Soccer Dad

Kuntar release roundup 07/16/08

Boker Tov Boulder lists a number of prisoner releases and some of the crimes committed by the released terrorists.

Elder of Ziyon finds that the "moderate" country of Lebanon is celebrating the release of the murderer Kuntar.

Israel Matzav looks into the malaise Israel suffers from that led to the release.

This Ongoing War contrasts Israel's values with that of its enemies.

Daled Amos has misgivings about Misgav.

Israelly Cool presents Trivia Time. The answer, I'm sure is someone who is usually described as pro-Western or "moderate."

Meryl wishes Israel would lavish a generous parting gift on Samir Kuntar.

Treppenwitz weighs in with Let the enemy decide the rules:

These useful idiots pleaded for the IDF to spare the poor, hapless Lebanese who were caught between Israel's mighty army and Hezbollah's well entrenched forces... pointing out that the Lebanese deserved mercy because they are a modern, secular people just like us.

'Moderate' Lebanese blogs were linked, and the grand old days when Beirut was known as the 'Paris of the East' were invoked repeatedly... while doctored photos of burning Beirut neighborhoods became like fixed wallpaper behind the media's talking heads who dutifully read Hezbollah scripts about Israeli atrocities.

Ignored was the fact that these cosmopolitan Lebanese had watched approvingly for decades as Hezbollah set up rocket batteries and supporting military infrastructure in their towns and villages. Ignored was the cover and support these poor secular Lebanese willingly provided to Hezbollah for a generation.

Ha'aretz illustrates the kidnapping. The Regev and Goldwasser families put on a brave face.

Shlomo Goldwasser, the father of Ehud Goldwasser whose body was returned to Israel Wednesday morning as part of a prisoner exchange with Hezbollah, said after seeing the his son's coffin that he and his wife did not want to see their son's body because they prefer to remember him as he was.

Background on the mediator.

Officially, Conrad's mediation effort has been on behalf of the UN secretary general, because the return of Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser is part of Security Council Resolution 1701, which brought an end to the Second Lebanon War.

Except that the return of Regev and Goldwasser according to 1701 was supposed to be unconditional. Not only has Hezbollah re-armed under the watchful eye of UN forces, the UN refuses even to insist that the terms of 1701 be obeyed in this case. Not to mention that the kidnapping itself and the presence of Hezbollah in southern Lebanon violate 425.

Ron ben Yishai on the speech we won't hear from Olmert.

Therefore, even though we recently acquired credible information that Goldwasser and Regev are no longer alive, the government decided, on my recommendation, to approve the deal and ignore the warnings issued by the Mossad and Shin Bet chiefs. Had the Second Lebanon War ended in clear victory, had the Winograd Commission not criticized my conduct, and had my public and moral status not been eroded in the wake of the Talansky affair, I may have acted differently. Yet in my current status, I had no choice.

Danny Haran's brother feels "defeated."

Israel gets ready to pay interest on the transaction:

The feeling is shared by many in the IDF Northern Command, where senior commanders estimate that after two years of quiet, Hizbullah may use the period immediately following the swap to strike at Israel. While the possibility of another kidnapping attack against IDF soldiers is being taken into account, there is also a fear in the IDF that Hizbullah may try to infiltrate an Israeli town along the northern border.

No wonder it's being called Hezbollah's ultimate victory.

Crosposted on Yourish.

Posted by SoccerDad at July 16, 2008 7:25 AM