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Child-Killer Samir Kuntar Honored in Syria
The man who smashed a four-year-old girl's head on coastal rocks is hailed as a hero.
Newly-freed terrorist Samir Kuntar continued his post-incarceration career this week with an appearance at the Syrian-Israeli border on the Golan Heights. Earlier in the day Kuntar had received Syria’s Order of Merit (or according to other reports, an honorary title as sergeant) from President Bashar Assad in a meeting in Damascus. At the Golan border Kuntar, a Lebanese Druze, was backed by hundreds of Syrian Druze and shouted to a few hundred Israeli Druze: “I’m telling you, President Assad will soon wave the Syrian flag over the Golan.”
Kuntar was released by Israel in July in an exchange for the bodies of the two Israeli soldiers kidnapped by Hezbollah two years before that, a kidnapping that sparked the Second Lebanon War. He had been jailed since 1979 for murdering three people as part of a terrorist attack in the Israeli coastal town of Nahariya.
Some Israelis were appalled at the swap — which included four other live terrorists and the bodies of two hundred others along with Kuntar — particularly given the special heinousness of Kuntar’s crimes. In Nahariya back on April 22, 1979, after killing a policeman, he took a man and his four-year-old daughter hostage down to the beach, shot the man dead in front of the daughter, then killed the girl by smashing her head on the rocks.
Assad feted him on Monday with the words: “His being here with us and his determination to promote Arab rights, despite everything he’s been through, has turned him into a symbol of the struggle for freedom across the Arab world and the whole world.” But it was just the latest in the encomiums Kuntar has garnered since being freed.
It started back on July 16, the day of his release, when Lebanon awarded him a state ceremony at Beirut Airport where he was officially received by President Michel Suleiman, Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri.
The festivities continued the next day in his home village of Aabey where Walid Jumblatt, a fellow Druze and leader of the Progressive Socialist Party, and Mohammad Fneish, labor minister and Hezbollah official, sang his praises to the crowd. At the time Israeli Middle East scholar Barry Rubin wrote that “No one in the Arabic-speaking world will say a single negative word about Kuntar’s deed or his being made a hero, despite a small liberal minority’s disgust.”
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P. David Hornik is a freelance writer and translator living in Tel Aviv. He blogs at http://pdavidhornik.typepad.com/
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13 Comments
1. suztours:You, Mr. Hornik, aren’t that stupid; I’m not that stupid. But it seems that some “stupid” virus has infected our so-called leaders here in Israel and in the United States as well as right ’round the world when it comes to Israel doing anything that could actually be in its favor!
I was against releasing Kuntar as well as any body swap. And I’m not alone at all here in Israel, where we do want our sons & daughters here with us and not murdered by those who hate us but not at any price. Many friends who are required to serve in “milium” (reserve army duty) have signed waivers releasing the government from negotiating for the return of their bodies should they be kidnapped by Hezb’Allah or Hamas or any other terror organization or state.
Nov 26, 2008 - 4:28 am 2. Jeffrey:They truely disgrace themselves.
Nov 26, 2008 - 4:51 am 3. Lilith:Revolting.
Nov 26, 2008 - 8:42 am 4. Sam:Any person, society, or culture who honors a child killer as a national hero and symbol of the ‘resistance’ is morally bankrupt, reprehensible, and lets face it, intellectually bereft. Just a sad state of affairs, that people would applaud this kind of action. Axis of Evil? For once, nail on the freaking head W.
Nov 26, 2008 - 9:55 am 5. DavidN:Yeah, but the Axis of Evil was Iraq, Iran, and North Korea…no Syria involved. And not to put too fine a point on it, a child-killer wouldn’t be feted in any country in the Middle East. Unfortunately, most Arabs don’t consider Jews people, so the label doesn’t apply here, as far as they’re concerned.
Nov 26, 2008 - 11:26 am 6. Forcheville:Dr Assad spoke more truly than he thought in saying of Kuntar that he is “a symbol of the struggle for freedom across the Arab world and the whole world.”
Nov 26, 2008 - 12:04 pm 7. SeanLA:Expect his face to soon appear on t-shirts, a sort of Arab Che, de rigeur at hipper than thou Columbia parties.
He’s also a perfect vehicle for Hollywood treatment, maybe Oliver Stone is already optioning him.
I don’t know, watching a movie like Platoon and you see American heros killing lots of children,
John Kerry even spoke of it.
In the recent HBO series Generation Kill you see the American Heros killing children every episode, every single episode the US Heros kill women and children, theres even one segment when a child survives a shooting and is denied help from the Hero leader.
Obama said it himself, US Heros are bombing women and children.
What else would you expect? With all that I wouldn’t expect anything less than a child killer being celebrated as such.
Nov 26, 2008 - 3:05 pm 8. cedarford:suztours – Well said.
I was against releasing Kuntar as well as any body swap. And I’m not alone at all here in Israel, where we do want our sons & daughters here with us and not murdered by those who hate us but not at any price. Many friends who are required to serve in “milium” (reserve army duty) have signed waivers releasing the government from negotiating for the return of their bodies should they be kidnapped by Hezb’Allah or Hamas or any other terror organization or state.
