'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.
Beirut barracks bomb preparer, Hariri assassination mastermind killed near Damascus
Israel may have been behind an explosion that killed Mustafa Badreddine, the Hezbullah commander who prepared the bombs for the US Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983, and who is said to the mastermind of the assassination of Lebanese President Rafik al-Hariri in 2005, among other crimes. Badreddine was killed in a blast near the Damascus Airport a few days ago.
An initial report by Lebanon's al-Mayadeen TV said that Badreddine,
55, died in an Israeli air strike. But a later statement by Hezbollah on
al-Manar's website did not mention Israel.
Israeli media reported that the government refused to comment on whether it was involved in Badreddine's death.
Israel has been accused by Hezbollah of killing a number of its fighters in Syria since the conflict began.
The
group was established in the wake of the Israeli occupation of Lebanon
in the early 1980s, and has called for the "obliteration" of Israel.
A number of Twitter accounts supporting Syrian rebel groups and the
al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Nusra Front say Badreddine was killed in a battle
in Khan Touman, southern Aleppo, rather than in Damascus.
Khan
Touman was captured by a coalition of groups including al-Nusra Front
last week and has been subject to heavy shelling in recent days.
No official sources have commented on the reports.
Born
in 1961, Badreddine is believed to have been a senior figure in
Hezbollah's military wing. He was a cousin and brother-in-law of Imad
Mughniyeh, who was the military wing's chief until his assassination by
car bomb in Damascus in 2008.
According to one report,
a Hezbollah member interrogated by the Canadian Security Intelligence
Service (CSIS), described Badreddine as "more dangerous" than Mughniyeh,
who was "his teacher in terrorism".
They are alleged to have
worked together on the October 1983 bombing of the US Marine Corps
barracks in Beirut that killed 241 personnel.
Badreddine is
reported to have sat on Hezbollah's Shura Council and served as an
adviser to the group's overall leader Hassan Nasrallah.
Badreddine was tried in absentia by the ongoing Special Tribunal for Lebanon, in The Hague, over the killing of Mr Hariri.
Any of the armed groups seeking to overthrow Mr Assad might have
sought to kill the man co-ordinating Hezbollah military activities.
However, suspicion is likely to fall on Israel, which fought a war
against Hezbollah in 2006.
Israel has been accused of killing
several of the group's leaders over the years, although it has never
officially confirmed its involvement.
Hezbollah military chief
Imad Mughniyeh was killed in a car bombing in Damascus in 2008 that US
intelligence officials said last year was a joint operation by the CIA
and Israel's Mossad spy agency.
In January 2015, a suspected Israeli air strike in the Syrian Golan Heights killed six Hezbollah fighters, including Mughniyeh's son Jihad, and an Iranian Revolutionary Guards general.
And in December, Hezbollah said one of its senior figures, Samir Qantar, was killed when missiles fired by Israeli jets struck a block of flats in Damascus.
Israel
has also reportedly conducted air strikes aimed at preventing advanced
weapons shipments from Iran from reaching Hezbollah via Syria.
The 'no comment' is Israel's standard operating policy, but if Israel is involved in this, you can bet the Obama administration will make sure everyone knows about it.
The Israel Project's Omri Ceren provides more background by email.
Organizationally Badreddine was "dual hatted," per Matt Levitt, a Washington Institute director and the scholar who literally wrote the book on Badreddine [c]. He was both the head of Hezbollah's external global terror operations and the head of all Hezbollah activities in Syria [d].
Badreddine killed so many different people in so many different places that it's not actually clear if the Israelis were the ones who got him [e]. Under interrogation by Canadian security officials, a Hezbollah member once reportedly described Badreddine as "more dangerous" than his predecessor and cousin Imad Mughniyah [f]. He was unpopular even inside Hezbollah: Levitt tweeted he was "rash, hot tempered, impetuous, even unstable," and "was very close [to] Nasrallah, but widely disliked within Hezbollah," and was "a philandering playboy, not particularly religious" [g][h][i].
A couple of timelines: 1st, Badreddine's terror activities going back decades, 2nd, how the U.S. Treasury designated him as a terrorist starting in 2012, though last month
Badreddine terror activities timeline
1980s - In October 1983 he prepared the bombs for the Beirut barracks bombings, which killed 241 U.S. and 58 French servicemen. The targets were separate American and French buildings [j]. In December 1983 he was part of the Iran-backed cell that launched seven attacks in one day in Kuwait, killing 6 and wounding almost 90. The targets were the American embassy, a residential building for American company Raytheon, the French embassy, the Kuwaiti airport, the Kuwait National Petroleum Company oil rig, and a Kuwaiti power station [k].
