'Never before seen' video from Hezbullah of the outbreak of the Second Lebanon War
On Wednesday, July 12, 2006, seven IDF soldiers were killed on the Lebanese border - three in an attack by Hezbullah on their 'Hummer' and four when their tank drove over a mine. That attack was the outbreak of the Second Lebanon War. (One soldier from the 'Hummer' survived - in the video below he's in the light blue checked shirt with the trimmed beard. His name is Tomer Weinberg). Hezbullah grabbed two of the bodies - those of Ehud Goldwasser (who was driving the 'Hummer' and seated in the front left seat) and Eldad Regev (who was sitting on the right). They may have been dead when they were grabbed. Their mutilated bodies were returned to Israel in 2008 in exchange for child murderer Samir al-Kuntar (later targeted by Israel and killed) and a few lesser lights.
On Saturday night, Hezbullah's Al Mayadeen television showed the first part of a three-part documentary on the 2006 war. The program contained video never before seen from the planning of the attack and the attack itself. Hezbullah has disclosed that the attack was planned by Imad Mughniyah, who thankfully is no longer among the living.
I'm posting the video (could not figure out how to post part of it). The 'never before seen' footage of the attack itself, which runs about 10 minutes, runs from 42:52 to the end. For those who want to see the entire program, there's a link after the video.
The video is in Arabic with some Hebrew from Israeli television (interviews). Sorry, no English.
Terrorist Samir al-Kuntar wiped out along with Hezbullah commanders in Syria
In what is said to be an Israeli airstrike, terrorist Samir al-Kuntar and several commanders of Hezbullah in Syria were wiped out around 10:00 pm last night in Damascus.
Let's go to the videotape.
Israel: U/D Footage from Damascus shows destruction following Israeli airstrike that killed Samir Kuntar and others pic.twitter.com/OjZSxYeyji
In 1979, Kuntar (at left in the picture above) and three other
terrorists penetrated Israeli territory from Lebanon and entered the
town of Nahariya. They murdered a police officer and then entered the
home of the Harran family of Nahariya. From here, I am going to let the
words of the sole survivor of that attack - Smadar Harran Kaiser - speak for themselves:
Samir Kuntar (Bashed Israeli toddlers head in, killed family in 79) always regarded as major hero for Lebanese/Palestinian militant factions
Abu
Abbas, the former head of a Palestinian terrorist group who was
captured in Iraq on April 15, is infamous for masterminding the 1985
hijacking of the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro. But there are
probably few who remember why Abbas's terrorists held the ship and its
400-plus passengers hostage for two days. It was to gain the release of a
Lebanese terrorist named Samir Kuntar, who is locked up in an Israeli
prison for life. Kuntar's name is all but unknown to the world. But I
know it well. Because almost a quarter of a century ago, Kuntar murdered my family.
It
was a murder of unimaginable cruelty, crueler even than the murder of
Leon Klinghoffer, the American tourist who was shot on the Achille Lauro
and dumped overboard in his wheelchair. Kuntar's mission against my
family, which never made world headlines, was also masterminded by Abu
Abbas. And my wish now is that this terrorist leader should be
prosecuted in the United States, so that the world may know of all his
terrorist acts, not the least of which is what he did to my family on
April 22, 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 Nahariya, a city on the northern
coast of Israel, about six miles south of the Lebanese border. Around
midnight, we were asleep in our apartment when four terrorists, sent by
Abu Abbas from Lebanon, landed in a rubber boat on the beach two blocks
away. Gunfire and exploding grenades awakened us as the terrorists burst
into our building. They had already killed a police officer. As they
charged up to the floor above ours, I opened the door to our apartment.
In the moment before the hall light went off, they turned and saw me. As
they moved on, our neighbor from the upper floor came running down the
stairs. I grabbed her and pushed her inside our apartment and slammed
the door.
Outside, we could hear the men storming about.
