I am a talk show host in Las Vegas, NV. I do a show six days a week. Monday-Friday I am on the air between 6-8pm, and on Saturdays I am on between 10am-1pm. Since Saturdays give me more time to really dive into an issue; I typically save a special topic for my weekend audience. Given the current situation with Israel, Hamas, and Hezbollah I decided to take a few days over a couple of weeks to introduce my audience to the parties involved. Most people in the world, and especially in the US, don't understand what exactly is happening right now or why. Since modern history is often debated between the two sides heatedly, I decided to go back in time to the inception of each one. One week I gave the complete history of Hamas, the next week Hezbollah, and finally the complete history of the land of Israel all the way back to 200,000 BC. I did this so that no one could deny who was the original inhabitants of the land of Israel. I have never had a more popular series of topics on my program, and receive numerous requests for the information every day.
This brings me to why I'm writing this today. I will not bore you with the great details of those three shows, but I want to answer a fundamental question that many of you out there seem to have. You see, I've already told my audience why Hezbollah attacked Israel. Yet, not one person out there has been able to explain it to the masses. The LA Times this last week is just now getting close to what I exposed when the conflict broke out. Frankly, I'm tired of watching CNN, Fox, MSNBC, etc. fumble around with these so called "experts" to explain why Hezbollah attacked Israel. Talk radio is not doing any better. It seems like everyday a new pundit is paraded in front of us, only to miss the point yet again.
The other day I was listening to the Radio Factor, and Bill O'Reilly introduced a man he touted as being in the "top five" in the world on terrorism. This retired Colonel, advertising his new book, seemed like a very intelligent and knowledgeable man. However, what he said stunned me. He was asked why Hezbollah attacked Israel when it did. The response: "They were copying Hamas." I could not believe that I actually just heard those words. No wonder everyone is confused. To be fair, terrorism is a massive field to study, and most "experts" have a particular field of expertise. The theory that Iran ordered Hezbollah to attack in order to divert attention away from the nuclear issue was a better theory than Hezbollah copying Hamas, but still wrong.
Perhaps I'm being a little mean, and even a little stuck up. If I am, I apologize, but my reasoning is sound. The answer is simple and very clear. Hezbollah is only doing what it has always done, and had promised to do. The reason Hezbollah attacked Israel is - Samir Kuntar. You see, in October of 2000, Hezbollah attacked Israel and abducted three IDF soldiers in order to secure the release of fourteen Lebanese prisoners. Samir Kuntar among them. A prisoner exchange was not arranged until January 2004. This was too long a wait for Hezbollah, so they executed the three IDF soldiers. They also launched several attacks, and kidnapped more Israelis in order to force Israel into a prisoner exchange.
January 29, 2004 the prisoner exchange finally took place. A total of 30 Lebanese and Arab prisoners, the remains of 60 Lebanese militants and civilians, 420 Palestinian prisoners, and maps showing Israeli mines in South Lebanon were exchanged for an Israeli businessman and army reserve colonel kidnapped in 2001 and the remains of the three IDF soldiers kidnapped and executed in 2000. Where were the cries of disproportionality then? There was a problem, however, Samir Kuntar was not amongst the prisoners to be exchanged. Hezbollah had vowed to get Samir Kuntar back, but failed.
On November 21, 2005 Hezbollah launched an attack along the entire border with Israel which was supposed to provide tactical cover for an attempt by a squad of Hezbollah special forces to abduct Israeli troops in the Israeli side of the village of Al-Ghajar. In order to again force Israel into prisoner negotiations. The attack failed when an ambush by IDF paratroopers killed four Hezbollah members and scattered the rest. Hezbollah would attack Israel again one month later in Kiryat Shmona.
Having failed to get Samir Kuntar back in 2004, and the subsequent failures to kidnap more Israelis in 2005, Hassan Nasrallah declared that Hezbollah would carry out further operations at a later date to gain the release of Samir Kuntar and others. July 12, 2006 they made good on their promise with Operation Truthful Promise (a telling name isn't it). The operation killed eight IDF soldiers, and saw two others kidnapped. That's where we are today. There is no great mystery as to why Hezbollah attacked. They certainly aren't copying Hamas. They've been using the same tactic since Israel pulled out of Lebanon in 2000. In fact, after Operation Truthful Promise, Hezbollah immediately called for negotiations for a prisoner exchange hoping Israel would be preoccupied with Hamas. Hassan Nasrallah has since admitted on Al Jazeera that he did not anticipate Israel's response.
So who is the man Hezbollah wants back so bad? Samir Kuntar is a Lebanese terrorist who was convicted, and sentenced to four life terms in prison for the murder of four Israelis in 1979. Kuntar got into a shootout with Israeli police, and killed two of them. One victim was a 28 year old man Kuntar had taken hostage along with his daughter. That man's 4 year old daughter would be the fourth of Kuntar's victims. What's truly disturbing about the latter was not that she was murdered by Samir Kuntar at all, but how he did it. After he murdered her father in front of her he put her head on a rock, and smashed it with the butt of his rifle. He has admitted numerous times to the murders, and has expressed pride in them. Just in case you don't believe one man could possibly drive Hezbollah to commit these acts, I have more for you.
In 2003 Israel agreed to exchange 400 prisoners with Hezbollah for an Israeli businessman, and the bodies of those three IDF soldiers Hezbollah executed. Remember, the exchange didn't happen until 2004. Hassan Nasrallah refused unless Samir Kuntar was among them. 400 Lebanese prisoners weren't as important to Hezbollah as Samir Kuntar? Israel then agreed to release Samir Kuntar IF Hezbollah provided solid proof of the fate of Ron Arad, an air force pilot missing in Lebanon since 1986. Hezbollah never provided any details about Arad, so Israel still holds Kuntar, and Hezbollah is still kidnapping Israelis trying to get this one man back.
Casey Hendrickson