The Face of Evil, Indeed
Commenter Mike K. reminds us of the crimes of Samir Kuntar:
It had been a peaceful Sabbath day. My husband, Danny, and I had picnicked with our little girls, Einat, 4, and Yael, 2, on the beach not far from our home in Nahariya, a city on the northern coast of Israel, about six miles south of the Lebanese border. Around midnight, we were asleep in our apartment when four terrorists, sent by Abu Abbas from Lebanon, landed in a rubber boat on the beach two blocks away. Gunfire and exploding grenades awakened us as the terrorists burst into our building. They had already killed a police officer. As they charged up to the floor above ours, I opened the door to our apartment. In the moment before the hall light went off, they turned and saw me. As they moved on, our neighbor from the upper floor came running down the stairs. I grabbed her and pushed her inside our apartment and slammed the door.
Outside, we could hear the men storming about. Desperately, we sought to hide. Danny helped our neighbor climb into a crawl space above our bedroom; I went in behind her with Yael in my arms. Then Danny grabbed Einat and was dashing out the front door to take refuge in an underground shelter when the terrorists came crashing into our flat. They held Danny and Einat while they searched for me and Yael, knowing there were more people in the apartment. I will never forget the joy and the hatred in their voices as they swaggered about hunting for us, firing their guns and throwing grenades. I knew that if Yael cried out, the terrorists would toss a grenade into the crawl space and we would be killed. So I kept my hand over her mouth, hoping she could breathe. As I lay there, I remembered my mother telling me how she had hidden from the Nazis during the Holocaust. “This is just like what happened to my mother,” I thought.
As police began to arrive, the terrorists took Danny and Einat down to the beach. There, according to eyewitnesses, one of them shot Danny in front of Einat so that his death would be the last sight she would ever see. Then he smashed my little girl’s skull in against a rock with his rifle butt. That terrorist was Samir Kuntar.
By the time we were rescued from the crawl space, hours later, Yael, too, was dead. In trying to save all our lives, I had smothered her.
Go to Mike K.’s post for a picture of Samir Kuntar, this evil, disgusting child-killer, being lauded by a group of Lebanese jackals.
Appalling.
Appalling is too light a description. Nazi is too obvious. Exactly what purpose was served keeping him alive?
Apogee (366e8b) — 7/22/2008 @ 12:32 amTell me again how W was wrong to challenge the world, “Either your with us, or you’re with them.”
Ed (59b337) — 7/22/2008 @ 2:02 amUnfortunately, Israel reserves its death penalty for war crimes and genocide (they’ve executed two people in 60 years); garden variety murderers, including the man who slayed Prime Minister Rabin, get sentenced to life. As for what purpose that serves, apparently it makes Israel look like a more just nation than those that surround it — all of whom have the death penalty for a variety of offenses, and do not hesitate to carry it out. Of course, as anyone who saw “Munich” (or its predecessor, the TV movie “Sword of Gideon”) knows, there are different ways to execute people.
Icy Truth (28d384) — 7/22/2008 @ 2:19 amI can’t for the life of me understand why Israel released this guy and the others in exchange for two dead bodies. Did they think they were getting live hostages?
Xrlq (62cad4) — 7/22/2008 @ 3:28 amI can’t for the life of me understand why Liberal Democrat so hate Israel that they look the other way concerning such criminals. I’m especially shocked at Jewish Democrats who are silent.
PCD (5c49b0) — 7/22/2008 @ 5:42 amThere are times when I think that we–as a civilization–should abandon the concept of cruel and unusual punishment. There exists a small percentage of people for whom no punishment, no matter how despicable or cruel, is severe enough. Samir Kuntar and his ilk are members of that group.
Fritz (61ba15) — 7/22/2008 @ 5:47 amAnd go to LGF for a picture of this evil, disgusting child killer being lauded by McClatchy’s Jerusalem bureau chief. Kickin’ it with Samir Kuntar.
Pablo (99243e) — 7/22/2008 @ 6:18 amPCD: Well said. I also do not understand how many “liberals” can look away from such evil and yet muster great outrage about the methods used to bring the perpetrators to justice. Mental illness is one possible explanation.
