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Terrorism

Lebanese butcher up for release?


By Stan Goodenough
January 07, 2007

Israeli newspapers were worrying Sunday morning whether one of the most notorious prisoners in Israeli jails is being considered for release in a prisoner exchange.

The concerns arose after reports were circulated that the Lebanese Hizb’allah was promising the family of Samir Kuntar that they would soon be reunited with the man who is serving multiple life sentences for a murderous spree of terrorism in 1979.

On April 22 of that year Kuntar, a Druze, led a group of Palestine Liberation Front members via the Mediterranean Sea into the Israeli town of Nahariya. After killing two policemen, he took 28-year-old Danny Haran and his four-year-old daughter Einat hostage, then brutally killed them both.

Haran’s terrified wife, hiding with the couple’s other daughter, two-year-old Yael, tragically smothered the little girl to death in an effort to keep her from crying out.

Kuntar was given four life sentences. Now Israel’s government, which has been trying to work out a deal for the return of the two Israeli soldiers Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser, who were kidnapped by Hizb’allah last July, are contemplating setting him free.

Suspicions are that in exchange for the release of these two men (whose physical condition is unknown) as well as information on the long-missing IAF navigator Ron Arad, Israel will let Kuntar go.

At the same time, reports have been circulating of the Olmert government’s willingness to release as many as 1,000 “Palestinian” prisoners in exchange for Gilad Shalit, another soldier kidnapped by Hamas six months ago.

As much as they feel for the families of the abducted soldiers, many in Israel believe that agreeing to such prisoner releases will only encourage more kidnappings.

The tactic has proven extremely profitable for terrorist gangs like Hizb’allah, Fatah and the Hamas, as it has encouraged even more killers to join their ranks while portraying Israel as a weak and spineless nation.

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