1990s - He helped establish and then he coordinated Hezbollah Unit 1800, which facilitated terror attacks against Israel from the West Bank and Gaza [l].
2000s - He helped establish and the he coordinated Hezbollah Unit 3800, which launched attacks in Iraq against American, British, and Sunni forces [m]. In 2005 he masterminded Hariri's assassination in Lebanon, which killed Hariri and 21 others.
2010s - He's been coordinating all Hezbollah activities in Syria.
U.S. sanctions and designations timeline
2012 - Treasury designated Badreddine pursuant to E.O. 13224, labeling him a "Specially Designated Global Terrorist" [n]. The Treasury notice cited him for "providing support to Hizballah’s terrorist activities in the Middle East and around the world," assessed that he was currently "Hizballah's top militant commander," and noted that "the prosecutor of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon charged Mustafa Badr Al-Din with the attack... that killed former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri and 21 others."
2015 - Treasury piled on more sanctions, this time pursuant to E.O. 13582 [o]. The Treasury note assessed he was "responsible for Hizballah's military operations in Syria since 2011," having sat with Nasrallah during meetings in Damascus throughout 2011 before expanding his role.
April 2016 - Treasury tagged him again, this time under the Hizballah International Financing Prevention Act of 2015, making him subject to secondary sanctions [p].
Badreddine's assassination could lead to war between Israel and Hezbullah.
The ex-wife of Lebanese terrorist Samir al-Kuntar says that he deserved to die.
Okay, lots of ex-wives think their ex-husbands deserve to die :-)
But this one thinks her ex deserves to die because he spent his time defending Bashar al-Assad instead of fighting Israel. And this ex-wife became an ex when Kuntar was released from jail seven years ago.
Greetings from London Heathrow where I can once again thank the Histadrut - Israel's General Labor Federation, which succeeded early this morning in extorting a 7.5% raise from Israel's hapless government - for messing up my travel plans. There was supposed to be a general strike at 6:00 am, and as a result I ended up on a different flight here than I had planned. Unfortunately, when the airline switched the flight, my reserved seat for the next flight was automatically canceled. Although I am on that flight, I now have what may be the worst seat on the plane (and there's WiFi access, but if I can't open the computer, I can't post). So if there are no posts for the rest of the day, you should all spit in the air and say "בשביל זה יש הסתדרות" ("for this the Histadrut exists").
The tweet at the top of this post shows 'Palestinians' from the 'Palestinian Authority' mourning the death of child murdering terrorist Samir al-Kuntar, who met his maker and got his 72 cows on Saturday. You will note that they are not all Muslims either....
So why does Kuntar matter? Because he's an inspiration to the 'Palestinians.'
JUST IN: Hamas cell with 25 members arrested in WB plotting terror attacks & preparing explosives to attack Israel. pic.twitter.com/u3boZQKCm8
By the way, that did not happen in the 'West Bank,' but rather in Abu Dis, an 'east' Jerusalem neighborhood that is literally a stone's throw away from the Hebrew University's Mount Scopus campus.
But it's both Hamas AND the 'Palestinian Authority.' Kuntar is an inspiration to rejectionists everywhere.
Reuters calls Kuntar a 'martyr' (without the scare quotes)
Reporting on the liquidation of terrorist Samir al-Kuntar, Reuters has called the murderer of the two little girls pictured above a 'martyr' (without the scare quotes) (Hat Tip: Elder of Ziyon).
A later version of the story puts the word 'martyred' in scare quotes:
But the revised story includes this line:
Qantar was jailed in Israel for his part in a
1979 raid that killed four people, including a girl he was convicted of
bludgeoning.
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.
Einat was four-years old at the time. She is the bigger girl in the picture above. Here's what happened to two-year old Yael.
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.
Shame on Reuters. Shame on them for covering up for terrorists even 36 years after the fact.
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 $.
A Palestinian official said Abbas had written
to the United States asking them to bring about the release of ill
prisoners, female inmates and minors, as well as Barghouti and two other
high-profile leaders - Ahmed Sa'adat and Fouad Al-Shobaki.
