I’d go with my friends to hunt birds with a slingshot, or swim in the river. In winter, when there was a snowfall, we’d mess about outdoors and take photos of one another.

Occasionally my father took me to Beirut. When I saw the refugee camps on the edge of the city, I asked my father what they were. He explained to me, ‘Son, those are Palestinians. The Israelis drove them out of their country, and they’re not allowed to return.’

We were fans of the Nejmah football team, and of the singer Fayrouz.

I dreamt of being a soldier. I wanted to go to the military academy and become an officer. But then in April 1975 the academy was closed, because of the civil war. So I spent a lot of time at home, hanging out with my friends, talking about teenage stuff. We didn’t talk about politics. I read comic books – I had a subscription, because I really loved comics – and I watched the news. Then I joined the Scouts – the branch that was sponsored by Kamal Jumblatt’s Progressive Socialist party. My parents really admired Jumblatt; they even hung his photo on the living room wall.

We used to have Scout meetings twice a week. Activities were divided by age, and they were for boys only. We did mostly social activities, like picking olives in a nearby village. Or physical activities, like rock climbing, hiking and running.

I wanted to fight. By then there were pictures of Arafat on the streets, and posters about the Palestinian revolution, and Palestinians used to collect donations door-to-door. I said, “Singing and going hiking with teenagers is not for me.” I went to the head of the Socialist party movement and said, “Let me go fight the Phalangists.” He answered, ‘You’re too young.’ I was 13-and-a-half at the time. I loved action and I was idealistic. Representatives of Ahmed Jibril’s Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) – General Command, were recruiting candidates for military training from my village, so I convinced one of them to let me enlist. Each afternoon at 5 o’clock, a car would collect me and take me to the training camp. That’s where I shot a gun for the first time – a Kalashnikov. It was fantastic.

At first no one suspected a thing at home, but after a few days my father found out. He was a man of peace; war was the last thing you would associate with his character. Seeing that I was completely high on adrenaline, he said, ‘Why don’t you go abroad, to Amsterdam?’ The company he worked for had a branch in Amsterdam. I didn’t want to go. I said, ‘Dad, no. I am not leaving this place.’ But he wouldn’t give up. He showed me photos of Amsterdam; still I wasn’t interested. Pretty soon we were arguing, and everyone at home started to nag me. ‘You’re still young, forget about all this stuff.’ My father said, ‘I will send you anywhere you want to go. Just choose a destination and I’ll take care of everything.’ But he could not say anything to change my mind.”

The training

“The military training course lasted six weeks. It was led by the PFLP, but the participants were unaffiliated with any organization. We slept 60 to a tent and practiced climbing ropes, running and shooting. We were given political lectures and they showed us films about Israel. We lived for the stories about the Yom Kippur War in 1973 – how we succeeded in destroying the myth of the invincible Israeli soldier. We read about the fighters who successfully attacked Israeli towns like Kiryat Shmona and Maalot [in 1974 the DFLP attacked a school in Maalot, killing 21 high school pupils – LG]. We admired them.

At the end of the course we were allowed to apply for membership in the PFLP. The welcoming committee was composed of five men in uniform, but without any ranks because the PFLP was Marxist. We were forbidden to salute, for the same reason. They asked me annoying questions, like ‘Are you completely convinced of the suffering of the Palestinian people?’ and ‘Why do you want to join the organization?’ Everyone had to choose a nom de guerre, so I chose Nabil Ahmed Kassam. I was given a new uniform and an ID card with the PFLP logo. It showed my blood type and my rank: ’combat soldier. ’

When the PFLP split in 1976, I stayed with the Palestine Liberation Front (PLF) that was led by Abu Abbas and I went to officers’ training. I studied tactics, topography, weapons, engineering and communications. There were also courses in ideology. I finished seventh in my class. I was 15 years old.”

The commander of the Nahariya operation

When he was 16 years old, having spent 11 months in a Jordanian prison following a failed terror operation, Samir Kuntar was given leadership of a cell and assigned to attack Nahariya, an Israeli coastal town located about 10 kilometers south of Lebanon.

During that notoriously brutal attack, Kuntar dragged 32 year-old Danny Haran and his 4 year-old daughter, Einat, from their apartment to the nearby beach. He killed Haran by shooting him in the back and then drowning him, while Einat watched. According to forensic evidence and eyewitness court testimony, Kuntar then killed the 4 year-old girl by smashing her skull against the rocks with the butt of his rifle. Her mother, Smadar, hid in a crawlspace with 2 year-old Yael, but accidentally smothered her to death while trying to silence the toddler’s cries. The Nahariya attack is considered the most brutal in Israel’s history. It is seared on the collective Israeli consciousness.

“I chose three comrades for the mission: Abdel Majed Aslan, Mhana Salim Al-Muayed, and Ahmed Al-Abras. I was the commander. We were given special training in weapons and in sea operations – swimming at night with full gear, navigating a rubber dinghy, and so on. The training was very extensive, because several previous attempts to infiltrate Israel by sea had failed.”

The mission: to kill civilians

“During our training, we recorded our wills. Everyone wrote his own will, and the political leader corrected the technical errors. I wrote, ‘To my comrades in the organization, to all my comrades in all the Palestinian organizations, today I sacrifice myself for Palestine…We are proponents of peace and this is the way to obtain the peace in which we believe. I do this in the name of the all the Palestinian mothers, for their happiness and their future. I do this for all the Palestinian fathers, and I hope that, with my acts, I will contribute to their future return to their birthplace, so that every Palestinian family will be permitted to raise its children in harmony. Peace to everyone.’