Old Coot (cb828a) — 7/22/2008 @ 6:39 amThere yet may be good out of this, Daniel Pipes says. While Kuntar was a prisoner, Israel had an obligation to guarantee his safety. With the release, that obligation is ended.
Bradley J Fikes (0ea407) — 7/22/2008 @ 6:41 amBy the time we were rescued from the crawl space, hours later, Yael, too, was dead. In trying to save all our lives, I had smothered her.
There’s your explanation. This lady smothered her child to save her own life. How can you blame the families of the dead soldiers for wanting their bodies back for proper burial at the expense of releasing terrorists?
When the Isrealis started building their country they were hard and their enemies were soft. Sixty years later, because of good living from the sacrifices of the first generation, they have become soft and their enemies have become harder because they do not have good living.
nk (a4be1f) — 7/22/2008 @ 7:03 amI see the problem in holding such killers, period. If they have any useful information, the time to extract the informantion should be the only delay to a swift, sure termination of such vermin.
One other thing, Israel doesn’t have “Cruel and Unusual” prohibitions in their law. In the US, Liberals have perverted the word “And” into the definition of the word “Or” in practice.
Punishment may be Cruel or it may be Unusual and be legal, but it may not be both.
PCD (5c49b0) — 7/22/2008 @ 7:31 amPerhaps the MSM will finally realize that the ME nutballs who pledge eternal destruction of Israel are not the fault of the evil Jooos, or the Neocons, or the Israeli lobby (pick your favorite acronym here) – but I’m not going to hold my breath. It’s always the Israelis who are supposed to turn the other cheek, while the scum of the earth are allowed to live in perpetuity. Arafat was only the most prominent example of this bizarre Kabuki.
Dmac (416471) — 7/22/2008 @ 8:09 amThis morning I was watching Obama’s press conference in Jordan. You could not hear the questions but, with one answer, he came within a moment of uttering the Palestinian creed. He said, as part of a long answer about how he would guarantee the security of Isreal, “but you have to consider the legitimate (pause, hesitation) difficulties of the Palestinian people.” The phase, when uttered by Arafat and others, uses “legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people.” Google that phrase and you get sites like this, which press for “right of return.” That is the deal-breaker in all negotiations and the reason why there is no peace in the middle east. It means the end of Israel and Obama almost said it. He is obviously comfortable with that phrase and only caught himself in time. He avoided a gaffe like that he made when he told AIPAC that he favored a united Jerusalem under Israeli control.
Mike K (2cf494) — 7/22/2008 @ 8:23 amPerhaps the more liberal folks of Jewish persuasion here can explain why they HATE America and yet don’t have a problem with these cowards in Israel and the murderers in the Arab countries? Isn’t what Olmert just did a worse crime against humanity than anything bush did?
martin (b332dd) — 7/22/2008 @ 8:41 amOn the positive side, this sort of vileness has forced some media liberals like Mitch Albom to admit that there really isn’t moral equivalence between the Mideast antagonists and that one side really is morally depraved and quasi-evil.
JVW (6a7c34) — 7/22/2008 @ 9:27 amYes, there’s nothing like quasi-evil to give one the absolute moral assurance that everything one does is perfect and without sin.
David Ehrenstein (85f463) — 7/22/2008 @ 10:11 amWow….Very, Very Powerful. Every reporter and editor at the NYT should be required to read this. Also, why not have all the Antique Media reporters and producers read it too. I have three small children and given the chance, these monsters would do the same thing to them if they could. How can anyone be on the side of these monsters? Kill them. Kill them now. Kill them all. It’s time we got midieval and Machiavellian on these nutjobs before it’s too late. How would you like to have this guy get his hands on a nuke device courtesy of Iran. Bomb them back to the ****ing stone ages, they are monsters who would soon as kill you as look at you, yes you! We either let them kill us all, or kill them first. Sorry, but that is reality.
