Prisoner swap revives debate in Israel over Lebanon war

An exchange of bodies and prisoners between Israel and Hezbollah on Wednesday put on stark display the Middle East's bitter divisions: a mournful welcome for two fallen soldiers returned to Israel in coffins ...

[Riz]

Why didn't they send the murderer back in a coffin as well? Now that would have been fair.

[Scott]

Who is gonna mourn about all those Israel killed in Lebanon,Palestine and elsewhere.Blood of innocent never fall to the ground but stay on killers hands.

[Reason]

These seem to be the only deals Israel can make with the "Palestinians". Probably has Israelis for peace smiling along with the "Palestinians".

[Sue]

This is just so sick.An exchange of
dead soldiers for murderers.

[Mark]

--Exchange boosts Hezbollah; critics say it could encourage more hostage-taking-- Israel didn't even get back the young man taken 2 years ago. Israel is now setting up for mass kidnapping of its people so the Hezbollah can get back the other 10,000 stil held by Israel. I thought Israel was more clever, but guess not; They released the worst of the worst, really not getting a fair trade.

[Albert Fournier]

Findings of the last war in Lebanon.
Following the last war in Lebanon, Israel will have to draw certain major lessons to ensure its long-term strategic survival. What is needed now, immediately and urgently, are thoughtful and coherent guidelines concerning national defense, deterrence, targeting and even preemption (anticipatory self-defense). It is no longer adequate for Israel (more or less capably) to merely stumble from one war to the next without an appropriate “master plan” for direction. Armed with such a framework of expanded conceptual understanding, the Jewish state could quickly begin to deduce pertinent tactics and policy options to match particular situations and crises. In the near-term, of course, the need of both nuclear war avoidance and counter-WMD terrorism. The war against Hizbullah does not concern Israel only, as explained at: http://israelagainstterror.blogspot.com/2008/...

[guadalcanal diary]

Hezbollah= death worshipping fanatics...these people are why we make bullets.

[greg_allen]

the israeli soldiers were captured during an act of aggression on lebanese soil.

[rkr]

Today is one of the saddest and most discouraging days in the world. The reason is that the terrorists had their way again. Yes, I am talking about the return of two coffins by Hizbullah, after they teased and tortured the families to the very end. Only hours before the beginning of the 'exchange' took place, the barbarian Nasrallah still said that one of the boys is not alive, and he left the families guessing. What did he ask in return for the two coffins? He demanded the return of some prisoners, especially the notorious Samir Kuntar, who murdered a little girl, by tossing her head against a rock, and killing her father, and at the same time the younger child was also killed, along with someone else. It was as cold-blooded, premeditated as anything that was every carried out. The courts sentence this monster to several life imprisonments, without a chance of parole.
Well, here we are; this same Kuntar is being returned to a huge celebration in Lebanon -- a hero's welcome, for the world to see what we have to cope with.
We saw them carrying two black coffins through the border between Lebanon and Israel. The usual Red Cross person stook by, cool and relaxed. The Red Cross has never helped anyone on the other side, they are totally taken in by the lies and torture carried out by terrorism. The UNIFIL watch dog (United Nations International Force in Lebanon) isn't watching, and as weapons slide through the borders of Lebanon, via Syria and Iran, they are busy looking the other way. But the world cares little about us here in Israel, surrounded by enemies of the worst kind, and there are always excuses how they suffer in Lebanon, how many people were killed, about the damage of the 2006 Lebanon II war. The same thing happened here in Israel. We sat in shelters, heard the missiles and saw the damage, but then, since we have nothing of interest to the world, who cares?
We can see the trucks from where we live, containing the returning fallen Lebanese, taking them back, along with 5 healthy and alive terrorists, giving the world another reason to celebrate.
Where is the decency of the world?
One good thing that came out of this sad day, was to see "Deleted by moderator" on a Talk Back. Where has the moderator been, when so many hate talkbacks come through in the papers.
Today is a terrible day for the families, the country, and the world. We finally see what kind of barbarians without conscience, we have to cope with. The world ignores all this, just to remain on the right side of them. The families have suffered terribly, and continue to suffer, because Nasrallah tortured them,(with a smile), giving them some hope, until the last minute. When I saw the two coffins lifted out of the border,and the cool face of the Red Cross official standing there, obviously knowing what was about to happen, I lost all my strength. The Red Cross never helped, they never will, and they knew darn well what is going on. But they and the UNIFIL proved themselves totally indifferent -- again. How is it that Kuntar, the worst of all killers, is being exchanged for two dead boys, who were kidnapped??
They showed the celebrations and the hero's welcome to a cold-blood killer, now happily one of Hizbulla, thanks to this bad exchange.