Desperately, we sought to hide. Danny helped our neighbor 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 the front door to
take refuge in an underground shelter when the terrorists came crashing
into our flat. They held Danny and Einat while they searched for me and
Yael, knowing there were more people in the apartment. 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
and we would be killed. So I kept my hand over her mouth, hoping she
could breathe. As I lay there, I remembered my mother telling me how she
had hidden from the Nazis during the Holocaust. "This is just like what
happened to my mother," I thought.
As
police began to arrive, the terrorists took Danny and Einat down to the
beach. There, according to eyewitnesses, 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 rock 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.
The
next day, Abu Abbas announced from Beirut that the terrorist attack in
Nahariya had been carried out "to protest the signing of the
Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty" at Camp David the previous year. Abbas
seems to have a gift for charming journalists, but imagine the character
of a man who protests an act of peace by committing an act of
slaughter.
Two of Abbas's terrorists had been killed by police on
the beach. The other two were captured, convicted and sentenced to life
in prison. Despite my protests, one was released in a prisoner exchange
for Israeli POWs several months before the Achille Lauro hijacking. Abu
Abbas was determined to find a way to free Kuntar as well. So he
engineered the hijacking of the Achille Lauro off the coast of Egypt and
demanded the release of 50 Arab terrorists from Israeli jails. The only
one of those prisoners actually named was Samir Kuntar. The plight of
hundreds held hostage on a cruise ship for two days at sea lent itself
to massive international media coverage. The attack on Nahariya, by
contrast, had taken less than an hour in the middle of the night. So
what happened then was hardly noticed outside of Israel.
To
complete the record, Abu Abbas died in an American prison in Iraq in
2003 shortly after Smadar Harran Kaiser wrote the article above. I just
want to add to this from a web site I found about why Samir Kuntar should never be released:
According
to Smadar Haran, her last memories of Danny and Einat, that day, were
when they were being led away at gun point by Kuntar. She could hear
from her closet space Danny telling Einat, "Don't be scared, my baby, it will be alright" and Einat replied to him in her little voice, "Dad, where is Mommy? I want Mommy."
Smadar's last memory of her 2-year-old daughter, Yael, was when her
little daughter was taken to the apartment hiding space. Right before
Yael had her mouth covered by her mother, she asked her mother "Where is my little pacifier."
There was no time to search for the pacifier. Minutes later
Smadar covered Yael's mouth to keep her from revealing the hiding space.
Smadar soon felt her daughter's tiny tongue licks and lip sucking on
the palm of her hand. She didn't know what to make of it at first but
hours later was told by doctors and paramedics that the reason Yael was
licking her palm while she covered her mouth was because she was gasping
for air.
After taking Danny and four-year old Einat hostage,
Kuntar and his group took them down to the beach. Samir Kuntar quickly
shot Danny in the back and then drowned him in the Mediterranean Sea to
ensure his death. While Kuntar drowned Danny, he forced terrified Einat to watch and cry. According to eyewitnesses, "Danny was murdered in front of Einat so that his death would be the last sight she would ever see." Little Einat would not have that horrible memory in her head for long. Kuntar, the brave Lebanese freedom fighter,crushed Einat's skull over and over upon the rocks with the butt of his rifle until she was dead.
...
During
the ensuing shootout between Kuntar's terror group and Israeli police,
two policeman were killed along with two of the Arab terrorists. Kuntar
and the fourth participant, Ahmed Al-Abrass, were captured. Ahmed
Al-Abrass was later free by the Israeli authorities in the infamous May
1985 Ahmed Jibril prisoner exchange deal in which 1,150 Arab prisoners
(some of whom had blood on their hands) were exchanged for three Israeli
soldiers. Kuntar was not included in the deal.
The Israeli
government determined at first to make a decision to execute Kuntar, for
his horrific crime, especially for the fact that he tortured and beat
to death the 4-year old toddler. Israeli Prime Minister at that time,
Menachem Begin , proposed a draft resolution to the Security and
Foreign Affairs Committee in the Israeli Keenest on April 24, 1979. He
demanded to eliminate a previous resolution stipulated by the Israeli
cabinet, which said no execution should be implemented against
terrorists as the international law prohibits it. The Israeli Foreign
Minister Izer Weizman and Transportation Minister Hayeem Landau
supported Beagin’s draft resolution. Abraham Sharer, who was the head of
the Likude parliamentary bloc also, called for Kuntar’s execution.
Isaac Shamir issued a statement on April 25, 1979 also calling for his
execution.
The Israelis tried to implement the execution sentence
on Samir Kuntar and the whole parliament agreed on them. The only
dilemma they were having was the Israeli law that doesn’t allow
execution except for the Nazis of the World War II and to those found
guilty of betrayal to their country. Furthermore, they did not want the
international community on their backs; also, they wanted to improve
their relationship with Egypt after the peace process. As a consequence,
the Israeli central court in Haifa sentenced Kuntar to 5 life sentences
plus 47 years to come up with the total of 542 years. During the trial,
Kuntar was waving victory signs, and called himself a hero.
Samir Kuntar has confessed proudly to his murder of the little girl and never once showed one ounce of remorse for his crime. Even
while serving his prison term, he has bragged repeatedly during
interviews about how proud he was for murdering the 4-year-old Israeli
child. While in prison Kuntar got married and even receives conjugal
visits. Below he stands proudly alongside other convicted Arab murderer, Marwan Barghouti.
But it is unlikely that the attack on Kuntar and his Hezbullah cohorts was a revenge attack.
Israel wouldn't risk Hezbollah retaliation for such a strike, unless it was to prevent a significant attack being planned by the Kuntar cell
Lebanon's al-Mayadeen reported that the IAF took out the entire building in which Kuntar and his friends were meeting using a long-range missile while hovering over the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee). This likely would have rendered unnecessary any coordination of the attack with Russia. The silence of the Russian S-400's that 'protect' Syria is rumored to be a quid pro quo for Israel not attacking every time Russia violates its air space.
Al Mayadeen (via Israel Radio) Israel took out Kuntar w/ long range missile while hovering over Kinneret. Syria still 'investigating.'
Syria has yet to admit that Israel is responsible for the attack or to condemn it, but that is likely coming soon. Kuntar was said to be attempting (unsuccessfully) to recruit Golan Druze to attack Israel.
@lrozen Dispatched to Golan to try to recruit Syrian Druze to attack Israel as part of Assad's NDF. They rejected him and his $.
Islam is a sick religion: When Muslims make war it's all about torturing and castrating their enemies
My friend Professor Jacobson cites a New York Times report that purports to reveal to the world that the eleven Israeli athletes and coaches who were murdered at the Munich Olympics in 1972 were tortured, and in at least one case, castrated.
In September 1992, two Israeli widows went to the home of
their lawyer. When the women arrived, the lawyer told them that he had
received some photographs during his recent trip to Munich but that he
did not think they should view them. When they insisted, he urged them
to let him call a doctor who could be present when they did.
Ilana Romano and Ankie Spitzer, whose husbands were among the Israeli
athletes held hostage and killed by Palestinian terrorists at the 1972
Olympics in Munich, rejected that request, too. They looked at the
pictures that for decades they had been told did not exist, and then
agreed never to discuss them publicly….
For the first time, Ms. Romano, Ms. Spitzer and other victims’ family
members are choosing to speak openly about documentation previously
unknown to the public in an effort to get their loved ones the
recognition they believe is deserved.
Among the most jarring details are these: The Israeli Olympic team members were beaten and, in at least one case, castrated.
“What they did is that they cut off his genitals through his
underwear and abused him,” Ms. Romano said of her husband, Yossef. Her
voice rose.
“Can you imagine the nine others sitting around tied up?” she
continued, speaking in Hebrew through a translator. “They watched this.”
In fact, readers of this blog might recall that Ilana Romano has revealed even more gruesome details on a previous occasion.
