Today, among much world publicity, Israel is releasing specified Hezbollah prisoners and the bodies of Hezbollah and Palestinian fighters killed in conflict in exchange for the bodies of the two Israeli soldiers kidnapped two years ago. The kidnapping led to the Israeli conflict against Hezbollah in Lebanon in 2006. One of the Hezbollah prisoners being released is Samir Qantar, who is hailed as a hero among Hezbollah militants.
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"We are now handing over the two imprisoned Israeli soldiers [note: they are the remains of the two ‘imprisoned’ Israeli soldiers], who were captured by the Islamic resistance on July 12, 2006, to the [International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)]," Safa said at the border. "The Israeli side will now hand over the great Arab mujahid (holy warrior) ... Samir Qantar and his companions to the ICRC… Hezbollah has dubbed the exchange "Operation Radwan", in honour of "Hajj Radwan", or Imad Moughniyah, the group's military commander who was assassinated in Syria in February. Yellow Hezbollah flags and banners fluttered across south Lebanon and along the coastal highway from the border village of Naqoura to the capital, Beirut. "Liberation of the captives: a new dawn for Lebanon and Palestine," one banner read. – Reuters, 7/16/08
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Certain sympathizers call militant members of Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Palestinian Liberation Organization “freedom fighters” instead of terrorists or murderers and simultaneously charge Israelis with conducting terrorist operations against innocent victims:
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“If, however, you do believe there is a place for armed struggle, it is unfair to refer to oppressed Palestinians targeting their oppressors as ‘terrorists,’ when their actions are no less humane than those employed by almost any country at war, actions generally accepted as one of the necessary functions of a state. It’s easy to criticize guerilla warfare when you have the luxury of an army to do your fighting for you.” – Anna Baltzer, “Conversation with Hamas Supporters,” 3/13/2005
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Here is what is known about Samir Qantar:
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In the dead of night on April 22, 1979, [Q]antar and three other gunmen made their way in a rubber dinghy from Lebanon to the sleepy Israeli coastal town of Nahariya, 5 miles south of the Lebanese border. There, in a hail of gunfire and exploding grenades, they killed a policeman who stumbled upon them before they burst into the apartment of Danny Haran, herding him and his 4-year-old daughter outside at gunpoint to the beach below, where they were killed. An Israeli court found that [Q]antar shot Haran in front of his child, then smashed her head with his rifle butt. Haran's wife, Smadar, who had fled into a crawl space in the family apartment with her 2-year-old daughter, accidentally smothered the child with her hand while trying to stifle her cries. – FOX News, 7/16/2008
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In spite of this atrocity, Qantar has been held as a prisoner in Israel and not executed. The crime for which the two Israeli soldiers were kidnapped and murdered by Hezbollah? Attending to their duties at a checkpoint along the Israel-Lebanon border.
Freedom fighters or brutal murderers? You decide.
(photo: Israeli soldiers Ehud Goldwasser & Eldad Regev, abducted by Hezbollah, 7/2006.)
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"We are now handing over the two imprisoned Israeli soldiers [note: they are the remains of the two ‘imprisoned’ Israeli soldiers], who were captured by the Islamic resistance on July 12, 2006, to the [International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)]," Safa said at the border. "The Israeli side will now hand over the great Arab mujahid (holy warrior) ... Samir Qantar and his companions to the ICRC… Hezbollah has dubbed the exchange "Operation Radwan", in honour of "Hajj Radwan", or Imad Moughniyah, the group's military commander who was assassinated in Syria in February. Yellow Hezbollah flags and banners fluttered across south Lebanon and along the coastal highway from the border village of Naqoura to the capital, Beirut. "Liberation of the captives: a new dawn for Lebanon and Palestine," one banner read. – Reuters, 7/16/08
*****
Certain sympathizers call militant members of Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Palestinian Liberation Organization “freedom fighters” instead of terrorists or murderers and simultaneously charge Israelis with conducting terrorist operations against innocent victims:
*****
“If, however, you do believe there is a place for armed struggle, it is unfair to refer to oppressed Palestinians targeting their oppressors as ‘terrorists,’ when their actions are no less humane than those employed by almost any country at war, actions generally accepted as one of the necessary functions of a state. It’s easy to criticize guerilla warfare when you have the luxury of an army to do your fighting for you.” – Anna Baltzer, “Conversation with Hamas Supporters,” 3/13/2005
*****
Here is what is known about Samir Qantar:
*****
In the dead of night on April 22, 1979, [Q]antar and three other gunmen made their way in a rubber dinghy from Lebanon to the sleepy Israeli coastal town of Nahariya, 5 miles south of the Lebanese border. There, in a hail of gunfire and exploding grenades, they killed a policeman who stumbled upon them before they burst into the apartment of Danny Haran, herding him and his 4-year-old daughter outside at gunpoint to the beach below, where they were killed. An Israeli court found that [Q]antar shot Haran in front of his child, then smashed her head with his rifle butt. Haran's wife, Smadar, who had fled into a crawl space in the family apartment with her 2-year-old daughter, accidentally smothered the child with her hand while trying to stifle her cries. – FOX News, 7/16/2008
*****
In spite of this atrocity, Qantar has been held as a prisoner in Israel and not executed. The crime for which the two Israeli soldiers were kidnapped and murdered by Hezbollah? Attending to their duties at a checkpoint along the Israel-Lebanon border.
Freedom fighters or brutal murderers? You decide.
(photo: Israeli soldiers Ehud Goldwasser & Eldad Regev, abducted by Hezbollah, 7/2006.)
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