Monday, June 30, 2008
Baby Murderer for Sale
One of the features that was unique to Nazism and that separated it out
from other forms of barbarism was the insistence that Jews were
"Untermenschen" or an inferior species, an inferior race, and so killing
Jewish civilians was not only a legitimate instrument for social policy
but downright just. Since Jews were inferior to other humans, there could
be nothing wrong with exterminating them like vermin, and eliminating them
from the planet.
For decades the position of the Arab world has been largely the same.
Arab Nazism has always been expressed in the idea that murdering Jewish
civilians, including Jewish children, does not count as murder at all,
because those being eliminated do not count as humans. Killing Jews
should not be murder because Jews are an inferior species. Murderers of
Jewish children are like military heroes defending a city wall or a port
from attack.
The Arabs not only always tried to make the point that killing Jewish
children and civilians is legitimate, but for decades attempted to coerce
Israel into publicly and officially acquiescing to this definition of
Jewish inferiority. They did so by equating murderers of Jewish children
with soldiers, and demanding that Israel do the same. A terrorist who
blows up a bus full of children is as legitimate a combatant as any
soldier, the Arabs held, because his civilian victims were only Jews and
they do not count as humans. There was no reason why such a terrorist
should be regarded as any different from a soldier in a boat or a plane
engaged in military operations. The anti-Semitic media largely agreed, as
manifested in their insistence on referring to suicide bombers as
"activists" and "militants," and counting the suicide bombers among the
"victims" of any terror atrocity.
While the Arabs and the anti-Semites attempted for decades to bludgeon
Israel into acquiescing to the legitimization of the murder of Jewish
civilians and to the legitimacy of equating mass murderers of Jewish
children to combat soldiers, no Israeli politician ever agreed to such a
thing. Even the most wimpish and cowardly understood that such an
acknowledgement amounted to an acquiescence to the definition of Jewish
civilian life as having inferior negligible value and to the legitimizing
of mass extermination of Jews in the name of Jewish racial inferiority.
Until now.
Today the Israeli cabinet under Ehud Olmert approved a "hostage deal" that
amounts to the declaration of the legitimacy of the murder of Jewish
children. The "deal" involves the release of the most notorious
terrorist baby murderer in the world, plus an as-yet-unknown number of
other murderers, evidently in exchange for the bodies of Israeli soldiers
kidnapped by the Hizbollah. While the media and government have not yet
said so formally, it appears that these soldiers were murdered in cold
blood by the Hezbollah. Israel will then "purchase" their corpses by
releasing the baby murderer and the other terrorists.
Releasing terrorists to "buy back" the bodies of Israeli POWs murdered in
cold blood by the Hizbollah became official Israeli policy years ago, when
it released more than 400 terrorists in 2004 to obtain the corpses of
three murdered IDF officers. At the same time, Israel also "bought" the
release of an Israeli drug smuggler and criminal who had been in Hezbollah
captivity. Back then I called for releasing a few terrorists in exchange
for the Hezbollah KEEPING the drug criminal in captivity. At that time I
published an article "I am Ashamed to be an Israeli,"
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=05A8CAEA-C1F8-4A02-8ADE-11A49790E6FE
reprinted below. It goes without saying that the "deal" in which the baby
murderer is to be released for corpses is infinitely worse even than that
ignominy. The baby murderer is being publicly and morally equated by the
government of Ehud Olmert to combat soldiers.
The baby murderer is Samir Quntar (or Kuntar). This baby murderer was
part of a terrorist crew that entered Nahariya in northern Israel in 1979.
Selecting a civilian home at random, he entered, murdered the father of
the family and crushed the skull of his 4 year old daughter with his
rifle. The mother of the family was hiding in a closet with her two year
old daughter. She smothered the infant's cries so that Quntar would not
murder them as well, and the baby suffocated. Quntar was also of course
directly responsible for the murder of that baby as well. He then also
murdered two policemen in the town before being captured. The mother,
Smadar Haran, instantly lost her entire family. Almost like a page out of
Auschwitz.