Two weeks before Kuntar and his comrades set out on their mission, Abu Abbas informed the cell leader that his destination was Nahariya. In a meeting that took place in the organization’s Beirut ‘war room,’ Abu Abbas showed Kuntar a map of the Israeli town and gave him a detailed operational briefing.

“Abu Abbas told us there was a 99 percent probability that we would not return. It was clear that we were going to kill civilians. We defined the operation as ‘Wounding Israelis.’ We said that every Israeli civilian is in fact a soldier.

I went back to my village to visit my parents for the last time. After dinner, I kissed my parents and my sisters and brothers goodbye, and I went to Beirut.”

Nahariya

“We called the mission ‘Al Nasser,’ for the former president of Egypt. This was after Sadat visited Israel. We set out on the rubber dinghy at 10 p.m. on April 21, 1979. The sea was stormy and it was cold. The journey to Nahariya took about four hours, because we traveled slowly to avoid making noise.”

Upon landing on the beach in Nahariya, Kuntar and his comrades followed the instructions they had been given in Beirut – which included finding a police officer and killing him. So they knocked on the door of a private house and called out in Arabic via the intercom, frightening the inhabitants into calling the police. They killed Officer Eliyahu Shachar in a hail of bullets – Kuntar boasts that he alone shot 30 bullets – and, just to make sure they had achieved their goal, they lobbed an RPG at the police vehicle.

The four terrorists continued to a nearby multi-story apartment building on Jabotinsky Street, about two blocks from the beach. They planned, said Kuntar, to abduct two or three people and take them back to Lebanon.

“We walked up some stairs and I kicked open the door of an apartment,” recounted Kuntar. I told Majed to take the right, while I took the left. Majed opened the bedroom door and someone inside – I guess he heard the noise – shot him twice in the forehead. He managed to say, ‘They shot me,’ before he fell.

I doubled back, entered the bedroom and saw the man who shot Majed. He was an older guy, with a long nose. I pulled the trigger on my pistol that was equipped with a silencer, but nothing happened. I tried again, but still nothing. I tried using my Kalashnikov, but it was jammed. That guy was lucky.

I yelled downstairs, ‘Someone get up here.’ Ali came up the stairs. I told him, ‘Toss a grenade in there, I’ve gotta fix my weapon.’ The explosion made everything go black. The guy in the bedroom disappeared. I was pretty sure he was dead, but I fired a few more shots just to make sure. Then we went downstairs. The stairwell was dark, but there was light under the door of one of the apartments. We broke in. That was the Haran family’s apartment.”

Murder. Why we did not commit suicide.

“Dan Haran was standing there, looking at us. The little girl was with him. When we arrived, he was sitting on the bed, as if he were waiting for someone. But as soon as we entered the bedroom, he stood up. He started talking to me in English. I didn’t understand much; just a few words. He was trying to explain that I should not hurt him. I told my comrade in Arabic, ‘Don’t shoot.’

I tried to calm him down with gestures. I said to him, ‘Come.’ He started speaking to me in a mixture of Hebrew and English. He held his daughter tightly. The little girl did not make a sound. She was wearing pyjamas. I tried to tell him to leave her there, but he did not understand. I tried telling him ‘Come.” But he did not want to come with me. I understood that he was trying to give the police time to arrive. He was afraid.

My comrade, Muhammad Ali, did not understand why we were waiting. I tried explaining to Haran again, using Arabic and hand gestures. He understood, but he was completely unwilling to come with me. I tried to separate him from the little girl. Then I heard shots outside. It was 2.45 a.m. I said, ‘He is delaying us.’

I grabbed him in a hurry, with the girl still in his arms. I said to him, ‘Yalla, imshi [‘Let’s go, move it’]. We left the building surrounding Haran, who was holding his daughter in his arms, and went down to the beach. Haran kept halting and talking, trying to delay us. But we had to get to the boat. They were waiting for us in Lebanon.

As we approached the rubber dinghy, we heard a lot of voices. Then shots were fired in our direction.

We approached the boat from the rocks, and Ali took Danny on board. That’s when they started to shoot at us really hard. I returned fire, but it wasn’t enough. Ali and Danny got off the boat. I ordered everyone to take a position on the rocks and return fire. Danny was behind us. His daughter was near him. Haran waved at the soldiers and called out to them in Hebrew. They alerted the area and continued to fire heavily. I ducked down to put a fresh magazine into my rifle. Haran waved again, while they were still firing, and he was wounded.

The little girl screamed. That was the first time we heard her. That’s it. I don’t remember anything else.

The battle continued until around 5.30 a.m. Ahmed was wounded in the forehead. Ali was killed. I took five bullets and lost a lot of blood. I was not focused.

Before the operation, I had instructed everyone to prepare explosive suicide belts. Ali prepared his belt and asked me, ‘So, should we blow ourselves up?’ I told him, ‘Not yet. Wait for the soldiers to get closer. I don’t want us to die alone.’ I knew that if Ahmed detonated his belt, we would all blow up. The soldiers got closer, but Ahmed didn’t detonate the belt. To this day, I do not know why.

What happened to the girl? During the interrogation they told me, ‘You must admit that you wounded the girl with your rifle.’ I told them, ‘Write whatever you want.’ I did not see anything and I did not hear anything. It was total chaos there. I was focused on the goal. I don’t mind admitting to things that I did. I don’t want to admit to things that I did not do.”

