Israellycool

Israel has called for the removal of the two UNIFIL soldiers who were photographed saluting the coffins of Hizbullah terrorists during Wednesday’s prisoner exchange.

But instead of doing the responsible thing and removing the soldiers, the UN has defended their actions!

Israel is calling for removal of two United Nations soldiers from Lebanon after photographs surfaced of the soldiers saluting the coffins of Hezbollah terrorists during a prisoner exchange Wednesday.

Associated Press photographer Mohammed Zaatari captured an image of the troops paying homage to fallen Hezbollah fighters as trucks bearing their coffins drove through the city of Tyre in southern Lebanon.

The blue-helmet U.N. troops, who operate under the auspices of the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), are meant disarm Hezbollah in southern Lebanon and be an impartial buffer along the country’s border with Israel.

Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Dan Gillerman, said he was “shocked and horrified” by the photograph and that it was time for the saluting soldiers to go.

“I think they should be recalled and be sent back to whichever country they came from,” said Gillerman. “I think they’ve definitely compromised their impartiality and have in a very big way,

in a very serious way, compromised the integrity of the United Nations.”

But a UNIFIL spokeswoman said the salute was nothing out of the ordinary.

“It is customary in most armies for military personnel in uniform to salute whenever a coffin passes in a procession,” UNIFIL spokeswoman Yasmina Bouziane said. “They were merely following this customary military tradition and saluted coffins draped in Lebanese national flags at their own initiative.”

The identity of the troops wasn’t certain, but Getty Images reports they were from Italy.

The incident occurred as Israel released five living Hezbollah prisoners and the bodies of 199 Lebanese and Palestinian militants killed in recent conflicts. In exchange, Hezbollah returned the remains of two Israeli soldiers kidnapped during a cross-border raid in 2006.

The truck bearing the coffins also featured a large image of Imad Mughniyeh, the Hezbollah mastermind who was killed in February in Damascus.

Israeli officials said UNIFIL troops were saluting the symbol of the violence they are meant to oppose and defuse.

“I think this is a very tragic and sad day for the United Nations when its soldiers who were sent there because of Hezbollah terrorist activities salute the terrorists and the killers,” Gillerman said.

“They are there as peacekeepers with a very clear mandate to disarm Hezbollah — they’re not there to honor terrorists,” he said.

The United Nations rejected the suggestion that its troops favored Hezbollah and told FOXNews.com that UNIFIL troops were doing their job and remained an unbiased force.

“They are impartial with regards to the forces on the ground,” Farhan Haq, a U.N. spokesman, said. “(UNIFIL) is an impartial source — it doesn’t show a bias for either side.”

Such assurances have done little to assuage Israel’s representatives, who said U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon should be “appalled” by the action and called for disciplinary action.
“I think [Secretary Ban] should remove them from wearing those helmets and from serving the United Nations,” Gillerman said.

Nothing to see here..move along.

Notice the UNIFIL spokeswoman’s mention of the “coffins draped in Lebanese national flags”, meant to imply the soldiers thought they were saluting dead of the Lebanese army and not of Hizbullah. Tellingly, she does not mention the huge picture of Hizbullah arch-terrorist Imad Mughniyeh.

I also very much doubt it is “customary in most armies for military personnel in uniform” to stop everything and salute a procession of coffins of the very people the armies are supposed to be fighting. But I’ll leave it to someone in the know to confirm whether or not this is the case.

In any event, we once again see why Israel should never have accepted UN Resolution 1701.

From tomb raider to coffin saluter:

U.N. soldiers salute as a tractor-trailer loaded with coffins of nearly 200 Lebanese and Palestinian fighters and bearing the picture of slain Hezbollah top leader Imad Mughniyeh, right, arrives in the southern city of Tyre, Lebanon, Thursday, July 17, 2008. Eight tractor-trailers loaded with coffins are driving from south Lebanon to Beirut a day after a prisoner swap between Israel and Lebanon.

It is one thing to be utterly incompetent. It is another to be siding with evil.

Either way, agreeing to UN Resolution 1701 was clearly yet another of Israel’s huge mistakes.

“Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.”

- Newton’s third law of motion (paraphrased)

And now to paraphrase Elvis Costello, we couldn’t call this unexpected:

The best course of action to secure the release of Palestinian prisoners is the kidnapping of more Israeli soldiers, Abu Yousef, the military spokesman for An-Nasser Brigades, the Military wing of the Popular Resistance Committees, said in a statement on Thursday.

He said that the prisoner swap between Israel and Hizbullah has shown that kidnap can be a useful bargaining tool in brokering deals to release prisoners and that it is possible to defeat the Israeli army. This goes some way to confirming several analysts predictions that the deal, executed on Wednesday, would embolden both Palestinian and Lebanese resistance fighters.

