Soccer Dad

Qualities of mercy

This picture and caption is infuriating:

Bassam Kantar, the brother of Samir Kantar, the longest-held Lebanese in Israel, imprisoned since 1979 for killing three Israelis, gestures as he holds a picture of Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah during a rally to commemorate the prisoner's day in the southern town of Khiam, Lebanon, Friday, May 23, 2008.

The caption tells us is that he's the "longest held Lebanese in Israel" but gives no detail about his crime, other than he killed three Israelis.

Read the whole thing, but let me just quote the worst part of his crimes:

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.

Any normal country would place such a monster behind bars for the rest of his life. (Most countries that don't reward such activities also don't have the death penalty, which is what Kuntar so richly deserves.) To somehow make an issue of the length of the times he's served mocks the severity and depravity of his crimes as well as his victims. AP is simply engaging in misplace mercy.

Shrinkwrapped adds perspective about Kuntar - from two years ago. I also looked at how Kuntar was whitewashed by the Washington Post two years ago.

I saw the following story at NRO's media blog. Israelis discovered that the Barzilai medical center in Ashkelon was build on a site that was holy to Shi'ites. So how did the Israeli authorities deal with that discovery? Why they built a prayer area for pilgrims to pray.

In case you don't remember, an Iranian made Grad missile landed near that hospital two months ago.

Think about it Israel keeps a brutal murderer in jail and some observers consider it unfair. Israel, on the other hand, respect the religion of those terrorizing it and it barely merits a mention. The asymmetry between the two stories is amazing.

Crossposted on Yourish.

Israel.