* * *

It should be emphasized that Samir Kuntar’s version of the events of April 22, which have been articulated here in his voice for the first time, is different from that of the security service personnel and Israeli civilians who were present.

According to the Israeli security services’ reconstruction of the incident, Officer Eliyahu Shachar was killed after he exited his vehicle and fired two warning shots into the air. Kuntar’s cell responded with a massive burst of shots. A teenager who was sitting in the car, together with two more police officers, was wounded in the leg and ran to hide behind some bushes. According to the eyewitnesses, the RPG was fired at a nearby wall – not at the police vehicle, which was damaged by flying shrapnel.

Also contradicting Kuntar’s testimony is that of Smadar Haran, Danny Haran’s widow, who hid with the couple’s 2 year-old daughter Yael in a tiny crawlspace above the bedroom. She has no recollection of hearing Kuntar trying to convince Danny to leave little Einat behind. “It was a terrible and chaotic night, but I find it very difficult to believe that any such conversation took place,” said Smadar.

Brigadier General (reserve army) Yossi Schur, a resident of Nahariya whose home was near the site of the attack, heard the shots and was one of the first to find the police officer, 24 year-old Eliyahu Shachar. After checking his pulse to confirm he was dead, Schur radioed for help and continued in the direction of the beach, where the firefight was ongoing. “…suddenly I heard the blood-chilling scream of a young girl. Just as I yelled, ‘Halt!’ Samir Kuntar stood up and began shooting at me from a distance of 5 meters. Three bullets hit me in the chest, and I fell. During his interrogation by the Shin Bet, Kuntar said that he twisted the little girl’s leg in order to make her scream, so that we would stop the assault. And we did, indeed, cease firing after she screamed. After I fell, the firefight continued.”

Samir Kuntar and Ahmed Al-Abras were wounded and captured at 5.30 a.m. Mhanna Salim Al-Muayed was killed during the exchange of fire.

During his trial Kuntar denied responsibility for the murder of the Haran family, despite the evidence of the pathologist, which proved that Einat Haran was killed by the force of a blunt instrument – most likely a rifle butt. The pathologist’s report also showed that Einat’s brain tissue was found on Kuntar’s rifle.

Torture and the wish to die, quickly

Samir Kuntar describes the physical torture he underwent during his interrogation. “On the second day of my interrogation, they started to talk about the girl. They asked how she was killed, who shot her.’ Only later did they start telling me that she had died from the blow of a rifle butt. I stuck with my story, but they insisted I had killed her. They took me outside and shackled me. Here, I still have the scars on my wrists. For five days they kept me shackled to an iron bar, with my arms up. I was in a standing position, so when I got tired or fainted all the pressure was on my wrists. Every so often, a soldier would beat me with a rubber hose. They practiced karate on my body. I was blindfolded and they would not allow me to sit or lie down. After they had finished beating me, they immediately returned me to the interrogation room.

My interrogator, Abu Zaken, kept insisting that I would write out a full confession. I hated him; he was a monster. He asked me where I had trained, for how long, and so on. But I did not tell. The little bit I did tell was just old wives’ tales. During those five days, I just wanted to die. I couldn’t take it anymore – the beatings, the humiliations, the curses. And the megaphones they put on my ears, with the noise of sirens at full volume. That made me faint.

I was kept in a tiny, windowless cell that was painted red. Bread, water and carrots were passed through a slit in the door three times a day. Sometimes a little cheese. I was kept in shackles and there was not enough room to lie down. Every few weeks a soldier would empty the slops bucket. After a while, the interrogations were less frequent.”

Five months later, Kuntar was transferred to a prison for political prisoners. His cellmate was Kozo Okomoto, the Japanese Red Army militant who perpetrated the Lod Airport Massacre in 1972.

The trial

In November the trial of Samir Kuntar began at the Haifa District Courts. It lasted for three months. “I thought it was a circus,” said Kuntar. “There were 52 witnesses. I testified for 90 minutes, in Arabic. The sentence was handed down on January 29, 1980. I got five life sentences plus 48 years inside. At the trial I heard for the first time the names of Eliyahu Shachar, Einat, Danny Haran and Smadar Haran, who survived.”

“Smadar took me on as her personal project. She just could not understand that it wasn’t personal. I didn’t come from Lebanon with a note that said, ‘Haran family.’ I came as part of a conflict in which I was convinced I had to participate. I did what I did for my people, for my country. I did not steal, I did not break into a car.

Even if I sit in jail for a hundred years, I will never change my opinions. This is what I believe. You are all banging your heads against the wall. You are playing a zero sum game, and both sides are losing. The solution is for the stronger side to compromise. You are the stronger side. You are the occupiers. If you don’t compromise, things will not work out. Those are my opinions. I, in my eyes, am a Palestinian. It is as if you were to ask an IDF soldier if he regretted having fired shots. You don’t ask soldiers that question.

You say I am a terrorist with ‘blood on his hands.’ That is a cynical phrase. You have blood on your hands, too. Every Israeli citizen who pays taxes to the state has blood on his hands. All of you.