J. Raymond Wright (d83ab3) — 7/22/2008 @ 11:53 amShe accidentally smothered her own child to save the lives of the child, herself, and her neighbor. I am disgusted at your inhuman attempt to assign blame to this poor grieving mother.
bonhomme (d737be) — 7/22/2008 @ 12:53 pmadditionally , after generations of people exhorting Israel and Israelis to “Take the Higher Moral ground.” Israelis, like their American Democrat cousins have become so “Moral” as to be incapable of defending themselves and vanquishing their enemies.
paul from fl (4dd8c4) — 7/22/2008 @ 2:39 pmCruel and unsual punishment is legislating away the right to a vigorous and vicious self-defense, which would make aggression unpalatable to ones enemies.
I can easily buy “disgusted”, but can you honestly say that you were surprised?
I’m not.
Drumwaster (5ccf59) — 7/22/2008 @ 2:52 pm#16 Wright is right. Kill the sumbitches for sure. And yet Israel sets psychopaths free to kill again in exchange for mutilated IDF corpses?
Better to treat ALL terrorists like crime boss Ving Rhames did redneck mutant rapist Zed. A blowtorch and pair of pliers would be just fine by me.
The ROE are way too weak and better if we didn’t take prisoners at all.
But our liberal dickwads would prefer we send the Palis more cash in order that they afford more flags to burn, more bombs and more payments to families of homicide bombers. Your tax dollars work and your Arabist state dept. packed with career liberal pussies.
madmax333 (904016) — 7/22/2008 @ 3:25 pmShe accidentally smothered her own child to save the lives of the child, herself, and her neighbor. I am disgusted at your inhuman attempt to assign blame to this poor grieving mother.
Ok, cutting off your baby’s breath with your hand is *accidental*. As a consequence of *the accident* she is alive while her baby is dead. Poor, poor grieving mother. Why did she not die with her baby?
nk (a4be1f) — 7/22/2008 @ 4:55 pmLike I said, not in the least surprised.
Drumwaster (5ccf59) — 7/22/2008 @ 5:09 pmTimewaster,
Would you smother your child to death under any circumstances? Would you not take every possible care not to smother her? Even if it cost the lives of every living thing in the world? And if you did smother her *accidentally* would you still want to live?
nk (a4be1f) — 7/22/2008 @ 5:17 pm*Yawn*
It’s not my utter lack of human empathy under display.
Drumwaster (5ccf59) — 7/22/2008 @ 5:40 pmnk,
I can understand how she accidentally smothered her daughter while desperately trying to protect her from a sure death at the hands of terrorists. No doubt Yael was crying and upset and while not old enough to understand the danger but old enough to instinctively react to her mother frantic behavior and being pushed up into a dark crawlspace. There must have been extraordinary panic and fear and if Yael was crying all the more the urgency to attempt to quiet her.
Doubtless this mother took as much care as she could to protect her baby while keeping her quiet. No sane mother would do anything less.
This is one of the most horrific direct effects of terrorism. I first read her story in Life Magazine in the very early 80’s when I was not yet a mother. It was haunting then but now as a parent, all the more so. No mother would *want* to live after this and yet I see the fact that she was able to somehow, at some point in time, move from one day to the next, nothing short of miraculous. Perhaps when overwhelmed with grief, she had to make a conscious decision to choose to live. And I’m thankful she did. She is fighting against terrorists, she is fighting to preserve her country and because of this tragic experience she is able with more intensity, authority and accuracy, to put a face on the enemy that has not changed even though the politics around her have.
As a mother myself, I cannot imagine the immensity of her losses. And though she has a new life with a new husband and children, nothing on the face of this earth can erase the suffering heartache forever lining her soul.
Dana (f3e2a8) — 7/22/2008 @ 5:43 pmIt’s not my utter lack of human empathy under display.
What? No human empathy for the poor prisoner who was released? After all, all he did was to go on a suicide mission against the enemies of his people. His life was always hanging by a thread. At least, he only killed his enemies and not his own children. He is alive and free because he is harder and stronger than his enemies.
Victimhood is not a virtue.
nk (a4be1f) — 7/22/2008 @ 6:01 pmShouldn’t you two get a room?
SPQR (26be8b) — 7/22/2008 @ 6:03 pmA boxing ring, I think, SPQR.
nk (a4be1f) — 7/22/2008 @ 6:07 pmTell that to the NAACP.
Drumwaster (5ccf59) — 7/22/2008 @ 6:09 pmOk, you’re starting to see my point.