In
1996, I, along with other Munich orphans and three of the widows, were
invited for the first time to the Olympic Games in Atlanta. Before the
Opening Ceremony, we met with Alex Gilady. Gilady has been a member of
the IOC's Radio and Television Commission since 1984 and has been the
senior vice president of NBC Sports since 1996.
I have known Mr.
Gilady since I was a kid; in fact, I grew up with his daughter. He had
been supportive in the past regarding our plea for a moment of silence
during the Opening Ceremonies, so we arrived with high hopes. Gilady
informed us that a moment of silence was not possible because if the IOC
had a moment of silence for the Israeli athletes, they would also have
to do the same for the Palestinians who died at the Olympics in 1972.
My mother said, "But no Palestinian athletes died."
Gilady responded, "Well, there were Palestinians who died at the 1972 Olympics."
I heard one of the widows say to Gilady, "Are you equating the murder of my husband to the terrorists that killed him?"
Silence.
Then
Ilana Romano burst out with a cry that has haunted me to this day. She
screamed at Gilady, "How DARE you! You KNOW what they did to my husband!
They let him lay there for hours, dying slowly, and then finished him
off by castrating him and shoving it in his mouth, ALEX!"
This sort of behavior is unfortunately routine in the Muslim world, whether or not Jews are involved. This is from a description of the terror attack at a mall in Nairobi, Kenya in 2013:
The images of the Westgate mall terror attack in Nairobi, Kenya, are simply horrific.
Soldiers told of the horrific torture meted out by terrorists in the
Nairobi mall massacre yesterday with claims hostages were dismembered,
had their eyes gouged out and were left hanging from hooks in the
ceiling.
Men were said to have been castrated and had fingers removed with pliers before being blinded and hanged.
Children were found dead in the food court fridges with knives still embedded in their bodies, it was claimed.
...
Yesterday, soldiers and doctors who were among the first people into the
mall after it was reclaimed on Tuesday, spoke of the horrifying scenes
inside.
‘You find people with hooks hanging from the roof,’ said one Kenyan doctor, who asked not to be named.
‘They removed eyes, ears, nose. They get your hand and sharpen it like a
pencil then they tell you to write your name with the blood.
‘They drive knives inside a child’s body.
'Actually if you look at all the bodies, unless those ones that were
escaping, fingers are cut by pliers, the noses are ripped by pliers.
Here it was pain.’
A soldier, who took pictures at a bread counter and at the ArtCaffe,
said he was so traumatised by what he saw he has had to seek
counselling.
Bomb disposal experts with sniffer dogs were yesterday painstakingly
combing the part of the building still standing for explosives before
clearing forensic officers, police and troops to search for bodies.
Just last week, Palestinian Media Watch showed a terrorist from the 'moderate' Fatah terror group eating a live snake on television.
Islam is a sick religion. It teaches its adherents extreme cruelty to all who are not a part of it. The world would be a better place without it.
Two suspects arrested in Lebanon for firing rockets on Israel
We can hope that the government of Lebanon has learned its lesson (the picture is Beirut Airport on fire in 2006). Two individuals have been arrested in connection with the Katyusha rocket that was fired at Israel early this morning, and other rockets ready for firing have been found.
The Internal Security Forces detained a suspect allegedly behind the rocket fire into Israel, security sources said.
Hours
before Atwe's arrest, the ISF Information Branch apprehended a Lebanese
man, identified only as Abu Qais, in Hebbarieh after they found blood
stains in his car, which sparked a search of area hospitals for
suspects.
The sources told The Daily Star that Lebanese Army Intelligence
had found traces of six rockets in the Mari area in the Hasbaya
region, some 2 kilometers from the Blue Line, the de facto border
between the two states.
They said the Army defused two 107mm Grad
rockets that were prepared to be fired toward Israel following a search
for launch pads.
