Update: Separated at birth?

Or rocket launcher to be more precise.

Good to see the college degree he obtained while in an Israeli prison has come in handy.

We can only hope Hezboofhead’s renewed terror activities make him an easier target, and the next time we see him with a rocket, he’s on the receiving end.

This little piggy stayed at home.

This little piggy had roast beef,

This little piggy had none.

And this little piggy said “Why the hell am I flying?”

Arabic news channel Al Jazeera has apologised to Israel for its “unethical” coverage of the release of a convicted Hizbullah terrorist from Israeli prison last month.

Samir Kuntar, who spent 29 years in prison for killing four persons, including a four-year-old girl, was released by Israel last month following a swap deal with the Lebanese guerilla faction.

In an official letter, Al Jazeera’s General Director, Khanfar Wadah, has written that “elements of the programme” broadcast in Kuntar’s honour on the night of Saturday, July 19, “violated (the station’s) Code of Ethics,” and he “regards these violations as very serious,” daily Ha’aretz reported.

Given that whole programme was a birthday party for Kuntar, which elements did not violate (the station’s) Code of Ethics?

For the second time this year, Israel has decided to act against Al-Jazeera, after the influential TV station held a party for released Lebanese child-killer Samir Kuntar, The Jerusalem Post has learned.

The party, held in Beirut, was organized by the Al-Jazeera bureau there to honor Kuntar on the occasion of his release from Israeli prison. He was hailed as a hero who carried out a brave military operation against the Jewish state.

The Government Press Office said it would impose sanctions on Al-Jazeera and demand an explanation from the station.

Al-Jazeera’s bureau chief in Beirut, Ghassan bin Jeddo, has long been known for his close ties to Hizbullah.

Kuntar, for his part, thanked Jeddo and Al-Jazeera for supporting him and other prisoners in Israeli jails and for waging a campaign to bring about their release.

Daniel Seaman, director of the GPO, expressed outrage over the event.

On Tuesday, Seaman phoned Walid Omari, the Al-Jazeera bureau chief in Israel, and summoned him to an urgent meeting to inform him of the GPO’s decision to suspend ties with the station.

Omari, who is currently abroad, is scheduled to report to the GPO on his return, a source at Al-Jazeera said, adding that the station had still not been informed of the new measures against it.

Seaman said he also planned to write to the Foreign Press Association in Israel to explain his decision.

“We will suspend all handling of Al-Jazeera requests,” Seaman told the Post. “For now, we won’t provide them with any of our services, which include issuing press credentials and assistance with bureaucracy and applications for visas.”

Seaman said he would demand an explanation from Al-Jazeera’s headquarters in Doha, Qatar, about the event.

“I want to know what they are going to do about this case,” he said. “I want to know how they intend to handle this case. What they did was not professional.”

Earlier this year, Israel decided to boycott Al-Jazeera after accusing the station of supporting Hamas.

The boycott, initiated by the Foreign Ministry, included a ban on interviews by government officials and refusal to issue visas for the station’s employees.

The move had come after Al-Jazeera correspondents allegedly staged a candlelight protest following a government decision to reduce electric and fuel supplies to the Gaza Strip in response to continued rocket attacks on Israeli towns.

The ban was lifted after Al-Jazeera editors in Doha agreed to discuss its coverage of the Israeli-Arab conflict with Israeli government officials.

Hopefully this time, the Foreign Ministry will ban the Jizz for good.

Kuntar, who spent decades in an Israeli jail after killing a 4-year-old girl and three others in 1979, said Thursday he envied the lengths to which Israel goes to retrieve the bodies of its soldiers, the Jerusalem Post reported.

“I’m jealous of the Zionists, who don’t spare any effort in bringing back captured soldiers or soldiers’ bodies,” Kuntar said in an interview on Al Manar, the satellite television network of the terrorist group Hezbollah. “Seriously, we are jealous of our enemy and its care for a [body] and how it goes to the end of the world in order to return it, and of its concerns for captives and how it will go to the very edge to bring them back.”

No word yet on whether Kuntar is also envious of our ability to see a 4-year-old child’s head, and not desperately want to smash it against a rock with a rifle butt.

Needless to say, Kuntar won’t let his envy get in the way of his desire to kill more Jews.

The lesson Israelis should learn, indeed must learn to avoid the terror attacks and the necessity for having national martyrs like Regev and Goldwasser, is precisely what the Olmert government seems to be learning–but far too late in its tenure. The only solution is a negotiated settlement. Start with Syria: return the Golan and Shebaa Farms. Insist on Syria turning off the spigot to Hezbollah and ceasing its meddling in Lebanese internal affairs. Insist that Syria turn off the arms flow from Iran that travels via Syria into Hezbollah armories.

Ok, so the guy is misguided at the worst, you may be saying. But it get worse. In the comments, he then posits that the IDF’s crimes could be worse than Kuntar’s crime (smashing in the skull of a 4-year-old girl):

In this blog, I have written a great deal about young IDF soldiers & Border Police who commit crimes almost as heinous as the one Kuntar committed. If you consider that the IDF weaponry is far more sophisticated than Kuntar’s then the crimes could even be seen as more heinous. I focussed on Kuntar in this post because he was freed yesterday.

Followed by this response to a commenter who had the gall to say “Most daming [sic] for his people is the fact that in their “civilization ” a murderer of Jews will always be treated as a hero and has never and will never be put on trial.”

Perhaps we could expect Arabs not to treat their own murderers as heroes & to try them in court when Israeli soldiers & police are not allowed to kill Palestinians civilians w. apparent impunity. What should Arabs believe about an Israeli “civilization” in which soldiers kill civilians and are almost never punished?

You have a twisted, racist view of Arab civilization.

There’s also this comment from Silverstein on a blog that tries to mitigate Kuntar’s crime on the basis he was 17 years-old at the time, and had been a child soldier from a broken home before he left to become a “fighter” (hat tip: Soccer Dad).

Brava and I agree. Thank you for your humanity which is always bracing & reassuring. And for pointing out Kuntar’s status as a child soldier at the tail end of the Lebanese civil war. This puts his crime into a diff. context (while not excusing it).

Of course, Silverstein ignores the fact Kuntar has had years to reflect on his actions, and has returned to Lebanon without remorse and determined to kill more Israelis.

True, Silverstein does not go so far as to applaud Kuntar, and does admit he is a murderer. But once again, he cannot unequivocally condemn Kuntar’s barbaric act without putting it “in context” and comparing it to the IDF’s conduct (an odious comparison).

Richard Silverstein, you should be ashamed of yourself.

But are no doubt not.

(Thanks to Lila for drawing my attention to this picture).

Where’s a Hellfire missile when you need one?

Update: The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office has released this video on Kuntar:

Welcome to Lebanon, a country where smashing in the skull of a 4-year-old girl could actually help your election campaign.

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.