Quntar of course became the hero of the Arab Nazis, who demanded that he
be repatriated to Lebanon as a home-coming heroic combatant, as part of
any prisoner exchange. In the cowardly deal in which 400 terrorists
were released to buy back the corpses of the three murdered IDF officers,
Sharon uncharacteristically showed a slight hint of a vertebrate and
refused to release the baby murderer. Releasing him would be to acquiesce
to the Arab Nazi insistence that murdering Jewish babies should not count
as murder because Jews are Untermenschen. Sharon refused and Quntar the
baby murderer stayed locked up.
The Kadima-Labor Party machine has been working all week to make pretense
of mass public support for this deal in which the Israeli government
legitimzes baby murder. Politicians are being called out by the machine
to endorse the exchange. The failed Chief of Staff of the army Dan Chalutz,
who lost the battle to the Hizboillah in 2006, has endorsed it. So did
Haaretz and its amen chorus of domestic leftists, who will endorse any act
of Israeli capitulation as a step forward towards peace.
Oh, while in Israeli prison, Quntar was allowed to marry (remember the
media outrage and opposition to Yigal Amir getting married?), and also
did a BA in political science via Israel's Open University correspondence
programs. No doubt Ben Gurion University would also have liked having him
study political science but he was unable to make it to classes on campus.
The Open University is funded by the Israeli taxpayer.
Here are more materials on this national disgrace:
http://frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=8C0A6B33-4991-49E5-83CE-6E9CE5DBECD8
Palestinian TV: Baby-Killer "A Lesson for Us"
By Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook
Palestinian Media Watch | 6/30/2008
According to the Palestinian Authority leadership, Samir Quntar epitomizes
the ideal Palestinian prisoner. Quntar, who crushed the head of
four-year-old Eynat Haran with his rifle, is serving four life sentences
for murder in an Israeli prison, but is almost certain to be freed in a
prisoner swap with Hizbullah this week.
On one hand, Quntar embodies what the PA considers the "heroism" of
terrorists fighting Israel. On the other hand, he's the ultimate symbol of
all terrorist prisoners who have murdered Israelis and will eventually be
freed as a result of future kidnappings or through some other means.
PA TV, controlled by Mahmoud Abbas, broadcast the following picture
honoring Quntar. He is depicted beside a map of Israel completely covered
by the Palestinian flag.
[PATV, 23-25 June 2008]
Following are several recent quotes from PA leaders since April 2008,
describing Quntar:
"Samir Quntar, the warrior from Lebanon."
"The brave warrior, Samir Quntar."
"The Palestinian people and the Palestinian leadership are standing behind
you (Quntar)."
"You (Quntar) are an inseparable part of the action to free our homeland."
"Your (Quntar) patience and strength are a lesson for us."
Besides bludgeoning Eynat Haran to death with rocks and his rifle, Quntar
killed her father and was responsible for the death of her infant sister.
He also killed two policemen in the 1979 attack in Naharia. The Israeli
cabinet today approved a prisoner exchange that would free Quntar and
several other prisoners in exchange for Israeli soldiers Eldad Regev and
Ehud Goldwasser, who were kidnapped by Hizbullah in 2006. The exchange
could happen within the next few days.
________________________________________
Itamar Marcus is the founder and director of Palestinian Media Watch. He
was appointed by the Israeli government to be the Israeli representative
(communication specialist) to the Trilateral
(Israeli-American-Palestinian) Anti-Incitement Committee established under
the Wye Accords. From 1998 to 2000, Mr. Marcus served as research director
of the Center for Monitoring the Impact of Peace, writing reports on PA,
Syrian, and Jordanian schoolbooks. He holds a BA in political science from
City College of New York and an MA in Hebrew culture from New York
University. Barbara Crook is associate director and North American
representative of Palestinian Media Watch. She teaches at the School of
Journalism and Communications at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada.
She holds an Honors BA in English literature from Queen's University, an
MA in journalism from the University of Western Ontario, and is a Southam
Fellow at the University of Toronto.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/997297.html
The following Op-Ed by Moshe Arens was titles in Hebrew, "A Deal Worse
than that for Tannenbaum." The English Haaretz prettified the title.
Haaretz supports the hostage "deal" because Haaretz always endorses
Israeli capitulation.
