There is great excitement in Lebanon tonight after the release of Samir Kuntar and four other Lebanese prisoners, in exchange for the bodies of Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev. Hezbollah has once again done Lebanon proud, now emptying all Israeli jails of Lebanese prisoners and bringing home the remains of some 200 resistance fighters, among them Syrians.
On the other side, the Israelis are mourning - forgive me for not feeling sorry for them. Wallowing in their sadness they describe the Lebanese celebrations as "sickening" - "how could you celebrate the release of a child murderer?" they say.
Well, this is interesting. Firstly, Kuntar denies killing the young girl. He says that he was under heavy fire and that Einat Haran was killed as a result - we may never know the truth. Yes, he took the Haran family hostage, and if you call this terrorism, I would agree with you - its targeting civilians for political gains. But hang on here - the Israelis have been asking for information on Ron Arad for more than 20 years; wasn't he a murderer and killer of innocents when he flew over Lebanon with his fighter jet? As Norman Finkelstein put it: "Israeli pilot Ron Arad was not a 'murderer' and was not 'despised' by Lebanese when he was shot down on a combat mission in 1986. He was only dropping tulips and daffodils on south Lebanon". So if the Lebanese are "sick" for celebrating Kuntar's release, what do we call the Israelis who would move heaven and earth just to get information on Ron Arad, or any of their soldiers who (dare I say) have killed thousands of innocent children in recent times?
If you want to criticize the Lebanese without mentioning the abysmal Israeli reputation on human rights, then that's pure hypocrisy and you're turning a blind eye on the truth. You have to ask yourself - who are the victims in this conflict and who are the aggressors, based the historical record - UN resolutions, the world court decisions and human rights organisations?
In any case, this is a huge victory for Lebanon and as Nasrallah said in his brief address to the crowd tonight, the times of victory have arrived.
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