Samir Qantar -- Hailed A Hero

Samir Qantar (pictured) was Lebanon's longest serving prisoner incarcerated in Israel. Qantar was the biggest beneficiary of a prisoner swap and the exchange of remains that has been recently completed. Samir Qantar was a young 17-year-old when he was sentenced to five life terms for committing triple murder. One of Qantar's victims was a 4-year-old child.

As I have posted previously there is no excuse for the killing of a child. This does not change when the killer is a 17-year-old youth. At 17 you already know the difference between right and wrong and you would know that killing a 4-year-old is wrong.

Qantar has returned home to Aabey, southeast of Beirut, to a hero's welcome. It would seem that Qantar's political passion and love of the struggle has not dwindled after almost 29 years in prison. In fact Qantar remains proud and has no regrets or remorse for his actions and said the following, "I feel enormous joy because I have returned to the ranks of the resistance and to my family." Not missing a beat it seems his first change of clothes was to don a Hezbollah military uniform.

Qantar is being hailed as a hero whenever his name is mentioned, Lebanese are sacrificing lambs in his honour,and people are claiming that "Samir Kantar is the son of all the Lebanese".

It is a strange move on Hezbollah's part to be quite so vocal in claiming victory and Qantar being so vocal in his pride with respect to killing a child. My guess is that Qantar will be killed in a pre-emptive missile attack or some other military strike or assassinated in some other manner.

I watched the film "Munich" recently. I suspect that as most films do some liberties were taken with the story to make it into a movie script. However, even if a smidgeon of it is true then Qantar must be wary of what is coming his way. There will definitely be no peace for Qantar and he will not grow old while he is being stalked by Mossad. Sooner or later the game will be up. He might have in fact been safer in an Israeli prison.

I reiterate, child killers like Qantar are not heroes. It makes no difference whether he committed this crime as a 16, 17, or 30 year old. There is no honour in killing children and the murder of children must not be what the resistance is about!

The Israel -- Hezbollah Prisoner Swap is Underway

Hezbollah really needs to spend some money and recruit some good public relations people, as they simple have absolutely no idea on how to handle a significant event! In an earlier post I alluded to the cruelty of playing up the possibility that the two Israeli soldiers, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, that Hezbollah was required to hand over under the deal, were alive. The reality, as most people expected, was finally confirmed today.

Hezbollah handed over two black coffins today to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). The ICRC then drove the coffins into Israel. The remains were confirmed to be those of Goldwasser and Regev (photo by Issam Kobeisy / Reuters).

The second reason Hezbollah needs some PR people is this statement by one Mr. Safa who was operating as the spokesperson for Hezbollah, "We are now handing over the two imprisoned Israeli soldiers, who were captured by the Islamic resistance on July 12, 2006, to the ICRC." He then went on with this, "The Israeli side will now hand over the great Arab mujahid (holy warrior) ... Samir Qantar and his companions to the ICRC." I am using PR people here in the manner that most organizations would use them for crisis or message management.

There is nothing holy about Samir Qantar. Qantar is a cold-blooded child killer, plain and simple. His release is sure to leave a bitter taste in the mouths of many Israelis. To rub salt into this wound Hezbollah has a wide range of festivities planned to celebrate the release. There should be little doubting why some countries want to classify Hezbollah as a terrorist organization when you celebrate child killers as holy warriors or mujahideen. Any legitimacy that an organization might have had is lost when it glorifies child killers.

I wonder who is getting the best deal in all this prisoner swapping and the returning of remains?