Israel mourns the deaths of Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, and cries for the Goldwasser and Regev families. Regular citizens are slowly making their way to the homes of the families, gathering quietly and lighting memorial candles. I sit at my desk, unable to concentrate, feeling a mixture of sadness and relief. At least the waiting is over, waiting and not knowing for more than two years, up until the very last moment. At times, Israeli leaders may not be the most moral in the world, but the exquisite, perverse delight that Hassan Nasrallah and Hezbollah derive from making us suffer, from going to such lengths to make the families of the kidnapped soldiers suffer, is simply beyond any level of immorality that I can comprehend.
To bring these men home, Israel has paid a high price – the release of Samir Kuntar. In Lebanon, celebrations are planned, and Kuntar will return a hero. Children are shown, proudly holding his picture high, smiling, singing. Do they know? Do these children know that they are celebrating a man who murdered a child, a little girl whose father was shot right in front of her, so it would be the last thing she ever saw, and who was then killed when Kuntar used the butt of his rifle to smash her head against a rock? This is the “hero” they welcome with open arms, a man who brutally took the lives of a young father and his four year-old daughter. Violence under any circumstance is disturbing, but it takes a special kind of barbaric depravity to smash the head of a small child against a rock and show no remorse afterwards. This, my friends, is the man who will feted upon his return, and it speaks volumes about his supporters in Lebanon, and indeed, about the Lebanese government for allowing it to happen.
My sadness is for the Goldwassers, the Regevs, and the entire state of Israel, but I pity the regular Lebanese citizens, who are losing their country to an organization that thrives on torture and death and celebrates the “heroes” who murder little girls – all in the name of Islam.
Such a sad day. Sigh.
I am pretty sure the Lebanese supporters of Kuntar have their own version to all of this. Still, I agree with you entirely. They would have to believe a totally different version of what happened that night to be able to celebrate his return. I truly hope they don’t know what really happened, because to know and still to celebrate is beyond my comprehension.
I’ve watched this from the US and worried about those boys. Now this. It’s a dreadful pass and I can’t presume to say I know of some way to make it better. The madness just seems to extend itself in the nuttiest and least sensible ways. Religion as an excuse for violence is so absurd. It’s like calling “up” “down” and believing it.
I hope for the world’s sake we can find some method of resolution for Israel and her neighbors. Heartfelt statements like your own and IsraeliMom’s go a long way to letting us see the emotions of Israeli’s as all this comes down around us. It is the world’s problem, not just your own. Know there are others who want nothing but peace for your children.
There are no words. Just heartbreaking.
I honestly don’t think the Lebanese are thinking of Kuntar in the same terms we are. They’re probably going on the ‘man spent 3 decades in jail == must have pissed off the Israelis big time == hero”. The details of the attack, clearly, must have been blurred over.