This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/3543

Release Of Samir Kuntar By Israel Emblematic Of West's Moral Weakness

July 21, 2008

Release Of Samir Kuntar By Israel Emblematic Of West's Moral Weakness

By WILLIAM MAYER and BEILA RABINOWITZ

July 21, 2008 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - Though distressing, Israel's decision last week to exchange five Hezbollah terrorists - including child killer Samir Kuntar - for the bodies of two IDF soldiers should not be surprising; in large part it merely reflects the degree to which the West seems incapable of making decisions that grate against the prevailing atmosphere of appeasement.

Of course Israel is by far not the only country which is acting against its self-interest in the region, the United States, especially the Bush State Department is merrily prancing down the same path, to the applause of such tarnished authorities as the New York Times:

"The United States, Israel and some of their European allies have begun to recognize that their policy of trying to defeat their enemies by isolating and vilifying them has failed." [source, Talks Signal Mideast Shift, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/18/world/middleeast/18mideast.html?em&ex=1216526400&en=ece048de73db0472&ei=5087%0A]

The cause for the Times' joy, is the recent dispatch of numerous State Department types who are feverishly scurrying around the Mideast, offering the ageless - and appealing to this feminized generation - the promise of progress without pain, peace without conflict.

In a world where appearances trump substance, the release of Samir Kuntar as a part of this deal is especially troubling, as these writers cautioned in Release Of Child Murderer Samir Kuntar By Israelis Would Be An Insane Appeasement:

The release of child murderer Samir Kuntar under any conditions by the Israeli government would be such a monstrous act as to defy description. Not only would it result in Kuntar escaping justice, but it would immediately place him back in the terror business, searching for other little Einat Shahars to sadistically murder.

Moreover it would define the Israeli government as an assembly of cowardly, frightened lambs whose appeasement and capitulation would only help pave the way to the slaughterhouse which the Islamic jihad has prepared, and from which no amount of kicking and braying can prevent.

Now that the release is fact and Kuntar and his fellow terrorists have been welcomed back to thunderous acclaim in Lebanon, it is being suggested that Kuntar will eventually be hunted down by the Israelis and destroyed ala Sheik Yassin.

Even if this occurs a terrible precedent has been set in this matter.

Rather than proving to the world, and especially the Islamic part of the world, that Israel is beneficent, reasonable and desires peace, it will embolden the numerous enemies of the Jewish state and absolutely ensure that in future conflicts even more IDF soldiers will meet the same fate of reservists Regev and Goldwasser. http://www.pipelinenews.org/index.cfm?page=kuntarid7.22.08%2Ehtm

This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/3543