Bargaining for the living and the dead
By Moshe Arens
Tags: Gilad Shalit
There was a time, not so many years ago, when the policy of Israeli
governments, when one of its citizens or soldiers was abducted by a
terrorist organization, was to send the Israel Defense Forces to free the
hostages. It was clear that negotiating with the terrorists and agreeing
to their outrageous demands was simply setting the stage for further
kidnappings and higher demands in the future. It was a good policy, even
though it involved risking the lives of the hostages and of those sent to
free them.
When in past years a policy of negotiating with terrorists for the release
of hostages was adopted, it only proved the original premise. The
terrorists' demands continued to escalate, and each "deal" with them only
provided an incentive for further kidnappings and for ever more outrageous
demands before the hostages would be released. The terrorists may have
released the hostages - dead or alive - but each surrender to their
demands only provided an incentive for additional kidnappings of Israelis
and escalating demands, and put at risk Israelis, as yet unnamed, whom the
terrorists would abduct in the future. In other words, they served as an
incentive for the further abduction of Israelis.
In June 2004, under then-prime minister Ariel Sharon and then-defense
minister Shaul Mofaz, a deal was struck with Hezbollah for the return of
three dead Israeli soldiers - Benny Avraham, Adi Avitan and Omar Suad -
and the release of Elhanan Tennenbaum, in return for about 450 convicted
terrorists in Israeli prisons. Whereas the three soldiers had been
kidnapped while on duty in the IDF, Tennenbaum had been kidnapped while on
an illegal trip in Abu Dhabi in pursuit of what he thought would be a
profitable drug deal. There was no justification for the arrangement
Sharon's government made in this case. One might have hoped that it would
serve as a benchmark not to be exceeded in the future, and as a lesson in
how not to negotiate with terrorists.
Making decisions in negotiating with terrorists for the release of Israeli
hostages is an agonizing matter, and ministers are not to be envied the
responsibility they carry on their shoulders. However, certain principles
that need to be applied are almost self-evident: 1. Whatever deal is to be
struck, it should be done immediately after the kidnapping. (Remember Ron
Arad.)
2. The price to be paid for the return of the living is not to be the same
as the price for the dead.
3. Remember the Israelis who are being put at risk in the future as a
result of giving in to the demands of the terrorists.
It is clear that in the case of the negotiations for the return of IDF
soldiers Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser, these principles have not been
observed. In full knowledge that they have been murdered by Hezbollah, the
price that Ehud Olmert and Ehud Barak now seem prepared to pay is
scandalous. Samir Kuntar is not just a terrorist "with blood on his
hands," but a cold-blooded murderer who killed a small child and her
father. If anything, this deal is worse than the Tennenbaum deal.
And now Gilad Shalit. Any fool understands that the Israeli government
held one significant lever on Hamas in this case - the continued blockade
of Gaza and the continuation of IDF attacks on Hamas and Islamic Jihad in
the Gaza Strip. The impression given by the government that agreeing to a
cease-fire with the terrorists was part and parcel of a deal for the
release of Shalit was nothing less than a cheap political manipulation.
One can only imagine the price that the terrorists are asking now that
they are holding not only Shalit hostage, but also the residents of
Sderot, Ashkelon and the settlements in the area. The Olmert government
has completely mishandled a most important security matter.
Now that the Olmert government is tottering and seems to about to topple,
its spokesmen are insisting that in view of the many dangers Israel is
facing, this is no time to change governments. In other words, don't
change horses midstream. But Olmert has provided additional proof, as if
additional proof were needed after the fiasco of the Second Lebanon War,
that his government cannot be trusted to deal with the dangers on the
horizon. The sooner they go the better.
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=05A8CAEA-C1F8-4A02-8ADE-11A49790E6FE
I Am Ashamed to be an Israeli
By Steven Plaut
FrontPageMagazine.com | 1/30/2004
On Thursday January 29, Israel released about 450 imprisoned terrorists as
"payment" to the Hizbollah terrorist organization, in exchange for the
release of the bodies of three POWs murdered in cold blood by the
Hizbollah, and one captured Israeli, evidently a criminal, who had fallen
into Hizbollah captivity. Even as the exchanges were taking place, a
suicide bomb blew up a bus full of civilians in a residential area in
Jerusalem.