[greg_allen]

stop whining. they were enemy combatants caught during an act of aggression infiltrating enemy soil.

[shai]

greg_allen wrote:

the israeli soldiers were captured during an act of aggression on lebanese soil.

you have no idea what you are writing,

the Israely soldiers were captured during duty of keeping the boarder of Israel and Lebanon,
A regular patrol on the fense.

[rezasantorini]

shai wrote:

<quoted text>
you have no idea what you are writing,
the Israely soldiers were captured during duty of keeping the boarder of Israel and Lebanon, A regular patrol on the fense.

Please keep this truth in front of the world's eyes...with so few able to sort through the enormous Muslim propaganda truth is often obliterated.
There are so few Jews in this world and so many Muslims...it is often difficult to hear the truth...

Millions of Jews versus BILLIONS of OIL RICH Muslims.

[Sharon]

Please don't take Greg Allen's words for the truth. The war was started when Hizbullah soldiers crossed the border into Israel, murdered some soldiers and kidnapped the 2 that were returned yesterday.

What a sad day for Israel and decent people everywhere. Israel should have killed Kuntar 30 years ago- or at least yesterday, before he was returned to a hero's welcome.

I never realized the Lebanese people were so amoral and blackhearted: celebrating the return of a child-killer who is not at all sorry for what he did.

[rkr- Northern Israel]

I just watched the two funerals of the boys who were exchanged for the horrific murderer Kuntar. It's a sad and bad world, as I see, that there are still talk backs who are happy about this. The two soldiers were kidnapped on our side of the border, killed immediately, and then Hizbulla and the Lebanese, Red Cross and UN, did nothing to let the families know until yesterday, playing games with the world and then 'dumping' two black coffins on our side of the border, followed by remarks from Nasrallah that he kept his word and returned the boys. No one is whining, war is war, but brutality matter.

[Confused]

Prisoners for bodies ???

That doesn't sound like a good deal. Israel got shafted.

[melodylane]

Confused wrote:

Prisoners for bodies ???
That doesn't sound like a good deal. Israel got shafted.

Nope, I don't think it was a good idea for Israel lived up to its promise to its people...it protected them as they did in the war. Less Israelis were killed because they protected them from enemy shelling by building shelters for them (all regardless of religion), not hiding behind civilians, having medical resources available all over the country (even in the shelters and in the end keeping the promise to get their soldiers back. Additionally, they have more prisoners because they keep them alive and care for them...feed and educate them and treat them humanely. Even give their families stipends.

Hezbollah, another name for Muslims,
even committed other crimes like boarding a ship and killing Americans trying to gain freedom for this Samir
person...remember the swinging of the man in the wheel chair aboard the Achilles Lauro. Terrorists by any name are terrorists...and Islam has many.

[Jabadini]

greg_allen wrote:

the israeli soldiers were captured during an act of aggression on lebanese soil.

This is just misinformation they were on the Israeli side of the border at the time of attack.
Even in a case where they were not Hizballah launched numerous attacks from 2000 until the kidnapping and Israel did not retaliate until this time.

[Realist]

This whole deal is a result of international pressure for Israel to engage in "confidence building measures" (which means Israel makes some dangerous sacrifice), what I don't understand is why similar pressure is never brought to bear upon the Arab community (whose "sacrifice" would involve no danger to their lives) to help build Israeli confidence that the are not under threat of destruction?

[mzmarlena]

I just read some news reports from the day of the Lebanese-Israeli War. It clearly states that the war started when Hezbollah kidnapped 2 Israeli soldiers and this was verified by Hezbollah leaders who were bragging that they knew of Israeli movement because of their superior spy system. They were bragging about everything but complaining throughout the war about Israel killing too many and that was unfair.

Hmmm.

[Mark Griffith]

For those of you still unsure that Israel is fighting the modern Nazis, here is a picture of Kuntar at yesterday's Muslim Nazi celebrations:

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite...