Texy Posted July 16, 2008 Posted July 16, 2008 NAQOURA, Lebanon — Five Lebanese militants freed from prisons in Israel in exchange for the bodies of two captured Israeli soldiers strode down a red carpet behind a Hezbollah honor guard Wednesday to a boisterous welcome from hundreds of cheering spectators. Israel released Samir Kantar and four others after Hezbollah handed over two black coffins with the bodies of the Israeli soldiers, closing a painful chapter from the 2006 war in Lebanon. Kantar, who had been serving multiple life terms in Israel for a grisly 1979 attack, wiped away tears as he stood before hundreds in the coastal border town of Naqoura in southern Lebanon. An honor guard escorted the men to a stage as a brass band played martial music and rows of uniformed fighters saluted. "We knew that you were waiting for the resistance and it reached you. You came back free and heroes," said Ibrahim Amin al-Sayed, head of Hezbollah's political bureau. The five later flew to Beirut, where they received an official welcome from the president and his government. Winning freedom for Kantar was one of the reasons Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah cited at the time for going to war with Israel in 2006. Kantar was convicted in a nighttime attack that killed a 4-year-old girl, her father and a policeman. Although polls showed Israelis solidly endorsed the exchange, many see Kantar as the embodiment of evil. "Samir Kantar is a brutal murderer of children and anybody celebrating him as a hero is trampling on basic human decency," said Mark Regev, spokesman for the Israeli prime minister. Wednesday's exchange was also a wrenching end to the war for Israel. The soldiers' capture by Hezbollah fighters in a cross-border raid in 2006 triggered the 34-day war. The campaign to bring Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev home had become a national crusade. The soldiers' Hezbollah captors had withheld any information about them since they were taken, refusing to release pictures or allow the Red Cross to see them. It was not clear if Regev and Goldwasser were killed in the original raid or if they died in captivity. Evidence at the scene indicated both were seriously wounded. Though officials had suspected they were dead, the sight of the coffins was the first confirmation of their fate. Regev's father, Zvi, said he fell apart the moment he saw Hezbollah take the coffins out of a van and place them on the ground. "It was horrible to see it. I didn't want to, I asked them to turn off the TV," he said, choking back tears. "We were always hoping that Udi and Eldad were alive and that they would come home and we would hug them," he added, using Ehud Goldwasser's nickname. "We had this hope all the time." An aunt of Regev's sank to the ground when she saw the coffins appear on a small TV hooked up outside the soldier's father's house. Some 50 friends, neighbors and family who had gathered there sobbed, rocked back and forth in prayer, lit candles or tugged at their hair. "Nasrallah, you will pay," several of the mourners vowed. Other people in the crowd criticized Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, saying the soldiers died for nothing. The swap was mediated by a U.N.-appointed German official who shuttled between the sides for 18 months. On Wednesday, Israeli forensic experts examined the remains for several hours, checking dental records among other things, before confirming the soldiers' identities. Israeli generals then went to the families' homes to deliver the news. After the confirmation, Israel released Kantar and the four other Lebanese prisoners to Hezbollah. In the dead of night on April 22, 1979, Kantar 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, then 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 Kantar shot Danny 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. Kantar, a Lebanese Druse who acted on behalf of the Palestine Liberation Front, a small faction of the PLO, denies killing the older child. He says she was killed in the crossfire as he battled Israeli police, and he has never expressed remorse. Kantar was 16 years old at the time. Two members of his squad were killed in the raid, and the third, taken alive, was released in a 1985 prisoner swap. Israel held on to Kantar for decades, hoping to use him as a bargaining chip to win new information about an Israeli airman whose plane crashed in Lebanon in 1986. But despite dissatisfaction over Hezbollah's report on the airman, provided over the weekend, and under pressure from the captured soldiers' families to bring them home, Israel's Cabinet voted on Tuesday to release Kantar. On Tuesday, Hezbollah's commander in south Lebanon, Sheik Nabil Kaouk, called the swap an "official admission of defeat" for Israel. An official ceremony was planned at Beirut Airport and was to be attended by Lebanon's president, prime minister and parliament speaker. Later, Nasrallah was to address what is expected to be a huge celebration at Hezbollah's stronghold south of Beirut. Also Wednesday, a Red Cross tractor-trailer arrived in Lebanon carrying wooden coffins containing the bodies of Lebanese and Palestinian fighters. Part of the swap included Israel handing over the remains of some 199 fighters. In addition to the two soldiers, Hezbollah also handed to ICRC officials body parts belonging to Israeli soldiers killed during the 2006 war.
