That Was THe Week That Was - Coercion

I was away this past week I barely had any internet access, the week however was filled with disgrace!

Israel, has shown a new facet to the world… This is how the German perceived it according to Spiegel OnLine (H/T: IMRA):

The center-left daily Suddeutsche Zeitung writes:

“The macabre Israeli-Lebanese deal, which saw living Lebanese prisoners being swapped for the bodies of Israeli soldiers, is a major success for the Shiite militia.. The prisoner exchange shows who really has the power in Lebanon and who can force archenemy Israel to make concessions: It is Hezbollah, it is Nasrallah. That elevates the radicals’ image in Lebanon, inthe Arab world and in the Muslim world.”

“Nasrallah and his militia were able to achieve everything that the Lebanese government would never have been able to accomplish. Israel cannot be pleased by this state of affairs. After all, Hezbollah is not just a dangerous and unpredictable enemy on the Israeli-Lebanese border. Rather the group is also allied with Iran, another enemy of Israel.”

“The spectacular prisoner exchange only makes sense for Israel if it was part of a larger deal being negotiated behind the scenes to solve the Middle East conflict. If, for example, the deal was a decisive move in Israel’s preliminary peace talks with Syria; if Iran was thus put at risk of losing
its allies in Damascus; and if Hezbollah approves of such a development. Then the macabre back-and-forth of the coffins and prisoners would be an indication that the situation is fundamentally changing. That, though, is not guaranteed.”

The conservative daily Die Welt writes:

“That Hezbollah is celebrating the macabre deal as a triumph is understandable — but it is also psychopathic. It shows that human suffering doesn’t count in the fight against Israel and that murder pays. In such an atmosphere, how can one hope for peace — and for the trust necessary for an
agreement? Hezbollah uses the fight against Israel to gain power in Lebanon, with the approval of both Syria and Iran. At the same time, Hezbollah hopes to gain international standing through its deal with Israel.”

“The problem is not just that the unequal prisoner swap allows Hezbollah to fudge its designation as a terror group by becoming a recognized party to a war. Rather, it means that terror, kidnapping and murder can be profitable. This situation weakens the Israeli deterrent, rewards abductions and provides imprisoned terrorists with the hope that they might soon be freed.”

The business daily Financial Times Deutschland writes:

“When it comes to prisoner exchanges, there was one aspect that was always seen as non-negotiable by the Israeli government: Israel never frees a terrorist who has blood on his hands, no matter what is being offered in return. A country under threat like Israel cannot get around upholding this convention. Nevertheless, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has now abandoned this principle by freeing a prominent terrorist in order to secure the remains of the two Israeli soldiers captured by Hezbollah. What the prime minister wants to present as a triumph of negotiation, is in truth a sign of weakness: Israel can be blackmailed, kidnappings are worthwhile.”

“If Olmert, who is facing mounting domestic difficulties resulting from ongoing corruption investigations, had expected applause for this prisoner swap, he was wrong. Instead, it is Israel’s enemies who are celebrating.”

The left-leaning daily Die Tageszeitung writes:

“The image of a country that will do anything to bring its soldiers home, dead or alive, has been restored. That is vital for the morale of Israel’s army, because who would like to be sent to fight in a foreign country if there was a risk that he or she would be forgotten there? Nevertheless, the unequal trade has made Israel more vulnerable. The government in Jerusalem has shown that it can be coerced.”

“The only way to reduce the dangers for those soldiers currently stationed on Israel’s northern border is settling the conflict over the Shebaa Farms, that disputed area of land at the point where Syria, Lebanon and Israel meet. As long as the Islamic extremists find a reason to fight against Israel, it is only a matter of time until the next soldier is abducted there.”

Spiegel OnLine also says:

Israel managed to bring two of its soldiers home on Wednesday. But even still, praise for the prisoner exchange with Hezbollah has been scant. Israel, say German commentators, has allowed itself to be blackmailed.

Israel’s government of weaklings with little or no understanding of reality is more concerned with being perceived as the nice guys. PM Allmerde hoped for applausae at his “courageous” action. The imbecile should have long resigned not only is a corrupt politician of the worst kind, his lack of moral, emotional and intellectual integrity is disgustingly showing. Allmerde wants more than anything to stay of jail and his performance shows his utter contempt for the country he’s is supposed to run. UN Resolution 1701 mandated an unequivocal, no strings attached, unconditional return of kidnapped Goldwasser and Regev. In fact, the return of the soldiers was the very reason Israel went to war with Hizbullah in the Summer of ‘06…

It takes a strong negotiator, a smart, streetwise politician to get what he or she knows is really right and fair. Israel has shown itself severely lacking the moral backbone to pursue that which is hers. Instead it took two additional years and the return of 199 bodies and four murderers - one particularly brutal live monster - to accomplish that which the UN had already given them.

On the afternoon of the same day that Israel sent five Lebanese militants — the brutal murderer of a four-year-old Israeli girl among them — and the bodies of 199 Arab fighters to Lebanon in exchange for the bodies of two Israeli soldiers, many slammed the deal for encouraging hostage taking.

“What we’ve done now has made kidnapping soldiers the most profitable game in town,” Martin Sherman, an Israeli security expert, told the Associated Press on Wednesday. “There is absolutely no reason why Hezbollah should not invest huge resources now, along with Hamas, in the next kidnapping.”

The two dead soldiers Israel received in the exchange, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, were captured by Hezbollah militants in July 2006 near Israel’s northern border with Lebanon. The raid touched off a month-long war which saw Israel advance into southern Lebanon in an attempt to clear Hezbollah out of the region. The war, by all estimations, was a failure.

Many are particularly skeptical of Israel’s Wednesday release of Samir Kantar, who was serving three life terms for killing an Israeli man in front of his four-year-old daughter before bludgeoning her to death with his rifle butt. The release violates the long-held principle in Israel of not releasing any prisoners who have blood on their hands — a high price to pay, say many, for two soldiers who many had assumed were dead before the swap took place.

“This is a very dangerous precedent,” Yuval Steinitz, an Israeli parliamentarian from the Likud Party, told the AP. “We are telling them that they don’t have to do their utmost to keep captive soldiers alive, to save them if captured.”

The new and obvious reality is that Israel has in fact rewarded and strengthened Hizbullah. While some in Lebanon refuse to cheer for Samir Kuntar, since they perceive him as nothing more than the ruthless murderer he truly is. There is nothing heroic about killing an unarmed father and bludgeoning his 4 year old daughter to death with a rifle butt, after she witnessed her father savagely assassinated. And yet, Kuntar returned mostly as a hero, as someone worthy of admiration rather than contempt. I do not blame Hizbullah on this as much as I blame Allmerde and his entourage.

How does this lopsided deal in any way contribute to Israel’s security? What incentive does Hamas now have for keeping Giolad Shalit alive? Who is to stop Hizbullah and Hamas from kidnapping further Israelis, murdering them and extracting ever higher ransoms?!?!?!? Hizbullah has now emerged more arrogant, emboldened, ans a greater threat than ever to both Israel and Lebanon’s sovereignty.  Finally I have one vital, puzzling, question still unanswered… where are the members of the opposition in the Knesset, have they also no moral or intellectual integrity? Have they surgically appended their Knesset seats to their malodorous rears? Where, oh where are the likes of Golda Meir or Menachem Begin when you need at least one man, in the Knesset.

Hezballah’s Definition of Victory

Chaim

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