People who commit acts of terror, like me, are not bloodthirsty. You cannot say that I woke up one morning, without knowing anything about the Palestinian nation, without having grown up in the conflict, and decided to commit an act of terror. No, of course not. It was a process, and it was connected with my political and ideological roots. It is also not a question of age, of how old I was. Young people are more motivated, it’s true. So age was a factor, but not a deciding one. I was not unusually attracted to Palestinians. I always believed, even when I was young, that we cannot enjoy our lives while letting the next generation be consumed by the conflict. I wanted to fight for the Palestinian nation. I believe that, by sacrificing my life for the people to whom I am connected, I committed a moral and humane act. I was not a mercenary soldier.”

Prison. Zionism in Hebrew

In prison, Kuntar taught himself Hebrew and went on to earn an undergraduate degree in the humanities from the Open University of Israel. “I took a course on the Holocaust. I received a mark of 90 percent for a course on strategies of the Second World War. I learned about Pearl Harbour and Operation Barbarossa. I started studying for my Master’s degree, but they would not allow me to complete it.

I read a lot. I hardly slept at night. I don’t like to sleep. I like to experience every minute of life, even in jail. I ordered books via the canteen. I made an effort to read every new book about the army, security, wars that happened here, Zionism. I am anti-Zionist, not anti-Jewish. I am against the politics of Zionism. I think the establishment of the State of Israel was a mistake, but I do not hate Jews. I sent some of my books to Lebanon, so I will have them at home when I return. You have to know the people you are fighting against. I listen to Israeli music, and I read Israeli novels, too.”

The deal. Nasrallah made it happen.

“I don’t know when I became a symbol. It was a process. I think it started with the hijacking of the Achille Lauro, in 1985. I was told the hijackers mentioned my name, and some of the prison guards told me I should be ready to be released. I stayed in jail, though. Over the years they released prisoners who committed much worse acts than I. They freed Al-Abras in the Jibril deal.

I became the longest-serving political prisoner in Israel. I became a spokesman and a representative of the political prisoners. I have participated in every single hunger strike and protest that took place over the last 28 years. Starting from 1984, I led the hunger strikes. Every single thing we were granted – a bed, clock, civilian clothes, television, radio – everything was the result of a strike. They gave us rights and then they took them away.

And then you made me into your bargaining chip. That was in 2004, when I was in Nafha Prison. There were hundreds of smuggled mobile phones at Nafha. I spoke with Kassam, Nasrallah’s deputy, around the time when Israel was planning to trade hundreds of prisoners for Elchanan Tennenbaum and the three [dead – LG] soldiers.

I had never heard of Hezbollah before I was captured. I learned about them in jail. Today I love Hassan Nasrallah very much. Very much. He always keeps his promises. If it weren’t for him they would never release me, and I would end my days in jail.”

Release from jail

“When the war began, I felt pride. Our people have finally begun to value human life, as you did once. I hoped the abducted soldiers were alive. I knew they were more valuable alive, and I wanted the price to be high. I heard the parents of the abducted soldiers speaking. Things like that lower the barriers. I knew that if they had released me in 2004, your soldiers would not have been abducted. There would not have been a war at all. You are responsible. You behaved with stupidity and arrogance. After the 2004 prisoner swap I told one of the guards at Nafha, ‘Listen, there is going to be a war over me. Remember that.’ I knew that there would be a deal and I would be released. That it was just a matter of time.”

“What am I going to do now, after my release? I really don’t know. I feel as if I am going to another world. I need to sit and digest my new situation. If I had been imprisoned at an older age, it wouldn’t be so difficult. But I came to jail as a teenager. This is the first time I will experience life on the outside as an adult. I need to learn how to drive, to go to the bank, to buy things at the shops. I have never held money in my hand.

The thing I need most now is privacy. In 2004, when I was supposed to be freed, I bought a house, 40 meters from the beach, in Beirut. The house is waiting. I want to be alone. I want to have my own key, so that I can come and go whenever I please, to drink coffee on the balcony, to smoke a cigarette, to go down and swim in the sea and go jet skiing.

Addendum to the Maariv article:

“My place will always be on the front lines”

by Arik Weiss

In interviews with the Israeli media, Samir Kuntar has presented himself as a moderate pragmatist. But his statements in other contexts have revealed a slightly different picture

In the few interviews that Samir Kuntar granted the Israeli media over the 29 years he was in jail, he presented himself as a moderate who no longer believed in terrorism against civilians. He even sent a letter of condolence to Shimon Peres after the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin in 1995. “With pain and with sorrow I have just received the shocking news of the murder of the leader of peace, Yitzhak Rabin. May his memory be blessed,” wrote Kuntar. “We have all lost a great leader, who planted in our hearts the value of loving humankind and who wished to stop the cycle of bloody violence.”

But in letters that were smuggled to the Arab press over the years, a slightly different picture emerges. In 2003 the Lebanese magazine Al Safir published an interview with Kuntar in which he said, “I am a guarantor for the release of the prisoners. I am a weapon in the hands of Hezbollah. Our release is not a preparation for the disarming of the Resistance, but rather proof that our method is the correct one. The weapons of the Intifada must remain in order to strengthen the standing of the Palestinians.”

Over recent years Bassam Kuntar, Samir’s younger brother, established a website calling for his release [samirkuntar.org, but it’s been disabled since his release. – LG]. The site was translated into Hebrew, English and Arabic, but the texts in the different languages do not match. According to one of the articles on the site, “On the day I left the beach of Tyre I was sad, but at the same time I was bursting with happiness because I knew that I was going to fulfill my obligation: to kill Jews. I no longer had any patience. I knew that I had to sacrifice myself.”

