what is the truth?

What is the truth ?

By David Verveer

The past week was very traumatic and sad, when the Hezbollah returned two dead soldiers that were kidnapped on the border, two years earlier. The exchange of bodies for prisoners was arranged with the assistance of the Germans. The deal was struck after years of indirect negotiations, in which the Hezbollah started of with huge demands, and ended up with getting back a young terrorist who twenty odd years ago killed several people, including a 4 year old girl, by smashing in her scull.

This terrorist spend his time in Israeli prison, by studying and even gained university education, received visits on a regular base by the Red cross representative and would have remained in prison for life, if not liberated by the exchange deal, last week.
This terrorist was actually a Lebanese Druze, belonging to the Communist party, and in ideals, just the opposite of those of his liberators, the Shiite Hezbollah.

The horrible truth is, that in order to free this terrorist, the 2 soldiers were kidnapped, which led to the second Lebanese war, and if Israel would have returned this terrorist with the last exchange 2and half years ago, when Israel received 3 dead soldiers and an Israeli drug dealer, in exchange for some Lebanese prisoners of war, they would not have attempted to kidnap our soldiers, who were most probable killed during the kidnap action.

Of course, the Hezbollah played their cards right, and did not release any information on the conditions of those soldiers (who were already dead) and Nashrallah in his speeches played with the feelings of the families (and all Israelis), Red cross was not allowed to visit prisoners, information and medical assistance were nor given, and even though, the local medical examination of the scene, indicated that the soldiers might have died in the attempt, there is nothing more stronger than hope, and the entire nation hoped for safe return of the kidnapped soldiers.

Eventually, the Government agreed to release the killer terrorist, in exchange for the soldiers. This drama took place 3 days ago, when until the last moment, the fate of the soldiers was still in doubt, until the television cameras showed the two coffins.
In Beirut, posters in English stated something like; "Israel cries while Lebanon celebrates"., which was sad but very true. The liberated terrorist was received like a hero, dressed in an officer's outfit of a officer in the "soldiers of Allah" semi military group, with everyone important in Lebanon, kissing him and hailing him as having performed great deeds for his nation, irrelevant that if he would have managed to return to Lebanon, after his killing spree 20 years back, he would have been eliminated by communist hating Shiite Hezbollah, but who cares about the truth.

An Israeli Journalist Uri Ourbach wrote in Y- net and open letter to the Lebanese people, in which he asked them, if this ruthless child killer represents their sentiments, the published back-talks were blood chilling. Many of those talkbacks were written by Arabs, Palestinians and Lebanese, and of course, talkback response by Israelis and Arabs. Most responses were angry replies, that Israel's army has killed many innocent children and women, in capable in comprehending the difference between accidental deaths, when Hezbollah shoots from civilian concentrations, and willful terrorist killings. To those talk-backers, the truth was not important, eye for eye and tooth for tooth, the Israeli is an occupier of Arab Palestine and killing Jews is allowed (as there is no innocent Israeli).

Based on those talk-backs, I conclude that there is no hope for the Middle East, the irrational killing will continue, our and their extremists will drive us from war to war, truth, humanism, historic facts will all be pushed away by religious fanatics and zealots, who over and over again, will justify their ways, by claiming that it is Gods commands, which makes them to behave this way.

All this would not have been possible, if the world would not be depending on Arab Oil, as our human society is driven solely by economics. Funny enough, organized crime driven by the Islam are taking over the democracies of Western Europe, and there is nothing we can do about it, and even here in Israel, we seem to be incapable of dealing with corruption versus continuing our only democracy in the Middle East. The opposition parties look desperate for finding alleged crimes committed by the current Prime Minister, ten years ago, when he was still Mayor of Jerusalem and later on Minister of Industry and Trade. Their sick desire in trying to get back in power reminds the story of the scorpion and the turtle, who made an agreement, in which the turtle would carry the scorpion to the other side of the river, provided the scorpion would not strike it with it poison, but when nearing the other side, the scorpion gave is poisonous strike, killing both through drowning. Reason for his deed and breaking his word, was that you can not change the natural behavior impulses.

But now we are going to happier times, the Olympic Games are due to begin in a fortnight, and there is nothing like Games to take temporary the mind of all current problems, such as water shortage, politics, our remaining hostage in Gaza by the Hamas, world economics, etc. Not important that our participants are hardly at Olympic level, irrelevant that they will never get to the required level, if we do not invest in their training, we keep on hoping for the impossible, who would have expected that our "Yiddischer boggers" (Jewish Boys) participate in International sport events, we really put Israel on the map.

In conclusion, and an answer to Uri Ourbach, who cares what the Lebanese think about Kuntar and his deeds, thank God, I am Israeli, and with all our "Tsores" (problems), we still have a wonderful country, and never a boring day. Think about it, the Arabs were already punished by birth, of being what they are, and suffering from their own kind and a cruel jealous religion, much more than those crimes they manage to commit against us. I too, as a Good Jew, every morning I thank God that he did not make me …. (an Arab).