Texy Posted July 16, 2008 Author Posted July 16, 2008 How can they release a child killer???? can't imagine how much violence was filled in his head to bash a 4 yr old girl's head when he was 16 himself!!!
theguyinallblue Posted July 16, 2008 Posted July 16, 2008 israel should bomb the whole of middle east to stone age... and while doing so...take along Pakistan as well..
theguyinallblue Posted July 16, 2008 Posted July 16, 2008 i was watching "Dog Fight" on History channel...and in the 6 day way.... one israeli air force pilot was attacked by 17 egyptian planes..and that israeli pilot killed 5 of them ...and returned to base safely..
Texy Posted July 16, 2008 Author Posted July 16, 2008 look at Gaza strip..... a small area of land with 3 times more population than any neighboring areas in Israel and double poverty.... can anyone imagine, what would have happened if Palestine had the same power and intelligence as Israel? and Israel was in palestine's position? Israel would indeed be wiped out of the map in 2 days.
Guest dada_rocks Posted July 16, 2008 Posted July 16, 2008 Stupid what will they do with dead body should have shot these mofos in head.. Or sent them with AIDS virus or sthg like that
Guest dada_rocks Posted July 16, 2008 Posted July 16, 2008 look at Gaza strip..... a small area of land with 3 times more population than any neighboring areas in Israel and double poverty.... can anyone imagine, what would have happened if Palestine had the same power and intelligence as Israel? and Israel was in palestine's position? Israel would indeed be wiped out of the map in 2 days. There is no need to imagine cursory glance at history tells three attempts have been made by all the neighbouring muslim states in order to wipe israel off the map.
Guest dada_rocks Posted July 16, 2008 Posted July 16, 2008 i was watching "Dog Fight" on History channel...and in the 6 day way.... one israeli air force pilot was attacked by 17 egyptian planes..and that israeli pilot killed 5 of them ...and returned to base safely.. This is what irks the whole arb world.. Now they have reposed their faith in the tenets which promises them that one day stones will shout look o believer here is jew hiding behind me , come and kill him..:hysterical:
THX_1138 Posted July 17, 2008 Posted July 17, 2008 i was going to avoid posting this and hoped it would slip below the radar... but this samir kantar guy deserved to rot in jail, a process interspersed by daily anal assaults with increasingly larger devices till the day his large intestine fell out of the gaping hole.
THX_1138 Posted July 17, 2008 Posted July 17, 2008 How can they release a child killer???? can't imagine how much violence was filled in his head to bash a 4 yr old girl's head when he was 16 himself!!! that is religion for your my friend. it veils your intelligence and numbs your humanity. why go so far, look at theguyinblue and his vituperation against pakistan. he wants that country bombed into the stone age, and he could not be one bit concerned for the poor children and women who would subsequently be killed...
theguyinallblue Posted July 17, 2008 Posted July 17, 2008 OK..THX..i will try to explain my PoV to you...Pakistan is not the only muslim majority country in this world... there is Malaysia also...whose population is majority muslims... i have no problems with Malaysia...and i have no problems with Iran as well... infact india has very good relations with Iran. The problem is ...who is the enemy of India and who is a friend of India. Malaysia and Iran do not send suicide bombers to India...they have not attacked on india and captured a large legitimate part of India... they do not finance and support terrorism in india...so i have no problems with them..live and let live. But with Pakistan...things are different..they indulge in all those things ..which i have mentioned above... The day..Pakistan will cut off any sort of contact with india...and will not meddle in any thing indian... i won't have any problems with them....whether they live or die... anyone..who is an enemy of India...is my enemy...and i will pray for its destruction...
THX_1138 Posted July 17, 2008 Posted July 17, 2008 OK..THX..i will try to explain my PoV to you...Pakistan is not the only muslim majority country in this world... there is Malaysia also...whose population is majority muslims... i have no problems with Malaysia...and i have no problems with Iran as well... infact india has very good relations with Iran. The problem is ...who is the enemy of India and who is a friend of India. Malaysia and Iran do not send suicide bombers to India...they have not attacked on india and captured a large legitimate part of India... they do not finance and support terrorism in india...so i have no problems with them..live and let live. But with Pakistan...things are different..they indulge in all those things ..which i have mentioned above... The day..Pakistan will cut off any sort of contact with india...and will not meddle in any thing indian... i won't have any problems with them....whether they live or die... anyone..who is an enemy of India...is my enemy...and i will pray for its destruction... India was never threatened by North Korea, Sadam Hussein, or both the Ayatollah or the Shah... so is our support of all these nations unanimous and robust? and has ever citizen of Pakistan wished or actually committed evil against indians? your logic is as flawed as the brain dead, religion awashed terrorists who think that somehow killing american civilians is justified; when infact, its these very american citizens who are the agency for change.