The sources confirmed that three rockets, which
have a range of 10 kilometers, had been fired from the Mari area near
Majidieh between 1 a.m. and 6 a.m. Only one projectile was reported to
have hit Israel, according to the Israeli army.
The Lebanese
security sources said a sixth rocket failed to fire and exploded in
place, wounding the person handling it. They said traces of blood and a
ripped shoe were found at the site.
The problem is that Hezbullah is a huge player in Lebanon's government. Tomorrow, July 12, is the eighth anniversary of the murder of Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev HY"D (May God Avenge their blood) by Hezbullah.
Israel will seek to deal a crushing blow to Hamas's infrastructure in
Judea and Samaria following the kidnapping of three Israeli teenagers,
army radio reported on Monday.
Plans to move against the Islamist terrorist movement were discussed
at a meeting of the security cabinet convened by Prime Minister Binyamin
Netanyahu at which ministers discussed punitive steps against Hamas
which Israel says is behind the kidnapping of three teenagers, media
reports said.
Following the meeting, which lasted around 90 minutes, political
sources said Israel would "attempt, in the coming hours and days, to try
and overthrow Hamas infrastructure in the West Bank," the radio's
political correspondent reported.
There was no immediate comment from Netanyahu's office.
It looks like we're digging in for a long operation. There are apparently very few clues as to where the three teens are being held (no one has suggested that they're no longer among the living, although God forbid that is certainly a possibility), and on Monday the Prime Minister warned that returning them could take time.
Netanyahu, however, warned the nation, that they might not see immediate results to the IDF's intense military operation to find the teens.
...
The premier also threatened to target anyone who attempts to harm Israeli citizens.
Netanyahu
said Israel's main concern at the moment was to locate the three
missing teenagers and deal with Hamas, whom he accuses of conducting the
abduction. The premier said "we must be prepared that this will take
time."
But he offered no news of the teens, who have been missing since late Thursday night.
Does this sound familiar?
Do you know why I posted the picture just above? This is from July 13, 2006 - the day after Hezbullah 'kidnapped' (probably killed on the spot) Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev.
Defense Minister Comrade Peretz told
the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee today that Hezbullah
will not be allowed to return to its former positions in Southern
Lebanon. YNet and the Jerusalem Post are both reporting that under a new
policy, any armed person coming within one kilometer of the Lebanese
border with Israel will be shot.
A
high-ranking IDF source said that the current operation, dubbed
Operation Just Reward, would be "long" and could last up to several
months, or "as long as it takes to destroy the Hizbullah's ability to
launch attacks against Israel."
The IDF source said the Dahiya
neighborhood of Beirut, a Hizbullah stronghold, would be targeted if
rocket attacks continued to hit Israeli cities.
The source said that all terrorists in Dahiya, including Hizbullah head Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah himself, were fair targets for the IDF. "We will operate against all the terrorists who operate against us," he said, warning that civilians inside Dahiya could also be hurt in a possible IDF strike. Nasrallah's family lived in the Dahiya neighborhood.
YNet points out:
A
special center of the operation is expected to be in the al-Dahiya
neighborhood in Beirut, where Nasrallah has established "a state inside a
state," and where he also lives with his family.
IDF officials
refused to say whether Nasrallah himself is being targeted, and settled
for a general statement about "an operation against all terrorists
wherever they are." Leaflets distributed in the neighborhood called on
the residents to leave the area ahead of a possible strike.
Eight years ago, two IDF soldiers were kidnapped by a terror organization. A search and rescue operation was immediately launched, and it became a war to 'destroy Hezbullah's ability to launch attacks on Israel.' It didn't turn out very well, did it?
Okay, one of the reasons that it didn't turn out very well is that the triumvirate of Prime Minister Ehud K. Olmert, 'defense minister' AmirComrade Peretz and forgettable IDF chief of staff Dan Halutz didn't have the stomach for a ground war and attempted to destroy Hezbullah solely from the air. Will Netanyahu, Yaalon and Gantz be better? Maybe.