The coal asks, “Why so hard?” The diamond answers, “Why so soft?”
nk (a4be1f) — 7/22/2008 @ 6:12 pmKill’em all but six, save them for pallbearers, let God sort the rest out.
paul from fl (12026e) — 7/23/2008 @ 7:15 amI’ve seen your point all along. (The hats really don’t hide it, no matter what your mommy says about you being “just like the other kids”.)
Drumwaster (5ccf59) — 7/23/2008 @ 7:21 amNo. Under circumstances like those, a reasonable person would take every possible precaution to save her daughter’s life, not just from smothering but from the more immediate and obvious risk of Yael screaming and getting them all (Yael included) killed. To blame one victim for accidentally killing another under these extreme circumstances is like blaming Dad for getting his son killed in a car accident in whcih speed was a factor – while neglecting to mention that the only reason he was speeding was to try to escape a known killer who had it in for his son and was in hot pursuit.
Xrlq (b71926) — 7/23/2008 @ 8:22 amnk, you are a pathetic excuse of a human being who obviously has no children.
Dana: Rock on! You hit the nail on the head.
J. Raymond Wright (d83ab3) — 7/23/2008 @ 9:46 amNK,
Amused Observer (b04d41) — 7/23/2008 @ 9:48 amWhat on earth is your problem? Your admiration for the murderer is quite apparent as is your callous disregard for the victims.
The Kuntar File, Exposed – Yediot Aharonot – by Nir Gontarz
“After almost 30 years of being classified, File No. 578/79 has been granted permission for publication: the murderer’s testimony, the shots in Danny Haran’s back and the death blow to toddler Einat’s head.”
Read this too.
Since 2000, 635 Palestinians minors have been killed by Israelis.
Four israeli minors have died by palestinian hands.
Expulsion and ethnic cleansing, 40 years of military occupation.
And you defend this
” If I was an Arab leader I would never make terms with Israel. That is natural: we have taken their country. Sure God promised it to us, but what does that matter to them? Our God is not theirs. We come from Israel, but two thousand years ago, and what is that to them? There has been antisemitism, the Nazis, Hitler, Auschwitz, but was that their fault? They only see one thing: we have come here and stolen their country. Why should they accept that? ”
David Ben Gurion
Appalling. As is your ignorance and your indifference.
Here’s more for you
JAR (ba6a3f) — 7/23/2008 @ 12:55 pmand more. Look at the face of the girl in the last link, and reread the Ben Gurion quote before you pretend to tell anyone who’s scum and who’s not.
The Kuntar File, Exposed – Yediot Aharonot – by Nir Gontarz
“After almost 30 years of being classified, File No. 578/79 has been granted permission for publication: the murderer’s testimony, the shots in Danny Haran’s back and the death blow to toddler Einat’s head.”
Read this too.
JAR (ba6a3f) — 7/23/2008 @ 12:55 pmSince 2000, 635 Palestinians minors have been killed by Israelis.
Four israeli minors have died by palestinian hands.
Expulsion and ethnic cleansing, 40 years of military occupation.
And you defend this
” If I was an Arab leader I would never make terms with Israel. That is natural: we have taken their country. Sure God promised it to us, but what does that matter to them? Our God is not theirs. We come from Israel, but two thousand years ago, and what is that to them? There has been antisemitism, the Nazis, Hitler, Auschwitz, but was that their fault? They only see one thing: we have come here and stolen their country. Why should they accept that? ”
David Ben Gurion
Appalling. As is your ignorance and your indifference.
Here’s more for you
JAR (ba6a3f) — 7/23/2008 @ 12:56 pmand more. Look at the face of the girl in the last link, and reread the Ben Gurion quote before you pretend to tell anyone who’s scum and who’s not.
Enjoy your delusions.
Here are two (not to mention the other 26 wounded).
Here is an attack on a bus carrying children to school.
There have been at least 118 Israeli children killed, and not a single one of them was attacking Arabs when they died.
How many of those “youths of undetermined ethnic origins” were actually carrying weapons when they died? (I suppose it would be easier to count the number that weren’t.)