In a letter he sent to Hassan Nasrallah that was published on the website, Kuntar wrote, “I bless my brothers in the Hezbollah and call upon them to return to the battlefield against the Zionist occupiers. I strongly recommend the participation of more young men and women from all over Lebanon and the Arab world in the armed struggle.”

In another letter he sent to Nasrallah after the assassination of Imad Mugniyah, Kuntar promised that “[my] place has always been on the front lines of the battle…which is soaked with the blood of the dearest people. I will continue in my path until the final, complete victory.”

At an elaborate ceremony welcoming him back to Lebanon this past Wednesday, Kuntar, dressed in a Hezbollah army uniform, said, “I swear by Allah that I will continue in the path upon which I started.”

As Lebanese leaders cheer return of a child-murderer, Israel mourns its two soldiers

CREDIT: Paula Bronstein, Getty Images Lebanese citizens cheer the release of five prisoners and the return of the bodies of 199 Lebanese.

How do you welcome a child murderer as a hero?

Depending on the tone, this question becomes an attempt to clarify, or an expression of outrage. Stated calmly, “How do you welcome a child murderer as a hero?” can be a factual question – such as the one that faced Lebanese leaders this week as they proceeded to celebrate the freeing of Samir Kuntar from an Israeli prison, where he had been held since 1979 for murdering 4-year-old Einat Haran, her father Danny Haran, and a policeman.

Stated angrily, “How do you welcome a child murderer as a hero?” is the question Israelis are asking – and the rest of the civilized world should be asking, too.

On the night of April 22, 1979, Kuntar, working with three other terrorists, took Danny and Einat hostage, marching them to the Mediterranean beach after seizing them in their home in the coastal city of Nahariya. After shooting Danny in front of his daughter, then drowning him to make sure he was dead, Kuntar turned on Einat. Swinging his rifle butt, he smashed the 4-year-old’s head against the rocks, until she too died.

Adding to the horror, Einat’s mother, Smadar, hiding in a crawl space, accidentally smothered 2-year-old Yael Haran while trying to stifle her whimpering.

Any civilized court of law would hold the attackers responsible for the toddler’s death, too. Judging by the euphoria in Lebanon and in the Palestinian territories this week, by the terrorists’ barbaric, topsy-turvy immoral logic, the additional carnage enhances Kuntar’s heroic status.

Of course, this kind of language is terribly impolite. We Westerners are not supposed to call ourselves “civilized” and deem others “barbaric.” For decades now we have been told that such terms are too judgmental, too culturally-determined, too imperialistic, too arrogant.

We have been so sensitized and issues have become so relativized many of us have lost our moral bearings. We have to call Kuntar a “militant,” a “fighter” but not a “terrorist.” We are supposed to explore Kuntar’s motivations.

And besides, whatever his motives, we are expected to excuse his crimes by pointing to equally heinous Western sins, or the religious-cultural-nationalist foundations for his actions.

And yet, occasionally, illuminating moments of moral clarity shine through the haze of amoral theorizing that emanates from our finest campuses, that is disseminated by our most technologically sophisticated media. We all witnessed such a moment this week with Israel’s heart-breaking prisoner exchange.

As the two coffins bearing the bodies of Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser arrived in Israel from Lebanon, the nation of Israel plunged into mourning. These two young men became the entire country’s collective children. Strangers who had never met either of them wept bitterly, sharing the pain of the family and the friends, remembering other losses, fearing more tragedies in the future.

By contrast, the massive celebrations in Lebanon for Kuntar and four other terrorists revealed not only the thuggery of Hezbollah but the descent of Lebanon itself. Rolling out the red carpet for a murderer, dispatching the country’s top leaders to greet someone who crushed a 4-year-old’s skull, declaring a national day of celebration, revealed just how thoroughly the Lebanese leadership had succumbed to the brutal sensibilities of Hassan Nasrallah and his Hezbollah terrorists.

At first glance, it is easy to conclude that the country that is mourning lost this week and the country celebrating won. In fact, Israel won a great moral victory. Israel showed why Westerners should and will support the Jewish state, empathize with the Jewish state, identify with the Jewish state.

We want to side with the country that moves heaven and Earth to bring its boys home, to protect its citizens; not with the country of bloodthirsty mobs deifying cowards who smashed the skull of a 4-year-old girl with a rifle butt on a lovely Mediterranean beach. We learn about a people by observing whom they love and whom they hate. Joy is fleeting and often triggered by base instincts. Sometimes collective anguish is a sign of moral strength, not national weakness.

“I’m proud to belong to those who love and not to those who hate,” Ofer Regev said while eulogizing his brother Eldad. Israelis should be proud of this moment of moral clarity – and wary of enemies with such distorted value systems. Israel’s – and the West’s – enemies are wrong.

A nation that risks so much even just to bring two corpses home, a country that celebrates life not death, is not only a worthy ally – but a dangerous adversary when provoked.

Gil Troy teaches history at McGill University.

Author: Aaron

Over the past few days, many of you have witnessed the handing over of dead bodies and terrorists between Israel and Hezbollah. Now look at the way Israel reacts to the transfer, especially after the hope of having two young men returned alive was torn up in their faces.

 

An unnamed soldier, mourns the loss of his comradeFamily of Ehud Goldwasser Mourns

Author: Aaron

The United Nations never ceases to amaze me. Shown here are U.N. “diplomats” saluting the coffins and slogans of terrorists from Hezbollah and Hamas.