But the parallels are frightening. Yes, an operation against Hamas is long overdue. But that's completely independent of the fact that they kidnapped three teens.
Hezbullah releases video of Goldwasser and Regev 'kidnapping'
Hezbullah's al-Manar television in Lebanon has shown a video of the 'kidnapping' of IDF soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev HY"D (May God Avenge their blood). Goldwasser and Regev were murdered in the 'kidnapping,' but Israel eventually released child murderer Samir al-Kuntar and several lesser lights in order to retrieve Goldwasser's and Regev's bodies.
Let's go to the videotape. A description follows the video.
Khalid Bazzi, also known as Hajj Qasim, led the operation for Hezbollah
and is shown on the video to be involved in the planning of the attack
in what the program claims is the site from where the attack was
actually launched. He is shown standing up high in the tree observing
the site of where the attack would take place, while another soldier is
on the ground under him.
The video also showed live video of the
attack with Hezbollah militants jumping out from the trees and bushes to
attack an approaching IDF vehicle. The footage of the attack appears to
be from previously released footage.
Bazzi was killed by an Israeli air strike during the war.
I was trying to pump as much information as I could out of a well
connected source I had built an excellent working relationship with,
we’ll call him Pierre, who often provided me with information other
reporters covering French diplomatic activity in the Middle East didn’t
get. I had called him up with for some clarifications on the rumors
about Regev and Goldwasser, left a message, and decided that since it
was my first ever Tisha B’Av in Jerusalem, that I would go down to the
Kotel for services.
The scene was overwhelming. There was a sea of people, Haredim,
Hassidim, Hilonim, tourists, photographers and security, all crammed
into the the Western Wall plaza. Bachurim were sitting on the floor in
mourning, grown men were crying, it was a very emotional and inspiring
sight, and I was completely caught up in it. As I wandered around taking
it all in, my phone began buzzing in my back pocket and brought me back
into a world I thought had been left behind at the office for the day.
“Hello?!?! Hello?!?!” I shouted over the noise of the crowd. It was Pierre returning my call.
“Hi Pierre,” I began somewhat hurriedly. “Listen, I can’t really talk
now, I’m down at the Kotel for Tisha B’Av, can I call you back in the
morning?”
It didn’t occur to me that he probably had no idea what the Kotel
was, or what Tisha B’Av signified. Pierre was an inquisitive type, and
sometimes over the course of our conversations, he ended up asking more
questions than I did. This was one of those times. “Sure, pas de problem, we speak in the morning,” he said. Before I could hit the end button, I heard it.
“Mais attend,” – wait he said – “You are where?”
I was certainly not in this conversation. My head was elsewhere. I
was antsy, and I wanted to get off the phone. I didn’t want to start
sermonizing on the meaning behind this day of mourning, that it was the
day that God had decided that future generations would weep in order to
commemorate past transgressions. That Israel as a whole on this day
would relive the lost hope felt in the desert as they began to angrily
follow Moses and question their faith. That because tears were directed
inwards instead of toward the Heavens, that for one day a year the
Almighty would not mend His children’s broken hearts. So I went with the
thirty second ESPN highlight version.
“I’m at the ruins of the temple in Jerusalem. It was destroyed today,
so people are coming from all over the country to mourn and to pay
their respects.”
Pierre was a government official, not a ten year old attending Jewish
day school and already well acquainted with the likes of Vespasian,
Titus, and Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakai. There was dead silence on the other
end of the line, and you could almost feel the panic sinking in on the
other side.
“But the president was briefed on the Middle East this morning,” he
began shakily. “Nobody mentioned this catastrophe.” and then it came.
“France strongly condemns the destruction of your Temple!”
For the shocking ending of what is apparently a true story, read the whole thing.
I can't vouch for its authenticity (and I've heard from at least one person who questions whether it was that green along the border in July) but here's what purports to be a video of the kidnapping of IDF soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev by Hezbullah on July 12, 2006.