He added that the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, kidnapped in 2006 by militants from the Gaza Strip, should not be released until it was possible to arrange a deal that satisfies the needs of the Palestinian people.

And don’t think it’s just Israeli soldiers. Each and every Israeli citizen - yours truly included - is at risk.

Question: Who is xxxx in this report?

xxxx welcomed the execution of a prisoner exchange deal between Israel and Hizbullah. xxxxx congratulated the family of released Lebanese murderer Samir Kuntar and sent his condolences to the Lebanese families receiving their loved ones’ bodies as part of the deal.

Answer is below the fold.

With brutal murderer Samir Kuntar about to be released in a few hours, here’s another reminder of the lives he mercilessly snuffed out.

Again, I can only hope Israel was smart enough to have placed some poison in Kuntar’s food, to guarantee him a slow and painful death.

Note: Props to AP for publishing this photo. I am normally very critical of their (biased) coverage, so I am more than willing to acknowledge when they get it right.

Updates (Perth, Australia time):

11:19AM: You will find here some pictures of Kuntar and friends being processed for released.

Is it just me, or does Kuntar look like Adolph Hitler after sucking on some hydrogen?

11:45AM: The IDF believes Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah will leave his bunker and “make a special appearance to greet Samir Kuntar upon his arrival in Beirut.”

Here’s hoping this happens, and an IDF jet is there to help Kuntar and Nasrallah make a special appearance to greet Yasser Arafat and the other terrorists upon their arrival in hell.

12:22PM: Israel National News reports:

Palestinian Authority media, controlled by “moderate” PLO Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, has hailed the release of Samir Kuntar, saying the man who crushed the skull of four-year-old Einat Haran in 1979 “epitomizes the ideal Palestinian prisoner.”

I couldn’t agree more.

And that, my friends, tells you everything you need to know about Israel’s “peace partner.”

12:30PM: Ha’aretz reports that Hassan Chicken Nasrallah will apparently not attend the prisoner reception in Lebanon after all.

1:50PM: As the Jerusalem Post reports, the Regev and Goldwasser families are still hopeful their sons are still alive.

2:05PM: The exchange was supposed to happen 5 minutes, but I haven’t seen anything. The Ha’aretz news ticker reports that the swap is to be delayed by one hour, citing Hezbollah`s Al-Manar TV.

2:15PM: The soldiers are reportedly now on the border, but there’s no report of their condition.

2:16PM: They’ve been transferred to the Red Cross.

2:45PM: 2 coffins have been laid out at the border crossing.

This is a sad day for Israel.

3:50PM: Ynet reports:

Cries of horror sounded at the Regev and Goldwasser homes Wednesday, as family members witnessed the TV broadcast of the prisoner exchange, in which the coffins of Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser were shown being turned over to the Red Cross.

—-

Eldad Regev’s aunt, Hanna, collapsed upon seeing the images of her nephew’s coffin and was attended to by Magen David Adom paramedics, which were standing by.

My heart goes out to the Regev and Goldwasser families.

4:31PM: Ma’an reports that the body of terrorist Dalal Al-Mughrabi was one of those to be returned in the swap, contrary to an earlier report from Israel’s Channel 10.

It isn’t only Hezbollah celebrating the imminent return of the most sickening terrorist in recent memory, Samir Kuntar.

The entire government of Lebanon is joining in.

According to the Palestine Press news,

The Lebanese Prime Minister instructed the closure of all public administrations and public institutions and private institutions, municipalities, public and private educational Lebanon on Wednesday, 16/7/2008, in observance of the liberation of prisoners from the prisons of the Israeli enemy and the restoration of bodies of the martyrs to the soil of the homeland.

It is expected that permeated the celebrations all regions of Lebanon on this occasion.

Similarly, the Lebanon Daily Star said:

Lebanon is planning a welcome ceremony in Naqoura, and President Michel Sleiman, Speaker Nabih Berri and Prime Minister Fouad Siniora will later greet the prisoners at Beirut’s airport.

It can perhaps be expected that traditional murderer-worshippers like Hezbollah or Hamas would celebrate the release of such a murderer. But this is the entire government of Lebanon, which despite Hezbollah’s influence is still considered to be pro-Western by the West, celebrating; every major political leader falling over themselves for a photo-op with this damned and depraved, pitiful excuse for a human being.

It isn’t just the terror organizations that embrace Samir Kuntar. It is the entire Arab world. Because anyone who kills Jews in Israel is, by definition, a hero to the Arabs across all political leanings.

If anyone can find a single Arab editorial that considers Samir Kuntar to be anything less than a hero, in any language, please let me know. Because I have not yet found it.