The remains of these animals were transferred along with five cold-blooded terrorists for the remains of two Israeli soldiers. Israeli is constantly trading terrorists for remains of soldiers; however, this swap was particularly important because there was a chance that the two soldiers kidnapped, almost two years ago, were still alive. However, the terrorists of course killed the two heroes of Israel but it is Jewish tradition to bury all of the remains for those who perish.

I’m not surprised to see the Lebanese people saluting and waving at the body parts and terrorists, but the U.N.? Now that’s just absurd.

How could a world organization that was invented to stop human rights violations and war crimes against humanity, actually praise terrorism and still hold their heads up as honorable people.

This is a direct slap in the face to the families of Israeli victims to terror and to the people of Israel as whole.

Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser are laid to rest as thousands of mourners attend their burials. Ofer Regev’s brother states “I’m proud I belong to those who love and not to those who hate”. 

I believe that Gilad Shalit is still alive and that he will return home. Free Gilad Shilat. Shalom.

All my best,

~Celia

Oggi esce di galera, col ricatto, uno spietato infanticida mai pentito

Per quasi trent’anni non era stata autorizzata la pubblicazione del contenuto completo del dossier Samir Kuntar (File No. 578/79) depositato negli archivi del tribunale di Haifa. Ora, alla vigilia della prevista scarcerazione di Kuntar, accogliendo la richiesta del quotidiano israeliano Yediot Aharonot il tribunale ha autorizzato la visione della deposizione di Kuntar, delle numerose prove, di altre testimonianze e del testo completo dell’atto di incriminazione e della sentenza. Finora questo materiale era coperto da segreto e nelle poche occasioni in cui era uscito dagli archivi, era stato accompagnato da una scorta armata. Lunedì scorso il giudice Ron Shapira ha autorizzato la pubblicazione di tutto il contenuto del dossier, ad eccezione della testimonianza di una sola persona. Il giudice ha anche chiesto di non pubblicare i referti anatomopatologici né altri dettagli che possano ledere la memoria delle vittime. “Non vedo ragione di limitare l’accesso all’atto di incriminazione e al verdetto – ha spiegato il giudice, respingendo la richiesta del pubblico ministero – E’ fuor di dubbio che la questione della scarcerazione di Kuntar, e dunque anche le circostanze della sua detenzione, sono argomenti di profondo interesse pubblico. Pertanto sono convinto che la richiesta del quotidiano sia giustificata”.

Samir Kuntar, druso libanese, aveva 17 anni quando guidò un commando terroristico del Fronte Popolare per la Liberazione della Palestina (FPLP). Da allora non ha mai espresso alcun rimorso per aver ucciso Einat Haran (4 anni), il padre Danny Haran (32 anni) e l’agente di polizia Eliyahu Shahar (24 anni). Kuntar e Ahmed Assad Abras, l’altro membro del commando sopravvissuto all’attentato, vennero condannati a cinque ergastoli più 47 anni di carcere. Durante l’attentato, che avvenne a Nahariya il 22 aprile 1979, morì anche Yael Haran (2 anni) mentre si nascondeva con la madre Smadar per sfuggire ai terroristi.

Salvo ritardi dell’ultimo momento nell’applicazione del recente accordo di scambio con Hezbollah, mercoledì mattina Kuntar saluterà i suoi compagni della cella 33, ala 3, del carcere di Hadarim, verrà trasportato al valico di frontiera di Rosh Hanikra fra Israele e Libano e potrà festeggiare il suo 46esimo compleanno a casa sua, nel villaggio di Aabey, vicino all’aeroporto di Beirut.

La notte del 22 aprile 1979 Kuntar e i suoi complici partirono dal Libano su un gommone e sbarcarono sulla spiaggia di Nahariya. Qui spararono a un’auto di pattuglia della polizia uccidendo l’agente Eliyahu Shahar. Proseguendo, fecero irruzione nel vicino appartamento della famiglia Haran, al 61 di Via Jabotinsky, e trascinarono sulla spiaggia Danny e la figlia Einat di 4 anni. Smadar e l’altra figlia, Yael, di 2 anni, si nascosero acquattandosi in un soppalco dove Yael morì inavvertitamente soffocata dalla madre che cercava disperatamente di impedirle di gridare per non essere scoperte dai terroristi. Intanto sulla spiaggia, mentre si svolgeva uno scontro a fuoco con le sopraggiunte forze di sicurezza, Kuntar sparava a bruciapelo nella schiena a Danny e uccideva anche la figlia Einat.

Nell’azione morirono anche due terroristi, mentre Kuntar e Abras venivano arrestati e processati.