Let's go to the videotape.
Note that the kidnapping takes place on the Israeli side of the border.
Tzippi Livni quoted by the Hebrew Walla web site (translation by Aaron Lerner):
Opposition leader Tzipi Livni (Kadima) referred to this evening (Sunday) to the deal to free Gilad Shalit. At the Tel Aviv Regional Conference of the Bar Association, Tel Aviv, Livni said that she was opposed to all previous prisoner deals.
She said, "If I had known Regev and Goldwasser would be returned in casketsI would not have supported the deal ".
From then-Prime Minister Ehud K. Olmert's cabinet communique July 20, 2008 (Livni was Foreign Minister at the time):
To our regret, the reports of the boys' deaths were certain months and weeks beforehand. After unparalleled efforts, Israel's intelligence services succeeded in placing before me and the entire Government a base of hard and certain data as we came to decide on the implementation of the deal with Hezbollah. The Government knew exactly what to expect and what price we would have to pay for the soldiers' bodies. We made the decision out of clear awareness and in the end, what tipped the scales in favor of carrying out the deal was the abiding moral consideration stemming from the State of Israel's obligation to every soldier that is sent to defend it, and to his family that expects the State to do its utmost to bring him back home.
Anyone want to argue that she wasn't lying? Or maybe it was just a 'selective memory.'
The Prime Minister's Office, the IDF, and a spokesman for former Prime Minister Ehud K. Olmert, are all denying Lebanese claims that IDF soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev HY"D (May God avenge their blood) were killed in an Israeli air raid during the 2006 Second Lebanon War, which was sparked by their deaths.
The Prime Minister's Office and the IDF on Wednesday denied Lebanese statements that IDF soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev were killed by an Israeli bombardment after they were captured by Hezbollah in 2006.
"These claims are baseless as the two soldiers were killed by Hezbollah during the attack on their IDF patrol on July 12, 2006," Prime Minister's Office spokesman Ofir Gendelman said in a Twitter post.
The IDF dismissed the statements as "blatant fabrications" and psychological warfare.
"The Hezbollah is responsible for the kidnapping of the IDF soldiers in 2006 and, as such, is responsible for the tragic results leading to their deaths," the IDF said in a statement.
A former aide to Ehud Olmert, prime minister at the time of the 2006 abduction and war, also responded to the claims deeming them as "utter nonsense."
"The forensic details we gathered at the site of the abductions made clear that Goldwasser and Regev were seriously wounded on the spot, at least one of them fatally," the aide said.
"This was confirmed by intelligence information that we subsequently gathered, and by pathological examinations upon recovery of the bodies, which Hezbollah had kept frozen. Their wounds corresponded to an ambush on the ground, not an aerial bombing."
A Lebanese minister had said on Wednesday that two IDF soldiers whose capture by Hezbollah in 2006 sparked the Second Lebanon War and whose bodies were returned to Israel two years later were killed by Israeli bombardment.
It's good that the IDF gathered forensics at the site of the abduction. There is very little they could have known from examining Goldwasser and Regev's bodies.
On its Hebrew web site, Maariv is reporting this morning on a news item from al-Ithad, which is published in the Persian Gulf. The item claims that Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev will be returned to Israel on July 12 (the one-year anniversary of their abduction) in exchange for a large number of prisonersterrorists, including murderer Samir al-Kuntar.
The 'transaction' will also allegedly include Lebanese terrorists Yichye Nasaf and Naseem Nasser, as well as three Hezbullah terrorists who were captured during this past summer's war.
Meanwhile, Hezbullah refuses to give any information on Goldwasser or Regev and will neither confirm nor deny the story I blogged last week that claimed that at least one of the two is dead.
The Jordanian newspaper al-Rai also reports that former foreign ministry director general Alon Liel is attempting to convince Syria to intervene to hasten the completion of a transaction. I would think that after Liel's lastfiasco, he would have lost all credibility.
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