Despite acknowledging being jipped, Israel is still going ahead with the terrorists-for-corpses exchange.

Syrian President Bashar “Dorktator” Assad sticks his neck out to avoid Ehud Olmert in Paris.

‘I’ll be Back’ meets ‘I’ll be Black’: Arnold Schwarzenegger says he’d work for Obama.

The world’s oldest blogger is now of the non-moveable type.

More Iranian fauxtography has been found.

No doubt emboldened by their latest victory against Israel - namely, the farcical prisoner swap deal approved yesterday - Hizbullah are making more demands from, and issuing more threats against, Israel.

Hezbollah considers itself free to strike Israeli soldiers and civilians unless it receives maps of minefields and areas peppered with cluster bombs during the Second Lebanon War, a Lebanese journalist believed familiar with the Shi’ite group’s thinking wrote in an article appearing Monday.

“This will be a sufficient reason for the resistance (Hezbollah) to carry out a thousand operations and to kill the enemy soldiers as it wishes, and perhaps its civilians, as long as the Israeli killing machine continues,” Ibrahim al-Amin wrote in Monday editions of Al-Akhbar.

Al-Amin added that Hezbollah’s arms build-up, which includes training of its gunmen and the development of its military infrastructure, will continue “without permission from anyone.”

Hezbollah is also planning a terrorist attack against an Israeli target as retribution for last year’s killing of arch-terror mastermind Imad Mughniyeh, al-Amin wrote.

“We may see many things that can be portrayed as punishment, but there is one big event that nothing can prevent from happening,” he said. “It will be on the scale of the crime (Mughniyeh killing).”

Al-Amin did not provide many details on Hezbollah’s expected response, but it would be reasonable to assume it would take the form of an attack outside of Lebanese soil. The writer noted that Hezbollah faces practical and technical obstacles as well as intra-Lebanese political considerations that are delaying the execution of the attack.

Al-Amin said Hezbollah does not plan to publicly claim credit for the attack. He wrote that no one in Israel or Lebanon should expect a statement of responsibility to come out of “Kharet Khareikh,” the neighborhood where most of Hezbollah’s headquarters are located. “It will be signed by Mughniyeh’s friends.”

The writer also warned that Hezbollah will retaliate against the Israel Air Force’s continuing sorties in Lebanese airspace in such a way that Israel will feel the price of its actions. He added the international community would see the flights in a different light if Hezbollah were to strike.

Further proof that we should not have been content with anything less than Hizbullah’s destruction after the Second Lebanon War, and should certainly not have agreed to UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which has functioned as nothing more than a UN-sanctioned hudna.

Mark my words. Hizbullah will be attacking us in the near future. I just hope we have real leadership by then.

Today, the Israeli cabinet approved a prisoner swap deal with Hizbullah in which Israel will receive the bodies of IDF reservists Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev in exchange for notorious Lebanese terrorist Samir Kuntar.

Actually, that’s only part of it, albeit the main part. In addition, Israel will receive a report regarding Ron Arad, and the remains of Israeli soldiers killed in the Second Lebanon War but never returned, while handing over four illegal Lebanese terrorists, the remains of dozens of infiltrators and terrorists (including eight Hizbulah fighters), and information regarding four missing Iranian diplomats. Did I mention we also have to release palestinian prisoners?

You can probably tell I am not impressed with this deal. In fact, with all due respect to the Goldwasser and Regev familes - whose suffering I could not even comprehend - the deal stinks. Assuming Ehud and Eldad are dead, we are essentially gaining their corpses and giving up one of the most brutal terrorists in recent memory. An unrepentant one at that.

Not only that, but this sets a very bad precedent. The terrorists now know we will pay an alarmingly high price, even for dead bodies. Which means if they capture live Israelis in future, gone is the deterrent to keep them alive.

No, this deal stinks. Unless, for example, we have secretly injected Kuntar with an agent that will kill him, but not before he spends much time in excruciating pain.

Fancy a Hezburger to UNIFIL you up?

A fast-food restaurant in Beirut’s war-torn southern suburb has hit upon an explosive way to attract customers.

Buns and Guns is made out to look like a military post and diners eat to the sound of gunfire instead of muzak.

Owner Yousef Ibrahim presents rebranded Lebanese favourites like the “rocket-propelled grenade” (chicken on a skewer) and “terrorist bread”.

“They accuse us of terrorism, so let’s serve terrorist bread, why not?” Mr Ibrahim told Hezbollah’s al-Manar TV.

Other dishes include the Kalashnikov, Dragunov, Viper, B52, while realistic-looking weapons and ammunition decorate the counters, and camouflage netting hangs from the ceiling.

Beirut has recently passed through another round of civil strife when pro-government partisans and those of the Hezbollah-led opposition fought street battles in west Beirut.