Immediatamente dopo l’arresto, all’udienza per la conferma del suo stato di detenzione, Kuntar ammise d’aver ucciso la piccola Einat colpendola ripetutamente sulla testa col calcio della sua arma. Successivamente, invece, durante la deposizione davanti alla Corte, Kuntar ritrattò la confessione. “Arrivai sulla spiaggia di Nahariya alle 2.30 del mattino – dichiarò il 6 gennaio 1980 – Legammo la nostra imbarcazione alle rocce. Avevamo istruzione di non aprire il fuoco, prendere degli ostaggi e portarli con noi in Libano. Io ero al comando della cellula. Avevo deciso di bussare alla porta di una delle case. Majeed ed io camminammo verso l’edificio. Gli dissi di suonare il campanello ma di non parlare perché avevo deciso di parlare in inglese con quelli che ci abitavano. Quando arrivammo, Majeed suonò a uno degli appartamenti e parlò in arabo alla donna, e quella risposte in ebraico. Fu un errore e la donna non aprì la porta. In quel momento sentii il suono di un’auto che si avvicinava e si fermava… Feci fuoco e poi entrammo in uno degli appartamenti da dove tirammo fuori un uomo e la sua ragazzina per portarli via con noi. Decisi che avremmo dovuto portare con noi anche la ragazzina per garantirci di restare vivi, per poi restituirli dal Libano attraverso la Croce Rossa. Mentre eravamo con loro ci furono degli spari verso di noi… Esplosi alcune raffiche verso quella gente con il mio Kalashnikov e colpii uno di loro che cadde a terra. Quando vidi che il gommone era stato colpito… cercammo di ritirarci via terra e sfuggire al fuoco verso di noi… I soldati lanciarono un attacco contro di noi… Volevo trovare un modo per dir loro di smettere di spararci perché l’unico nostro obiettivo era portare in Libano gli ostaggi. Ma non avevo un megafono… Fui colpito da cinque proiettili”.

Kuntar proseguì la deposizione al processo sostenendo che Danny Haran sarebbe stato colpito dagli stessi soldati israeliani durante lo scontro a fuoco. “Io – aggiunse – perdevo molto sangue e svenni. Non so cos’altro sia accaduto fino quando mi sono svegliato e mi sono ritrovato nelle mani dei soldati. Non ho fatto nulla alla ragazzina e non ho visto come sia morta”.

Tra le varie testimonianze dell’accusa, il testimone n. 4 ha invece raccontato alla Corte d’aver visto molto bene Danny Haran in piedi che gridava “Non sparate, c’è qui la mia bambina” e subito dopo Kuntar che gli sparava nella schiena. Al processo ha testimoniato anche il medico legale che ha accertato che la morte di Einat è stata direttamente causata da colpi inferti con un oggetto smussato come un bastone o il calcio di un fucile.

Le udienze in tribunale furono quasi insopportabili per la madre, Smadar Haran, unica sopravvissuta della famiglia. Durante una delle sedute, mentre la difesa di Kuntar cercava di sostenere che il suo assistito era stato maltrattato in carcere, Smadar mormorò qualcosa all’indirizzo dei due imputati obbligando la Corte a chiederle di scusarsi. Smadar decise di abbandonare l’aula del tribunale, ma si rifiutò di porgere le sue scuse.

Il giorno della lettura della sentenza Smadar Haran sedeva con il capo chino, piegata dal dolore. La madre dell’agente ammazzato Eliyahu Shahar, che non aveva perso neanche una udienza, non era invece presente: il suo cuore aveva ceduto quattro giorni prima. Kuntar, stando al resoconto pubblicato allora da Yediot Aharonot, sembrava quasi divertito.

“Samir Kuntar – scrissero i giudici nella sentenza, sulla base di molte prove e testimonianze – si avvicinò a Einat Haran e la colpì due volte sulla testa con il calcio del suo fucile, con l’intenzione di ucciderla. Anche l’altro imputato le colpì la testa con forza. A causa dei colpi, Einat subì fratture al cranio e danni fatali al cervello, che ne provocarono la morte. Costoro assassinarono a sangue freddo gli ostaggi, una padre indifeso e la sua piccola figlia”. E aggiunsero: “Con questi atti, gli imputati hanno toccato bassezze morali senza precedenti… un gesto senza eguali di diabolica malvagità … la pena che intendiamo infliggere non corrisponde neanche lontanamente alla brutalità delle loro azioni…”.

Successivamente il governo israeliano stabilì che la scarcerazione di Kuntar, nel frattempo diplomatosi in scienze sociali durante la detenzione in Israele, sarebbe stata usata come moneta di scambio nell’affare Ron Arad (l’aviatore israeliano caduto vivo nella mani di terroristi jihadisti libanesi nel 1986, “venduto” da un’organizzazione terroristica all’altra, e del quale da tempo non si sa più nulla). Quattro anni fa, durante le trattative per ottenere la restituzione del faccendiere Elhanan Tannenbaum, sequestrato da Hezbollah, e delle spoglie di tre soldati israeliani catturati e uccisi da Hezbollah al Monte Dov nel 2000 (sotto gli occhi dei soldati Onu), Israele accettò di scarcerare Kuntar in cambio di informazioni precise sulla sorte di Ron Arad. Non avendo ricevuto nessuna informazione, Kuntar restò in carcere.

Due settimane fa, Smadar Haran ha tenuto una conferenza stampa nella quale ha detto che non si oppone allo scambio con Hezbollah per la restituzione degli ostaggi Eldad Regev e Ehud Goldwasser (sequestrati nel luglio 2006 in territorio israeliano) e per informazioni su Ron Arad.

Ora, in ottemperanza dell’accordo (o meglio,del ricatto) accettato, Israele si appresta a rimettere in libertà l’assassino e infanticida Samir Kunter senza neanche sapere se Regev e Goldwasser siano vivi o morti, e senza aver avuto nessuna vera informazione sulla sorte di Ron Arad.