*****
I have spent most of the past 12 years being ashamed to be an Israeli,
starting with the Oslo "peace process". Israeli governments made me
ashamed, and they did so by abasing, disgracing and humiliating me as a
Jew and as an Israeli.
I have been ashamed for 12 years at being an Israeli because this was the
period in which the governments of Israel abandoned the struggle for
Jewish national survival. They stopped trying to defend me and all other
Jews. They lectured me that it was my fault that the Arab fascists were
attacking Jews, and that it was within my power to stop the carnage if
only I would agree to demean myself sufficiently, to grovel before the
terrorists of the Middle East, and to appease the anti-Semites. I could
achieve peace if I would agree to place my neck in an Arab noose, but if I
refuse to do so then I would be the impediment to peace and my obstinacy
would be to blame for all further carnage.
For 12 years, my government pursued a policy of defending me and my family
by abandoning all attempts to defend us. My government decided to pursue
peace by pretending that war did not exist. After two millennia of
anti-Semitism, my government decided that anti-Semitism does not REALLY
exist, and that when people randomly murder Jewish children it is because
they have some legitimate grievances, because they have suffered, and
because Jews have shown them insufficient sensitivity.
My government implemented policies based on the presumption that the
making of concessions to blood-thirsty terrorists would be rewarded with
moderation and goodwill, that importing armed terrorist militiamen into
the suburbs of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem would cause them to seek peace. My
government followed policies based on the notion that the Jews were evil,
insensitive, and selfish. My government decided that if Jews would only
"share" their land and resources with those who rule the entire territory
from the Atlantic Ocean to Central Asia, that is, with those who refuse to
agree to any "sharing" that allows a Jewish state to exist anywhere in the
Middle East, then there would be peace.
My government decided that rewarding terrorists for violence would end
violence, and then told me that there was simply no alternative to
coddling terrorists and Islamofascists.
My government pursued peace by pretending that war did not exist. My
government sought peace through arming and bankrolling terrorists as
payoffs for a meaningless peace "accord". My government decided that
anti-Semitism can only be overcome by redressing the "underlying
grievances" that it reflects. My government fought terrorism by not
fighting it, and by trying to appease it. My government insisted that I
must coddle anti-Semites and terrorists, and must pander to their agenda
and desires for there is no other choice. My government over the past 12
years preached to me that it was my own pride and my parochial patriotism
that was the obstacle to peace. It told me I must seek peace through
self-abasement and self-humiliation. My government told me that if I would
show willingness to compromise, then so would the Arabs.
My government has been wrong about everything, but refuses to admit it has
been wrong about anything. My government decided that Palestinians are a
"nation" and that large chunks of my Jewish lands were in fact
"Palestinian lands". My government decided that Arabs may freely live any
place they wish anywhere in the land of Israel, but I may not live freely
where I might choose if it happens to be across the pre-1967 "Green Line"
border. My government instituted discrimination against me and against
other Jews in the name of "affirmative action", quotas and preferences for
Arabs and directed against me.
My government fought for my survival through cowardice and endless
"restraint", turning my other cheek against my will, pursuing endless
"goodwill gestures", which only enflamed the violence. It did so despite
the fact that I and my fellow Israeli citizens voted repeatedly to revoke
the "Oslo approach" and voted in favor of pursuing war against our
enemies, not appeasement. My government abandoned all of northern Israel
to the mercies of the Hizbollah rockets when it withdrew under fire from
its security zone in southern Lebanon, rockets now aimed at me in the
thousands. My government abandoned the Jewish towns near the Gaza Strip to
rocket barrages from the PLO.
I have spent the past 12 years cringing in shame. My government made me
feel that way. But I have NEVER felt as ashamed at being an Israeli as I
did this week, when my government decided to reward the Hizbollah for
murdering three of my fellow citizens in cold blood. My government also
abandoned Ron Arad, the seventeen-year long-missing Israeli navigator MIA,
releasing his kidnapper, a Lebanese terrorist being held in Israeli prison
as a bargaining chip for Arad's release, and rewarding the terrorists who
originally kidnapped Arad when his plane crashed, who then "sold" him to
Iran and possibly murdered him.
