Today, Israel transferred 5 Lebanese POWs, including Israel's most reviled prisoner, Samir Kuntar, in return for the bodies of Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev. Kuntar was captured on April 22, 1979 at the age of 16, when he kidnapped a young father, Danny Haran, and his 4-year-old daughter, Einat, taking them to a nearby beach in Nahariya. He was found guilty of murdering Danny in front of Einat, then turning to the child and crushing her skull against a rock with the butt of his rifle. This is what the Lebanese celebrate.... Kuntar was given a hero's welcome at a red-carpet state ceremony in Beirut today, where yellow Hizbullah flags lined the streets. Lebanon has declared a national holiday, and posters cover buildings, showing the Lebanese excitement. One poster read: "Israel is shedding tears of pain. Lebanon is shedding tears of joy."
A few months ago, I was debating with a Lebanese supporter of Hizbullah, and I made the point that Hizbullah was the aggressor by initiating The Second Lebanon War through their kidnapping of Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser. His response: "Come on, you know that Hizbullah has never hurt the captives that it takes. It just holds onto them in order to get back the people Israel keeps captive."
There is a very twisted picture in this statement that clearly shows how deeply Hizbullah-propaganda resonates with the Lebanese people. Hizbullah has become a master at using propaganda and twisting stories in order to gain popularity. The 2006 Lebanon War is another clear example of this. Where by any technical calculation, Israel seems to have won the war (They caused much more damage than the opponent, they took the battleground whereas Hizbullah terrorists didn't touch Israeli soil, Hizbullah sued the UN for a cease-fire, etc.), it has become generally accepted that Hizbullah was the victor. All that needs to be done in order to accomplish this is film a few Hizbullah attacks, and declare victory, and that is precisely what Hizbullah did and what they're doing again now. This prisoner exchange strengthens Hizbullah because it understands the propaganda game, which unfortunately, Israel does not.
But just because Hizbullah got stronger from this exchange does not mean that Israel is weaker. The sacrifice that Israelis have made today proves that we are on the moral and ethical high-ground. Bringing back our soldiers, even if they have fallen, has always been one of Israel's and Judaism's highest priorities, and we need to look at their return with pride.
We cannot allow these soldiers to have died in vain, and we cannot allow Nasrallah to mock us. We pity them that they celebrate the release of an animal who crushed the skull of a 4-year-old girl. We pity that they rejoice. Today's events are a victory for the Nation of Israel, because we have proven to the world that we are One Nation with One Heart. The Arabs have Palestinians massacring each other with Hamas and Fatah. They have Hizbullah massacring other Lebanese civilians just to gain political points. They have Iraqi terrorists massacring hundreds of thousands of Iraqi Arabs.
The Jewish people, on the other hand, remain strong and united, and the Arabs are jealous of that. We have proven to the world our strength, while Hizbullah continues to spread lies to its own people. The unity that we have is our greatest asset, and we must never forget that.
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2 comments:
First half was better. Cut the sentimental cheesiness next time. I think we can agree that our displays of unity are not THE reason they want to destroy us; our displays of competence, perhaps, but not unity. And when Israel's method of preserving peace is using its military reputation as a deterrent, and Hizbullah lies destroy Israel's reputation, whether true or false, it's pretty damn bad for Israel.
^^ what he said. And what was it they call the war in Lebanon again? the Divine Victory War or something hilarious like that? But it has that element of truth... After all, Lebanon was certainly not high up on our list of "displays of competence." And it gave Hizbollah the clout it needed. And ethical victories that aren't visible as ethical or as victories to anyone but the ethically victorious are worthless. Have you not read the chilling words of Himmler near the end? I don't have them at hand but they go something like "To have gone through all that, and still to have remained good men, men of integrity... that is our achievement." so great, Lebanon was our ethical victory to us, and WWII/Final Solution was the Third Reich's ethical victory to them. What did we gain again, apart from being firebombed, so to speak?
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