"The
president renewed his demand during the recent meetings in Washington,"
said Qadoura Fares, chairman of the Palestinian Prisoner Club,
referring to Abbas's trip to Washington this week to discuss the shaky
peace process with President Barack Obama.
An
Israeli court sentenced Barghouti to five life sentences and 40 years
in jail in 2004, finding him guilty of orchestrating ambushes and
suicide attacks during the Palestinian Intifada, or uprising, that was
raging at the time.
Saadat was the planner and leader of the assassination of Israeli Tourism Minister Rechavam Zeevi HY"D (May God Avenge his blood). Shobaki was the financier of the Karine A weapons ship that convinced then-President George W. Bush to break off all negotiations with Yasser Arafat. Israel has held them since 2006. Before that, they were held in a 'prison' that was monitored by Britain.
The second picture is (left to right) Saadat, Barghouti and their good friend, the child murderer Samir al-Kuntar. Kuntar was released in 2008 in exchange for two black boxes containing the mutilated remains of kidnapped IDF soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev HY"D (May God Avenge their blood).
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.
Child murderer Samir al-Kuntar, who was released by Israel in exchange for two dead bodies, has told Hezbullah's al-Manar television station that 'collaborators' are treated too leniently and must be murdered.
I am sure that many of you remember Samir al-Kuntar, the Lebanese-'Palestinian' hero who in 1978 murdered a 4-year old girl by smashing her head against rocks on a Nahariya beach. Kuntar was released four years ago in exchange for the bodies of Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, in one of the stupidest 'prisoner exchanges' Israel has ever made.
Last week, Kuntar was in Tunisia to be honored by the beneficiaries of the 'Arab spring.' But a funny thing happened on the way to the forum. A group of Salafis came to protest Kuntar's appearance because of his support for Syria's Bashar al-Assad, and the murderer of a 4-year old was a little less gutsy when the opponents were his own size. He fled.
The Tunisian website Tunisie Numerique reported that a Salafi mob stormed last week’s ceremony, accusing Kuntar of a pro-Shi’ite position favoring the Assad regime and its slaughter of more than 20,000 Syrians. Kuntar, 50, escaped the meeting hall through a back exit and several people were hospitalized.
In an email to The Jerusalem Post on Sunday, Prof. Gerald Steinberg, a political scientist at Bar-Ilan University, wrote, “This is yet another illustration of the false religion in the West that simplistically blames the violence and threats in the Middle East on the myths of Palestinian victimization. Samir Kunter is one of the worst symbols of brutality and terror targeting Israel, but the hatred unleashed by the radical Sunni-Shia conflict is far stronger.”
Steinberg, heads NGO Monitor in Jerusalem, added, “Indeed, as this incident shows, the internal Islamic religious wars merely use the Arab- Israeli conflict as another battleground.”
American Mideast experts and bloggers quickly picked up on the Sunni-Shia violence surrounding Kuntar’s visit to the northern Tunisian city.
In his blog Pressure Points, Elliott Abrams, a senior fellow for Middle Eastern Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, noted, “There is so much dishonor to go around here that there is no point attempting to distribute it fairly; the conduct of every single party is shameful.
But it would be nice to hear a word from the ruling party in Tunisia, the Ennadha Party, or from its newly elected government, about the idea that the murderer of children is a fit guest of honor in the new, democratic, humanistic Tunisia.”
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.'
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad met with his favorite child killer on Monday: Samir al-Kuntar.
Syrian President Bashar Assad warmly welcomed Monday an unusual guest at his palace – Samir Kuntar, who murdered an Israeli family and was released from prison in 2008 in the framework of the swap for the bodies of IDF soldiers Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser.
Media outlets in Damascus reported that Assad and Kuntar discussed the latest political developments in Lebanon ahead of the publication of the Hariri probe conclusions, as well as "the role of the resistance in defending Lebanon against the dangers threatening its security and stability."
The two stressed the importance of "the resistance mode of thinking as a basis for regaining Arab rights."
During the meeting, Kuntar gave the Syrian president a copy of his book, "my story," which details his life in the 30 years he spent in Israeli prisons.
I'm sure that will discourage 'Western leaders' from welcoming Assad into the 'family of nations.'
/Sarc
By the way, around the time you're reading this, I should be landing in London. I don't plan to be there very long.
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
