Posted on 07/16/2008 1:02:22 AM PDT by edpc
Two years after Israeli reservists Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev were abducted by Hezbollah guerillas in a cross-border raid, coffins said to contain their bodies were taken to the Lebanese side of its border with Israel as part of a prisoner exchange to bring them home.
The swap, overwhelmingly approved Tuesday by the cabinet, began at around 9 A.M. Wednesday at the Rosh Hanikra crossing, under the auspices of the International Red Cross Committee.
A convoy carrying the bodies of the two Israelis reached the Rosh Hanikra crossing on the Lebanese side of the border at about 8:30 A.M., where they were transferred to Red Cross monitors, beginning the first stage of the swap.
Israel also handed over to the Red Cross photographs and documents for preliminary identification of Regev and Goldwasser. Hezbollah, meanwhile, handed the ICRC letters on the condition of the two soldiers.
About 40 minutes after implementation of the deal began, the two coffins were taken to the border crossing.
Israel had moved the five Lebanese prisoners included in the exchange to the Liman military base near the Lebanese border before dawn on Wednesday, where they were to wait pending forensic identification of the two hostages.
Along with four Hezbollah guerillas seized during the 2006 conflict, Israel will also return Samir Kuntar, who has been in an Israeli jail since 1979 for the deaths of four Israelis, including Danny Haran and his four-year-old daughter Einat.
(Excerpt) Read more at haaretz.com ...
Later Tuesday, the Lebanese government announced that Wednesday will be a national holiday to celebrate the "liberation of prisoners from the jails of the Israeli enemy and the return of the remains of martyrs."
"Your are like brothers to me. You rose swifter than eagles and yet you were cut down, HaShem's annointed ones. May He comfort you all the days of your life and may you dwell in His High Place forever. As for your enemies, may our G-d make a swift end of them and may their memory be blotted out from under Heaven and for the evil that was done to you - my beloved brothers, dearest Ehud and Eldad - may their name be wiped out from remembrance among men and may G-d avenge your blood speedily - but you, the sons of Israel, will live on the hearts of all those who love you forever."
In fact, the PA has already said this emboldens them to kidnap Israeli soldiers, and even if they are killed, they will get what they want from Israel. This deal proves it. Olmert is a traitor to Israel. He is digging Israel’s grave. And he is not finished, just wait, you will see shortly.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
I just saw the video of this on the BBC. Hezbollah has declard it a victory, and I have to agree with them.
Exchanging live prisoners for dead. I don’t think that is a good trade.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Israel needs to start releasing every terrorist it holds now—also in coffins.
The fact is Hezbollah could not get away with its depraved atrocities if not for the unstinting support of a large segment of the global media. In some cases, this is indirect, through the usual devices of propaganda and advertising such as selective emphasis, invited inference, and false equivalence.
Others, especially in the UK, are quite open in their love for the demonic cult, praising Hezbollah to the rafters and revelling in its license to commit one barbarous atrocity after another.
This must end.
The Israeli government, and Israel’s friends throughout the world, must understand that there is no point in trying to appease the establishment media. The media are not with the enemy, they ARE the enemy.
I propose the following:
All pro-Hezbollah media to be expelled from Israel at once, the determination of pro-Hezbollah status to be made by a special commission of experts in rhetoric, forensics, and communications theory.
Any assets of pro-Hezbollah media or their principals within Israeli reach to be confiscated and the proceeds distributed to the families of Hezbollah’s victims.
Open Hezbollah propagandists such as Fisk, Pilger and Raven to be arrested if possible and tried under the Julius Streicher precedent.
All Hezbollah and Palestinian prisoners lawfully convicted of murder to be executed immediately, and their remains repatriated in the same condition as the those of Israelis murdered by Hezbollah.
If the Israelis don’t return Kumar in a coffin, you can take it to the bank that they have lost the will to live.
This is sick.
Pray for Israel.
If the U.S. used Olmert’s logic, people like Gacy and Dahmer would walk scott-free in exchange for revealing the locations of people they murdered.
Please let me make a small change:
They should have placed the Hezbollah prisoners in their coffins right SEVERAL MONTHS before the exchange to make the swap even.
If they died inside those coffins, Israel would simply say, "We had no idea it was going to take so long". It would be at least as sincere as Hezbolla's cruel vagueness which has allowed the families to hold out hope for more than 2 years.
Of course, we all know the condemnation that would reign down on Israel for doing the same thing the Hezzies have done.
Absolutely disgusting. One of the most shameful episodes in Israel’s history. If those were my son’s remains I would rather they be thrown into the sea then traded for the life of a single terrorist.
Amen and right on, goldstategop!
Well, Israel’s enemies certainly have no incentive to treat captured Israeli soldiers humanely, or even to keep them alive. When you can get many live prisoners for two murdered soldiers...
I guess Israel did not even require that they be told whether the soldiers were dead or alive before the swap was made?
The Israelies should kill the 5 prisoners and hand them over in coffins.
Mark
High Volume. Articles on Israel can also be found by clicking on the Topic or Keyword Israel. or WOT [War on Terror]
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