Hard to single out Muslim leaders for “allowing Kuntar and 199 others to celebrate” when it was pandering Israeli politicians that decreed it was worth releasing 200 of the worst terrorists to celebrate away – so they could get 2 corpses back from Hez.
Like it or not, but commando raids, even those by the USA, have involved killing civilians that were in the way or could betray commando’s position. Medal of Honor winner Bob Kerrey ordered Vietnamese civilians – old men, even kids – shot, stabbed, clubbed to death on raids. We – I guess – compensated by awarding the Medal of Honor to a green SEAL lieutenant who spared 2 civilians and got himself, 2 members of his Squad, and 19 rescuers – all fellow SEALS or AF spec ops killed (the biggest one-engagement Spec Ops bloodbath since WWII) when the civilians he spared put a force of over 100 AQ and Taliban directly on top of the 4-man deep deep behind enemy lines.
In a raid behind enemy lines, commandos know that not only is death likely in their own cases, but civilians they encounter may have to be whacked – even the old, woman, kids.
When I was in the service, I made it clear to my men we weren’t a Spec Ops outfit bound by Code to “leave no man behind”…That I would not ask anyone to trade or risk their life for a corpse, only self-volunteers would be in such jeopardy. We didn’t think of “no trades for body tissue for live enemy” because I don’t think the US has ever capitulated like the Israelis did freeing 200 terrorists for two dead bodies – it never entered our discussion.
Sam:
Any person, society, or culture who honors a child killer as a national hero and symbol of the ‘resistance’ is morally bankrupt, reprehensible, and lets face it, intellectually bereft. Just a sad state of affairs, that people would applaud this kind of action. Axis of Evil? For once, nail on the freaking head W
Besides Kerrey, the label “child killer” could be applied to McCain, 1 in 70 of our initial military personnel invading Iraq, plus most WWII bombers.
Nov 26, 2008 - 3:43 pm 9. Anonymous:Most honored by our government for doing so. Even face-to-face.
Generally, the Arab governments realize Israel was guilty of huge weakness freeing Kuntar and a couple hundred others for bones..and “honor ceremonies” are their way of rubbing it in and enraging Israelis against not just them, but Israel’s craven leaders…
Bashar Assad is a very evil beast, who has money for himself, while the Syrian people are suffering very bad. Samir Kuntar is another very evil beast.
Nov 26, 2008 - 4:34 pm 10. Abhor Gore:“Assad feted him on Monday”.
OBAMA: “Kuntar, Assad! Come on over and “chat”…I’m meeting with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinijad, too, so we’ll all have SO much to talk about. Perhaps a spot of tea at the house of my (wink wink) “neighbor who I know from the block” Billy Ayers? Aw, c’mon…Khalidi will be there, too! He is so looking forward to meeting you! (But no cameras, please!) I think you all would get along just FABULOUSLY! OR, we could do something REALLY naughty…..How would you like to come to my church and preach about hate and racism? You’d feel right at home! You and Rev. Wright would just be BFFs forever! One big happy terrorist family! Now everyone hold hands and sing kumbaya while I run the nation into the toilet!
NEXT STOP: TONY RESKO’S HOUSE where we will be sharing marxist quotes, reading up on socialism and trading ideas on how to best circumvent the intent of the Constitution and practice “sleight of hand” tricks to use on the stupid Americans. Psst….Keep this on the down low, but most of those dummies were the ones who got me elected!”
(Uproarious laughter in the background erupts)
Nov 26, 2008 - 7:10 pm 11. Jersey Dave:SeanLA: “John Kerry even spoke on it.”
Yes, he lied on his fellow soldiers. While the North Vietnamese at the Hanoi Hilton were carrying out real atrocities.
There is also a difference between uniformed soldiers and un-uniformed brigands under the laws of war.
The problem with the terrorists is, someone in the west goes out of line at somewhere like Abu Gharib, we punish them – and rightly so. When one of the terrorists goes and does worse stuff, they don’t condemn them, they make them heroes. We have the ability to do a lot of things but they have a fanatical nature and don’t care what they do. It is their lack of capability relative to us that means they haven’t done more. We need to understand that.
Saddam and the Taliban butchered many thousands of their own people in Iraq and Afghainstan. The majorities there support their new democratically elected governments. The terrorists aim to murder and oppress. The US aims to liberate and help free peoples.
It is a difference that is forgotten at our perils. Had these enemies the opportunities to butcher us, they would not care who we voted for or what we believed. They kill and terrorize, period. It is all they know and all they do. It is easier to destroy than to build.
We are builders. The terrorists fear their own people becoming that, so they keep them ignorant and steal aid money and such from them and tell them it is all everyone else’s fault but theirs.
Nov 27, 2008 - 8:13 pm 12. kimcliftrn:Assignation is the only word I could say for a man that could kill a 4 year old girl.
Dec 1, 2008 - 8:32 am 13. tanstaafl:It was a big deal for Nasrallah/Hezbollah to spring the “widely respected” Kuntar (gagging with maggots) and other criminals from Israeli jails.
Whoever they are (Hezbollah…Hamas) springing their Islamist guys from the jails of the “zionist entity” is always an important goal.
I’m sure, every time one of these springing deals (as in Kuntar) is “successful”, it is another positive notch in the determination of Israel’s avowed enemies to the north and west.
Dec 2, 2008 - 8:01 am