Terwijl Israël rouwt, viert Libanon feest. Er klopt iets niet wanneer je feest viert omdat een kindermoordenaar wordt vrijgelaten. Stel, om het extreem te stellen, dat in de oorlog een Nederlander die een Duits meisje en haar vader op wrede wijze en in koelen bloede had vermoord, zou zijn vrijgelaten. Zou dat reden tot vreugde zijn geweest? Ik geloof het niet. Hoewel de nazi's een wrede bezettingsmacht waren, zouden we iemand niet vereren als held omdat hij een klein meisje heeft vermoord, al betrof het de dochter van Hitler. Libanon, ter vergelijking, is nooit geheel door Israël bezet geweest, en de laatste Israëlische soldaten zijn alweer 8 jaar geleden vertrokken. Die bezetting was niet het resultaat van de wens een groot rijk te stichten waar één ras superieur is en een leider de baas, maar om de PLO te verslaan, die frequent aanvallen uitvoerde vanuit Libanon op Israëlisch grondgebied. Toch vinden velen het heel normaal dat zowat heel Libanon mensen als Samir Kuntar als held ziet. "De een z'n terrorist is de ander z'n vrijheidsstrijder", aldus het cliché. Samir Kuntars daad heeft net zo veel met een vrijheidsstrijd te maken als de strijd van de nazi's tegen het 'rode gevaar' en het 'internationale finanzjudentum'.
RP
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Last update - 10:09 16/07/2008
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.
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.
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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.
The families of the two soldiers had clung to the hope that they are still alive, despite the assumption by Israeli officials that they did not survive the July 12, 2006 kidnapping raid. A Lebanese newspaper affiliated to Hezbollah reported Tuesday that one of the two had been killed in the attack, but did not specify which, or give details of the condition of the second soldier.
President Shimon Peres on Tuesday night pardoned the five Lebanese militants who will be returned by Israel in exchange for the two soldiers and the remains of Israeli troops who fell in the Second Lebanon War, sparked by the abduction.
In Lebanon, meanwhile, preparations were underway to celebrate the return of the five.
The deal consisted of several stages. First, Hezbollah was to transfer Regev and Goldwasser, whereupon the IDF Rabbinate and the police will identify the bodies. If identification seems to be difficult, the bodies were to be transferred to the Abu Kabir Institute of Forensic Medicine in Tel Aviv for a more extensive examination involving DNA analysis.
Once a positive identification is made, Israel will transfer the bodies of 199 Lebanese and Palestinian militants to Lebanon. In addition, Israel will transfer Kuntar and the four others.
Earlier this week, soldiers from the Engineering Corps and the IDF Rabbinate exhumed the corpses from the Amiad cemetery for enemy combatants in the north. The bodies are being held in cold storage until the abducted IDF soldiers, or their remains, are identified. They will then be transported in a 50-truck convoy to Lebanon.
The process of identifying the soldiers and completing the transfer is expected to take several hours, during which members of the Regev and Goldwasser families will wait at the Shraga army base in the western Galilee. Once the bodies are positively identified, they will be transported directly to the base so that family members can receive their loved ones far from the public view.
The IDF Spokesman's Office said Tuesday that military authorities have been in constant contact with the families of the abducted soldiers.
"This process exemplifies the IDF's deep moral commitment to making every effort to return soldiers who have been sent on an operational mission," it added. "The process reflects a moral and ethical strength that stems from Jewish tradition, the ethics of Israeli society and the IDF code."
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.
The families of the two soldiers had clung to the hope that they are still alive, despite the assumption by Israeli officials that they did not survive the July 12, 2006 kidnapping raid. A Lebanese newspaper affiliated to Hezbollah reported Tuesday that one of the two had been killed in the attack, but did not specify which, or give details of the condition of the second soldier.
President Shimon Peres on Tuesday night pardoned the five Lebanese militants who will be returned by Israel in exchange for the two soldiers and the remains of Israeli troops who fell in the Second Lebanon War, sparked by the abduction.
In Lebanon, meanwhile, preparations were underway to celebrate the return of the five.
The deal consisted of several stages. First, Hezbollah was to transfer Regev and Goldwasser, whereupon the IDF Rabbinate and the police will identify the bodies. If identification seems to be difficult, the bodies were to be transferred to the Abu Kabir Institute of Forensic Medicine in Tel Aviv for a more extensive examination involving DNA analysis.
Once a positive identification is made, Israel will transfer the bodies of 199 Lebanese and Palestinian militants to Lebanon. In addition, Israel will transfer Kuntar and the four others.
Earlier this week, soldiers from the Engineering Corps and the IDF Rabbinate exhumed the corpses from the Amiad cemetery for enemy combatants in the north. The bodies are being held in cold storage until the abducted IDF soldiers, or their remains, are identified. They will then be transported in a 50-truck convoy to Lebanon.
The process of identifying the soldiers and completing the transfer is expected to take several hours, during which members of the Regev and Goldwasser families will wait at the Shraga army base in the western Galilee. Once the bodies are positively identified, they will be transported directly to the base so that family members can receive their loved ones far from the public view.
The IDF Spokesman's Office said Tuesday that military authorities have been in constant contact with the families of the abducted soldiers.
"This process exemplifies the IDF's deep moral commitment to making every effort to return soldiers who have been sent on an operational mission," it added. "The process reflects a moral and ethical strength that stems from Jewish tradition, the ethics of Israeli society and the IDF code."
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