My government decided to release nearly 450 murderers with blood on their
hands in order to "buy" the release of the carcasses of three of my fellow
citizens who were murdered by the Hizbollah after they had been kidnapped
by it in a border incursion. My government had abandoned southern Lebanon
to the Hizbollah and assured me there would be complete tranquility
thereafter. After the farcical Israeli "withdrawal" ordered by my
government, the Hizbollah has fired almost daily into Israel, has sent in
terrorists who murdered Israeli civilians, and snatched the three soldiers
(two Jews and one Bedouin Arab) whose bodies were released this week,
after murdering them in cold blood.
Last week the Hizbollah murdered one more army officer working a bulldozer
near the border; in response my government punished some empty Hizbollah
buildings in southern Lebanon. This week's prisoner "deal" was made
possible only because my government refuses to execute the murderers, the
terrorists. My government thinks capital punishment is inhumane, and its
absence has made possible the murders of 1300 of my fellow countrymen.
That is like twenty two September 11ths, when measured proportional to
population.
The Hizbollah also held as prisoner a man who had entered Lebanon
apparently for criminal purposes, possibly a drug deal to pay off his
gambling debts. I opposed releasing any terrorists to get him released. I
might have considered agreeing to release a handful as payment to the
Hizbollah to keep him imprisoned there, if he is indeed a drug smuggler.
My government decided to respond to the murders of the three POWs by
rewarding their murderers, not by converting three Hizbollah towns into
large parking lots, not by bathing the Hizbollah leaders in napalm. My
government signaled to all my fellow citizens that it was unwilling to
avenge our deaths. My government let every Israeli soldier know that his
life would be worthless if captured by the enemy because my government
would always seek "deals" with those who murder POWs. My government made
it known that by grabbing some Israelis as hostages, anyone could obtain
any concession they want from my country. My government also let every
soldier know that, if captured in war, he would be abandoned to his fate
by my government. My government agreed to this "deal" with the Hizbollah,
a deal that spit on the family of missing Israeli airman Ron Arad.
The man who kidnapped and "sold" Arad has been released by my government
as payment for the release of the common criminal. My government is trying
to cover its shame by boasting that it "held out tough" and refused to
release a baby-murdering terrorist named Samir Kuntar, the man who
murdered three members of a northern Israeli family several years ago. My
same government boasts that it would have released this arch-murderer had
the Hizbollah so much as told Israel where Ron Arad (or his grave) is.
So much for "standing tough".
My government is a disgrace. My government practices cowardice and
pretends it is courage. My government displays indifference to the
Israelis who will now be murdered by those released terrorists and
murderers. My government had the gall to pretend it was acting out of
compassion and morality when it signed this capitulation, when it placed
that smirk on the face of the Hizbollah chief terrorist, boasting of his
victory. To drive home the point that the "deal" proves to the world that
the Jews are on the run, the terrorists blew up a bus in Jerusalem even
while the prisoner exchange was being carried out, the same Jerusalem they
pretend is holy to them, as part of celebrating the stampede of Jewish
flight. After all, the Hizbollah was being rewarded for terror, so why
should not the Palestinians follow their lead in obtaining Israeli
surrender?
The bus atrocity in Jerusalem was carried out by the "Al Aqsa Martyrs
Brigades," a PLO terror group under the direct command and control of
Yassir Arafat.
My government pretended it was suddenly acting out of Jewish ethical
values. My government would not know a Jewish ethical value if it popped
up in its face. My government pretends there is a "Part B" to this
capitulation, in which information about Ron Arad will be released. I do
not believe them. I think my government is lying to window-dress this act
of cowardice.
As I watch the victory smile on the mug of the Hizbollah Chief Terrorist,
my own government makes me cringe. My government makes me ashamed of being
an Israeli.
(To read how others see the "deal", see
http://israelnn.com/news.php3?id=56739
and http://israelnn.com/news.php3?id=56728)
2. A minor victory:
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/Flash.aspx/149117
Note how many yea
