Why does Lebanon celebrate a child-killer's escape from justice?

Question

I know the world is a sick place, but come on. Oh well, Kuntar can escape justice in this life, but no one escapes The Lord's judgment in the next life.

Answer 1

ROSH HANIKRA, Israel - Hezbollah handed over two black coffins Wednesday with the bodies of two Israeli soldiers and Israel prepared to set free a notorious attacker in a dramatic prisoner swap that will close a painful chapter from the 2006 war in Lebanon.

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Family and friends outside the homes of the two captured Israeli soldiers burst into tears when TV images showed Lebanon's Hezbollah guerrillas taking the coffins out of a black van. Though officials had suspected Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev were dead, the sight of the coffins was the first confirmation of their fate.

The swap — mediated by a U.N.-appointed German official who shuttled between the sides for 18 months — reopened another searing moment from the country's past with the planned release of Samir Kantar and four other Lebanese prisoners.

Kantar was convicted in a 1979 nighttime attack that killed a 4-year-old girl, her father and a policeman. Although polls show Israelis solidly endorse the exchange, many see Kantar as the embodiment of evil.

The exchange was a somber occasion in Israel, which planned no ceremonies. In Lebanon, however, a hero's welcome was prepared for Kantar, a Lebanese Druse who was working for a militant Palestinian faction. The swap is likely to provide a significant boost to Hezbollah, which is trying to rebuild a reputation tarnished when it turned its guns on fellow Lebanese in May.

Israeli forensic experts examined the remains for several hours, checking dental records among other things, before confirming the identities of the captured soldiers, defense officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity pending a formal announcement. An Israeli general arrived at the Regev home in northern Israel to deliver the news.

Lebanon's Al-Manar TV quoted senior Hezbollah official Wafik Safa at the border as saying the bodies of the two Israelis were "mutilated" from injuries they suffered during the raid.

It was not clear if Regev and Goldwasser were killed in Hezbollah's cross-border raid or if they died in captivity. Evidence at the scene indicated both were seriously wounded.

Goldwasser's father, Shlomo, said the sight of the coffins "was not easy to see, though it didn't come as much of a surprise."

"But coming face-to-face with reality is always tough," he told Israel Radio.

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, referring to Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah.

The family's next door neighbor, Simona Adda, 68, said her children had grown up with Regev. "It's the saddest day for Israel. They kept us waiting until the last second to learn the fate of our sons," she said, then burst out crying. Other people in the crowd criticized Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, saying the soldiers died for nothing.

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 denies killing the older child and has never expressed remorse. He 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.

A giant red carpet was rolled out along a road next to the seashore on the Lebanese side of the border, next to dozens of yellow Hezbollah flags whipping in the breeze.

Hezbollah supporters set up a makeshift stage in the coastal town of Naqoura, where a brass band awaited the returning prisoners. On the platform stood a large photograph of a weeping Israeli woman. A nearby sign read, "Israel is shedding tears of pain."

"Lebanon is shedding tears of joy," read another.

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.

In the Gaza Strip, controlled by the violently anti-Israel Hamas group, people handed out sweets to celebrate Kantar's impending release.

Ismail Haniyeh, Gaza's Hamas prime minister, warned Israel that it also will have to "pay the price" for a soldier Hamas has been holding since June 2006 and presumed alive.

"As there was an honorable exchange today, we are determined to have an honorable exchange for our own prisoners," held in Israeli jails, Haniyeh said. "There is a captive Israeli soldier, and thousands of our sons are in prison. ... Let them answer our demands."

Mark Regev, spokesman for the Israeli prime minister, condemned the celebrations in Gaza and Lebanon.

"Samir Kantar is a brutal murderer of children and anybody celebrating him as a hero is trampling on basic human decency," he said.

Critics of the deal have said that by trading bodies for prisoners, Israel is giving militants little incentive to keep captured soldiers alive.

U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon, speaking in Germany, said he hoped Wednesday's prisoner swap would be "the beginning of many to come in the future."

In addition to the five prisoners, Israel also has agreed to release the bodies of 199 Lebanese and Palestinian fighters killed over the years. This would not be the first time that Israel has paid a high price to return its troops. On several occasions, it released hundreds or thousands of prisoners in exchange for small numbers of Israeli soldiers, some of them dead.

Palestinians = SAVAGES!

Answer 2

In our world, justice is relative and depends on one's culture and belief system.  There are those who would argue that there is no God and criticize you for making your statement.  But for me, I'll take my chances with Him. Rev. 22:20.

Answer 3

the ones who celebrate his release are a******s.