Look up the Avivim school bus massacre, where those brave Palis attacked a school bus, killing twelve unarmed people, most of them children under the age of 12.
The Ma’alot massacre, where DFLP members murdered 22 high school students.
The Kiryat Shmona massacre, where three Palestineans entered an apartment building and killed 18 civilians, including nine children.
Don’t ever lie in my presence again.
Drumwaster (5ccf59) — 7/23/2008 @ 1:17 pmFollow my link kiddo. The statistics come from B’Tselem.
JAR (ba6a3f) — 7/23/2008 @ 1:43 pmAnd the dates are from the year 2000 on.
You want deaths before then, there are a lot more.
And more dead Palestinians.
Don’t accuse me of lying till you learn to read.
Then don’t start lying. And maybe you shouldn’t cherry pick statistics just to spread your hate.
Begone, I’m through with you.
Drumwaster (5ccf59) — 7/23/2008 @ 1:48 pmI wasn’t writing for you anyway. Maybe for someone smarter.
JAR (ba6a3f) — 7/23/2008 @ 1:50 pmGezundheit.
Drumwaster (5ccf59) — 7/23/2008 @ 1:52 pm“nk, you are a pathetic excuse of a human being who obviously has no children.”
– J. Raymond Wright
Yes, obviously, except for the fact that he’s mentioned his daughter (read: his child, which is the singular form of “children”) on more occasions than I can count on one hand.
“What on earth is your problem? Your admiration for the murderer is quite apparent as is your callous disregard for the victims.”
– Amused Observer
Stupid. Half-baked faux-outrage ill-becomes all of you.
There is a disagreement here as to whom the “victim” really is: you all postulate that the true victim is the mother, and nk postulates that the true victim is Yael. He’s said that it would’ve been better for the mother to die with her child than to live with the shame of killing her in a desperate attempt to survive. He’s saying survival is worth nothing if it entails taking the life of your child, that there are indeed things worse than death.
I seriously doubt that nk has anything but the utmost contempt and hatred for a man who would kill an innocent child. I think, however, that he is on the verge of placing the mother into a similar category.
Tom Selleck made a movie called “Quigley Down Under”; in that movie, a mother smothers her infant son in an effort to hide the crying child from bandits of some sort. She is, needless to say, devastated, though she eventually adopts another child. Later in the movie, the mother finds herself hiding from wild dogs in a cave: the adopted baby starts to cry. Instead of trying to cover the baby’s mouth, the mother picks up a gun and blows the dogs away…
… Which is obviously something of a disingenuous analogy, but it’s something to think about.
The other movie scene that springs to mind is Marlon Brando’s monologue in “Apocalypse Now”: about the triggered brutality of the Viet Cong who cut off the arms of recently inoculated children. That’s what nk is pointing to with his diamond/coal interchange: how difficult it is to defeat an enemy with that kind of conviction.
Leviticus (6017a4) — 7/23/2008 @ 2:39 pmThank you, Leviticus. Do you remember Liviu Librescu from the Virginia Tech massacre?
nk (a4be1f) — 7/24/2008 @ 12:20 amThere are some people who when they tell you, “This ain’t right”, you better reach for a weapon because they will fight you to the death. And there are people who when they say “This isn’t right” just means that they will die sniveling.
nk (a4be1f) — 7/24/2008 @ 1:01 amJAR, You are the problem. You can’t see the evil of the Palestinian Terrorists.
The answer is simple, Palestinians make a deal and keep it. They can’t.
PCD (5c49b0) — 7/24/2008 @ 5:18 amPCD,
Remember These Children
Look at the numbers.
JAR (f95d62) — 7/26/2008 @ 9:54 amYes, those evil Jooos slaughtering innocent Muslim cherubs> Oh, the horror! When will Israelis embrace life in the same way they embrace death. The despots making up much of the UN should strongly condemn Israel’s heinous acts of genocide and make them stop sending suicide bombers into Pali territories. Or maybe send UN blue helmets. THAT might work and also prevent the mass rapes on Arab populace by the Israelis. Or am I all mixed up?
madmax333 (0c6cfc) — 7/26/2008 @ 10:35 amLet’s give the huge acreage of Israel to Arab governments and see how great a job they manage to do. Would they be as competent as Hitler’s SS in eradicating those meddlesome, greedy Jews? Surely Israel would bloom if populated by the rightful owners? Probably even better than the outstanding work being done in Gaza since the cowardly IDF evacuated that garden of eden. I will have to vote for liberals and Obama because they really really care about the dispossessed Palis. And those Jews can either become fertilizer or move to New Jersey.