Guest dada_rocks Posted July 17, 2008 Posted July 17, 2008 Not that I am advocating any stone-age treatment but actually yes when a democratically elected govt does sthg against other nation more so when in a democracy a govt can get elected on anti-india plank and go on to do what Benazir Bhutto did then it's safe to say each and every citizen of that country wishes evil for india.... These days situation has slightly improved not many people are impressed with anti-india sabre-rattling even in Pakistan.. You won't find leaders frothing about India in their public Taqreers that much.
Texy Posted July 18, 2008 Author Posted July 18, 2008 it's funny to see pakistani forums are hailing Kantar as a hero! the ONLY reason pakistanis love palestinians so much is ONLY because they are muslims as well.... no other reason.
THX_1138 Posted July 18, 2008 Posted July 18, 2008 Not that I am advocating any stone-age treatment but actually yes when a democratically elected govt does sthg against other nation more so when in a democracy a govt can get elected on anti-india plank and go on to do what Benazir Bhutto did then it's safe to say each and every citizen of that country wishes evil for india.... These days situation has slightly improved not many people are impressed with anti-india sabre-rattling even in Pakistan.. You won't find leaders frothing about India in their public Taqreers that much. why? because every citizen voted for that particular candidate? well then in that case, every gujurati is accountable for the 2002 violence and rioting... or that worse yet, since the chief minister was a member of the ruling party, every indian is responsible for the 2002 violence and rioting and must be brought to court... when an election occurs in india or pakistan, out of the total population, only a certain fragment is eligible to vote (those under 18 or those declared mentally misfit or just plain disenfranchised folks cant vote), and out of that fraction and miniscule fraction signs up for voting and fraction of those emmerges on the day of casting the ballot to vote, and only a fraction of that actually votes for the candidate/party that eventually wins. occassionally the party in control of the house might not even be able to secure the popular vote in the nation... yet they become the representatives of the nation. thus it is these representatives that must be held guilty if the nation errrs... not the entire bloody country. do you blame every indian for the rapid inflation or just the inept or overzealous politicians who did not have the farsight to forsee such an inevitability in a rapidly growing economy? i am sort of reinventing the wheel here, because any sensible person knows this, and you assuredly are sensible, though consciously or subconsciously blind to the obvious.
THX_1138 Posted July 18, 2008 Posted July 18, 2008 it's funny to see pakistani forums are hailing Kantar as a hero! the ONLY reason pakistanis love palestinians so much is ONLY because they are muslims as well.... no other reason. their inability to recognize phenomenon beyond religion is in great parts the reason for their destitute. they have sacrificed science, inquiry, economy and prosperity, not to mention peace, democracy, equality of gender, law etc at the alter of religion to appease someone quite possibly imaginary.
Kriterion Posted July 19, 2008 Posted July 19, 2008 it's funny to see pakistani forums are hailing Kantar as a hero! the ONLY reason pakistanis love palestinians so much is ONLY because they are muslims as well.... no other reason. ...and the bengali ones are silent.
theguyinallblue Posted July 19, 2008 Posted July 19, 2008 i think Bangladeshis are somewhat tolerant...towards other religions...may be because BD has not yet been infested by wahaabi islam....although it has taken the roots there... also...becasue of the rich lierature and cultural heritage from the west Bengal...which was the part of that area before 1947...
fineleg Posted July 19, 2008 Posted July 19, 2008 Sandeep, Why is every citizen responsible and needs to be 'eliminated' for mistakes done by some other citizens and leaders of a country? Since you want it to be exterminated as a whole (including the good and bad people all together)?
Kriterion Posted July 19, 2008 Posted July 19, 2008 i think Bangladeshis are somewhat tolerant...towards other religions...may be because BD has not yet been infested by wahaabi islam....although it has taken the roots there... also...becasue of the rich lierature and cultural heritage from the west Bengal...which was the part of that area before 1947... good points. true points. bangladesh is a fairly good example of people who are tolerant yet still fairly "devout" muslims.
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