Scrive il Jerusalem Post: In Libano fervono i preparativi per celebrare il ritorno di Samir Kuntar, condannato a più ergastoli in Israele per aver commesso uno dei più atroci attentati terroristici nella storia del paese. La sua scarcerazione è prevista per mercoledì mattina, in cambio degli ostaggi Ehud Goldwasser ed Eldad Regev, sequestrati da Hezbollah su suolo israeliano il 12 luglio 2006. La popolazione e il governo libanese e tutti gli altri nel mondo arabo, compresi molti palestinesi, che sono così felici per la scarcerazione di Kuntar farebbero meglio a domandarsi se un tale mostro meriti tanta glorificazione. È questo il tipo di uomo che eleggono a loro idolo? Se è così, questo non ci dice forse qualcosa su chi festeggia? Kuntar non ha mai espresso il minimo rimorso. Anzi, stando al quotidiano dell’Autorità Palestinese al-Hayat al-Jadida, pochi mesi fa ha scritto una lettera a Nasrallah in cui giura solennemente di non aver alcuna intenzione abbandonare la jihad contro Israele. Per inciso, il giornale palestinese accompagna il testo della lettera con un articolo in cui Kuntar viene definito “un raggio di luce” e un “autentico modello di comportamento”. Forse Kuntar e i suoi fan dovrebbero leggere l’agghiacciante racconto di Smadar Haran Kaiser (oggi risposata e con due bambini): “Non dimenticherò mai la gioia e l’odio nelle voci degli uomini di Kuntar mentre si aggiravano per la casa dandoci la caccia, sparando coi mitra e gettando granate – scrisse in un articolo sul Washington Post – Se sottolineo la gioia e l’odio nelle loro voci è per un motivo: per chiunque abbia una sensibilità normale è difficile comprendere come qualcuno possa provare gioia e odio mentre sfonda la testa di una bambina di quattro anni. Che genere di patologia può portare una società intera a celebrare tanta malvagità?”

(Da: Nir Gontarz su MFA Newsletter, Jerusalem Post, www.israele.net, 14.07.08 )

Nella foto in alto: Tra le prove a carico, nel dossier Samir Kuntar, le tracce di tessuto cerebrale della piccola Einat trovate dagli anatomopatologi israeliani sul calcio del Kalashnikov del terrorista

Israele.net

Foto che spezzano il cuore

Da un articolo di Eitan Haber

Vent’anni, forse anche di più, sono passati da quando un anonimo fotografo di Hezbollah scattò le due immagini di Ron Arad che abbiamo oggi davanti agli occhi. Emaciato, con la barba lunga, e triste. Ci guarda e probabilmente si sta chiedendo: chi è il fotografo? Dove andranno a finire queste foto? Le vedranno i miei famigliari, Tammy, Yuval, Batia, Chen e Dudu? Devo atteggiarmi a eroe e sorridere o forse è meglio che mi vedano esattamente come sono? Devo nascondere il braccio ferito oppure è meglio che si veda bene, così faranno maggiori pressioni per farmi tornare a casa?
Gli esperti dell’intelligence probabilmente scruteranno con grande attenzione queste foto e cercheranno di trarne nuove informazioni: confronteranno la T-shirt che Ron Arad indossa in una immagine con il pigiama che indossa nell’altra, cercheranno di capire quanto tempo trascorse tra la prima e la seconda, studieranno il braccio o la spalla feriti. E forse, soltanto forse, troveranno qualche dettaglio nello sfondo che possa indicare in quale luogo del Libano vennero scattate.

Vent’anni dopo, la mancata possibilità di far tornare a casa Ron Arad sembra ancora più grande. Eccolo lì, davanti a noi: vivo, che scrive lettere, pieno di sentimenti.

Oggi la gente capisce in qualche misura la necessità di trattare con Hamas per il rilascio di Gilad Shalit, e forse anche la necessità di trattare nel caso di Eldad Regev ed Ehud Goldwasser (probabilmente già morti). Ma la stessa gente che oggi accetta, fino a un certo punto, di mettere a rischio la vita di Gilad Shalit nel tentativo di ottenere un accordo più accettabile, non riesce più a comprendere l’analogo ritardo che si ebbe nel caso di Ron Arad: giacché quel tentativo di trattare, vent’anni fa, pare abbia fatto scomparire nel nulla Ron Arad.

E oggi tutto ciò che ci resta da fare è continuare a guardare queste foto di un ragazzo con la barba lunga, che diede un bacio alla moglie e alla figlioletta prima di partire per l’ennesima missione di routine sul Libano, e che da quel giorno non è più tornato.

Ogni giorno che è passato da allora – ventidue anni – non ha fatto che rendere più oscuro il mistero. Guardiamo Ron Arad e guardiano i suoi occhi che chiedono aiuto. E quelli diventano i nostri stessi occhi, pieni di lacrime ormai da ventidue anni.

(Da: YnetNews, 14.07.08 )

Nella foto in alto: Solo ora, nel quadro dell’accordo di scambio che Israele ha dovuto accettare sotto ricatto per riavere gli ostaggi Eldad Regev ed Ehud Goldwasser, Hezbollah ha fatto pervenire due vecchie fotografie, risalenti probabilmente alla fine degli anni ’80, insieme ad alcuni pezzi di lettere dell’aviatore israeliano Ron Arad, caduto nelle mani di terroristi jihadisti libanesi nel 1986 e da allora scomparso nel nulla.

A due anni dal sequestro di tre israeliani in Libano e Gaza

Una decisione molto israeliana

Israele.net

A little while ago I put on my black armband to honor Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev whose bodies have been brought back to Israel. I still believe that Gilad Shalit is alive and that he will come home.  Shalom.

All my best,

~Celia