A sad day for Israel

If I can ask one favour of you this week/month/year, it's that you read these articles. Throughout this post, I'll have links to a few articles, all from the National Post. There are three articles in total, all discussing the same basic story, but if you could take fifteen minutes out of your day to read all three, I promise you it will be well worth it and that it will benefit you greatly.

Yesterday was a very sad day for Israel, when Lebanon returned the bodies of two Israeli soldiers they were holding captive. Prior to this, the Israeli government and people had no knowledge of whether their men were alive or dead. Lebanon said that knowledge would come when they were returned to their home country, once Israel returned to Lebanon the bodies of many soldiers killed in battle, and five terrorists who were alive and well, one of whom is well-known murderer Samir Qantar. The families of the two Israeli soldiers waited with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert at the border with hope in their hearts for the safe return of the two soldiers. The men, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, were carried over the border in coffins.

The coffins were met with joy in Lebanon and tears in Israel. Hezbollah has a very strong influence in Lebanon...

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"Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, in a rare public appearance, welcomed five Lebanese freed from captivity in Israel on Wednesday after his guerrilla group returned the bodies of two captured Israeli soldiers.

Mr. Nasrallah, whose movements are kept secret for security reasons, embraced the ex-prisoners at a rally in Beirut.

"This people, this nation and this country, which gave a clear image today, cannot be defeated," he told the crowd before leaving to deliver a speech by video link from a secure location.

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As fireworks lit the night sky, tens of thousands of people waving yellow Hezbollah flags gathered in Beirut for the rally to celebrate the release of Qantar and four Hezbollah fighters.

Crowds threw rice and mobbed the cars carrying the men to the rally in the southern suburbs, a stronghold of Hezbollah.

The ex-captives waved Hezbollah and Lebanese flags at the crowds before Mr. Nasrallah's brief appearance sent them wild.

The Shi'ite group, which is backed by Iran and Syria, earlier handed over the Israeli soldiers in two black coffins."
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So who is Qantar? What was his crime? Although he is obviously a well-known--and celebrated!--Jew-hating terrorist for Hezbollah--and proud of it!--his sins get a little more specific...

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"Among the freed prisoners is Samir Kuntar, who, in an attack against a northern Israeli town 30 years ago, killed four civilians, including a four-year-old girl whose head he smashed against a rock. Regev and Goldwasser, though soldiers, were kidnapped in Israel in an unprovoked Hezbollah ambush. Their repatriation is an occasion for national mourning. The Lebanese, by contrast, are celebrating the exchange and hailing Kuntar as a hero."
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When Qantar entered the Israeli man's house to murder him, he first killed the man's four-year-old daughter by smashing her skull in with a rock. The Israeli man's wife was hiding in a corner of their house at the time, with her toddler son, who was crying unstoppably. In an attempt to quiet him in order to save both their lives, she put her hand over his mouth. The little boy ended up smothering to death because of this.

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"Kuntar, who received an official Israeli pardon that set aside four murder convictions handed down in 1979, taunted his former captors Thursday by vowing to attack Israel again."
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In any westernized country--America, Canada, Israel, etc--smashing in a toddler's head with a rock is considered disgusting, regardless of the little girl's cultural background. In western countries (today), people are jailed for that and thought to be absolutely vial creatures. In Lebanon, these people are celebrated.

Tears filled my eyes as I read these articles this morning. How, HOW can people read these articles and still support the Arab countries in this war? How can news like this be on the front page of the National Post and still people call the Israeli people the terrorists? Israel did not celebrate the deaths of the Lebanese soldiers. Israel mourned the death of their own, like decent human beings would. This trade that Israel made with Lebanon has not only exposed how horrible Hezbollah and the Lebanese people can be, but also it has left the Jewish state in a very vulnerable position. Like good, loyal people, the Israeli government vows to use whatever means necessary to free a soldier held captive. Now that Hezbollah and other terrorist groups know this, however, it can more easily be used as a tool to violently outsmart Israel.

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"Has Israel once again demonstrated its humanity, its commitment to its soldiers and its compassion for their families? Or, has Israel enhanced the chances for further kidnappings while reducing the terrorists' interest in keeping their hostages alive?

The answers are scarcely clear-cut. In return for their service in a citizen army, Israel guarantees that it will do everything to bring its soldiers home, should they fall into enemy hands. Regev and Goldwasser, reservists performing their annual duty, put on their uniforms confident of that pledge. So, too, were their relatives and friends. "We need to pay whatever price it takes in exchange for any captive soldier," said a fellow reservist. "This is what we were raised on, this is the government's duty, and this is part of serving in the Israel Defense Forces." A Jewish state, moreover, Israel often resembles an extended family, in which it is impossible to ignore the pain of any branch. Finally, by valuing each individual, alive or deceased, Israel is demonstrating its strength as a free and democratic society."
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The "Israel often resembles an extended family" part really got to me.

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"Yet, by trading convicted terrorists for illegally abducted Israelis, Israel guarantees that similar kidnappings will occur in the future. Indeed, even the Palestinian Authority, now engaged in peace talks with Israel, has acknowledged that taking Israeli hostages is apparently the only way to extricate Palestinians from Israeli jails. More deleteriously, the terrorists, confident of receiving live prisoners for dead Israelis, will be more likely to kill their hostages. In fact, recently released footage from 2000 shows that two of the three Israeli soldiers kidnapped in a Hezbollah border attack, and later exchanged

for more than 400 security prisoners, were taken alive but returned in caskets. Similar fates might be met by Ron Arad, the Israeli navigator shot down by Shiite forces in Lebanon in 1986, whose whereabouts Hezbollah still refuses to disclose, and Gilad Shalit, kidnapped by Hamas two years ago and held for ransom ever since.

Indeed, the deal not only endangers Israelis but threatens the entire Middle East and, eventually, will threaten the West as well. Hezbollah, a jihadist organization that has already precipitated one Middle Eastern war and whose leader, Hassan Nasrallah, tortured the Regev and Goldwasser families by hinting that their loved ones were living, has triumphed."
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While the promise that the Israeli government will save any one of their soldiers if captured--by any means necessary--is a decent thing for a government that conscripts their citizens to the army to do, it has some serious downfalls.

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"There is currently much debate about the possibilities for dialogue with Iran and for persuading it to desist from enriching uranium. But having succeeded in extending its influence into American-occupied Iraq, dominating Syria and intimidating the Gulf counties, Iran will not be easily contained. The prisoner exchange with Israel will further embolden Iranian leaders and encourage their belligerency. The result is an Iran less likely to respond to Western blandishments or incentives and more convinced of its ability to "wipe Israel off the map."
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Terrifying, no? Well maybe not for those of you who believe that the Israeli people are the terrorists and that Israel should indeed be "wiped off the map." But for those of you with a conscience and a brain, I can relate when you are undoubtedly feeling sick to your stomach right about now. How can people think Israel shouldn't be fighting when this is what they have to face; people wanting--and trying--to wipe them off the map? How can people think the Israeli people are the bloodthirsty terrorists when their enemies are dancing at the sight of their dead bodies and celebrating child-murderers?

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"The fathers of the two Israeli soldiers spoke of their pain at watching the transfer of their sons' coffins on television...Zvi Regev said on Army Radio: "It was a terrible thing to see, really terrible. I was always optimistic, and I hoped all the time that I would meet Eldad and hug him."
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Meanwhile,

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"We swear in the name of the almighty Allah and in the name of your pure blood that we will continue in this path and never give up until we reach the place that was given to you by God," said Kuntar."
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This breaks my heart. How can people side with these relentlessly crazed mass-murderers? I just don't understand it at all.