But that does not necessarily mean that the customers think the restaurant is in bad taste.

Buns and Guns (motto: A sandwich can kill you) is located in a strongly Hezbollah-supporting area, where the group’s militia is lionised by many.

“My goal was to make people laugh before they ask me why weapons. The important thing is that they laugh,” Mr Ibrahim said.

He insists the only way his sandwiches could kill the customers is by their generous proportions.

“It attracts customers in an unconventional way. You noticed the moment I opened the restaurant, there was a lot of business,” he told the al-Manar correspondent, who later tucked into an RPG sandwich.

Hmm..they might want to rethink the name.

Iran’s President Ahmadinejad’s recent statements include, “The era of the Zionist literature and the Zionist political mechanism and the Zionist bullying policies has come to an end,” “I just want to tell you that holding a birthday party for a dead person is of no use. These gatherings can not revive a corpse,” and “The Zionist regime is dying. The criminals imagine that by holding celebrations … they can save the Zionist regime from death.”

Mahmoud al-Zahar said today, “The Palestinians and the Arabs have crushed the Jews’ assumption of supremacy… The Zionist legend of invincibility has been destroyed. Now more than ever I tell you – will never recognize Israel… We will form the Palestinian state on all of Palestine’s territories and the sun of liberty will burn the Zionists. To them I say – you will lose. You will leave and we will keep hounding you. The blood of our slain sons will haunt you forever.”

These sorts of statements are nothing new, and we’ve been hearing variants since before Israel even existed. It is valuable to recognize what makes people say things like this.

Obviously, Israel is not going anywhere. While there are political threats to its borders and terrorist threats to its citizens, Israel’s existence is in no doubt for the foreseeable future.

The biggest testimony to Israel’s strength and self-assurance comes, ironically, from its own self-criticism. Only a people who are secure can look at their own faults and admit mistakes publicly, and no one admits mistakes - real or imagined - more publicly than Israelis do.

The Second Lebanon War is a case study in the difference between how Israelis look at themselves and how Israel’s enemies look at it. From a military perspective, the war was a draw - Israel inflicted a great deal of damage on Hezbollah and the cease fire agreement drove Hezbollah north of the Litani, but it was not the crushing defeat that Israel desired nor was it enough to stop Hezbollah from re-arming quickly. But by no stretch of the imagination was Israel “defeated” unless your definition of defeat is very unrealistic.

Yet, Israel underwent much public self-criticism and self-evaluation after the war to learn from its mistakes.

Conversely, Israel’s enemies celebrated their “victory,” masking the loss of hundreds of Hezbollah fighters with huge banners across Lebanon .

This is not a reflection of reality - this is bravado.

People who act this way are fundamentally insecure. They cannot distinguish between putting up a brave front and real bravery.

They tell their people about their impending victories in an attempt to shore up their own delusions and to avoid any real self-examination, which would lead to despair. They surround themselves with people who will agree with their public posturing. They inflate events that are meaningless as long as they support their fantasies, and they ignore any evidence to the contrary.

A hallmark of this institutionalized bravado hiding insecurity is not only the lack of self-criticism but deliberate acts against those who dare criticize. Hence we see Iran’s brutal attacks against dissidents, Hamas’ threats against journalists, and Hezbollah’s total censorship in areas under its control.

This bravado is so institutionalized in the psyches of its practitioners - and so much a part of the honor-shame mindset that helps spawn it - that they cannot understand that Israeli self-criticism is a reflection of its strength. To them, any criticism is shameful and only an utterly defeated people can admit mistakes. The more delusional actually start to believe that Israel is weak and they then start thinking they can defeat it.

The bigger the bluster, the weaker the core that the blusterers are trying to hide.

This does not mean that they aren’t dangerous. Of course, they can - and do - inflict damage.

But their bravado is not an indication of their strength. On the contrary, it proves their weakness.

During the Arab League conference discussing the latest turmoil in Lebanon, the Saudi Foreign Minister could not resist dragging Israel into the discussion.

“(Hizbullah leader Hassan) Nasrallah is like (former Israeli Prime Minister) Ariel Sharon * – they both invaded Beirut,” Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal said during a recent Arab League conference in Cairo on the sectarian violence in Lebanon.

Leaving aside the fact that Israel captured Beirut to drive out the PLO (which had been launching terrorist attacks from Lebanon) while Hizbullah’s agenda is very different, Al-Faisal’s statement once again shows the Arab fixation with Israel, even when Israel is not involved.

By the way, in case you were wondering:

The Arab League eventually decided that it would try to mediate between the rival factions in Lebanon but did not condemn Hizbullah.

* There is no similarity between Nasrallah and Sharon, although I really wish there was in one respect.