The first casualty listed among the Palestinians on that link is Al-Durra who is still listed as being killed by IDF gunfire. Further on through the site readers are encouraged to voice the opinion about “the illegal occupation on lands taken by force in 1967.” Nice.
Jack Klompus (b796b4) — 7/26/2008 @ 10:45 amGreat job of further undermining your own credibility, JAR.
SPQR (26be8b) — 7/26/2008 @ 10:47 amNK,
My perception of your comments is my responsibility. A cryptic enigma is not the clearest way to communicate an idea. Perhaps plainer speaking might generate less hostility.
Leviticus,
“Stupid. Half-baked faux-outrage ill-becomes all of you.”
At a certain level flawed perception may warrant half baked but I can assure you that faux-outrage is an inaccurate description.
“how difficult it is to defeat an enemy with that kind of conviction.”
Sufficiently provoked, I would choose elimination over defeat. Nothing is easy but extinct is forever.
Amused Observer (43c305) — 7/26/2008 @ 11:05 am“the illegal occupation on lands taken by force in 1967.”
Yes indeed. Look it up.
“If I was an Arab leader I would never make terms with Israel. That is natural: we have taken their country. Sure God promised it to us, but what does that matter to them? Our God is not theirs. We come from Israel, but two thousand years ago, and what is that to them? There has been antisemitism, the Nazis, Hitler, Auschwitz, but was that their fault? They only see one thing: we have come here and stolen their country. Why should they accept that? ”
JAR (f95d62) — 7/26/2008 @ 11:36 amDavid Ben Gurion
Right. Because the Israelis started the Six Day War of course.
Jack Klompus (b796b4) — 7/26/2008 @ 11:38 amBalfour Declaration. Google it. Then look up the Palestine Mandate by the League of Nations.
Then try looking up… Ah, who am I kidding, you’re not at all interested in facts, you just want to hate the Jews. Good on ya, but don’t expect anyone here but nk to support your hatred.
Drumwaster (5ccf59) — 7/26/2008 @ 11:53 amJack, JAR obviously does not understand why your comment was sarcastic.
SPQR (26be8b) — 7/26/2008 @ 11:59 amI love it when you get the condescending “tut tut go run along with you and look things up why don’t you?” implying “what is wrong with you people who are so ignorant of my favorite internet sites??”
Jack Klompus (b796b4) — 7/26/2008 @ 12:29 pmI’d be curious to know what JAR even knows about the Six Day War as to lead one to make such a ludicrous statement that just reeks of such laughable historical ignorance. Kaffiyehs for sale at Urban Outfitters! Limited edition “Rachel Corrie” version now available!
Jack Klompus (b796b4) — 7/26/2008 @ 12:31 pm#60 Mr Klompus- such a shame that Jew-hating Rachel Corrie was unable to reproduce before her untimely demise. The gene pool is worse off withput her issue or was she really eligible for a Darwin award? And what is it with all the self-loathing Jews both here and in Israel?
madmax333 (0c6cfc) — 7/26/2008 @ 12:53 pm#60 – What I don’t get is why this particular cause leads clueless little losers like Corrie to allow themselves to be turned into flattened propaganda tools that benefit groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Oh I forgot, they’re brave freedom fighters fighting the “illegal occupation.”
Jack Klompus (b796b4) — 7/26/2008 @ 3:42 pmIt’s interesting that Israel which has a rich culture of free expression and dissent has within its population an oddly self-flagellating Left to go along with the pile-on job that so much of the rest of the world curiously reserves for them and of course, us.
Israel uniquely passes Sharansky’s “town square test” among nations in its region in terms of allowing and encouraging passionate self-critique. But I guess that’s what they have in common with their neighbors, the people in those countries are also allowed to and encouraged to criticize Israel, and their “criticism” has quite a flair to it at times.