Take-A-Pen’s recent Letter-Writing Call ! 18 July 2008              

Let’s write our letters about the so-called “prisoner exchange” between Israel and the Hizbullah;

Actually, Israel released convicted murderer Samir Kuntar and many more for returning the remains of its two abducted servicemen, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev.

Ehud Goldwasser Z”l

Eldad Regev Z”l

Samir Kuntar

There are many wide-spread misconceptions about this “deal”, so where-ever you read about this case, Write Your Own Letter to the Editor of your paper or to a VIP, to spread the truth. If you like, use any of the points made in the opinion piece below: “Woe to the nation whose hero is Samir Kuntar!”                  

(E .M. www.take-a-pen.org )

 

Woe to the nation whose hero is Samir Kuntar.

By Endre MOZES – Take-A-Pen.org

16 July 2008

Prisoner exchange? No:

Israel exchanged 5 Lebanese, among them a convicted mass-murderer, plus 190 bodies –

for the remains of its two abducted servicemen

 

The state and the citizens of Israel have always been devoted to the protection of their missing soldiers. Today, on 16 July 2008 Israel exchanged 5 Lebanese, among them a despicable convicted mass-murderer, Samir Kuntar, plus 190 bodies - for the remains of its two servicemen abducted by Hizbullah in 2006.

 Israeli soldiers always know that while they risk their lives to defend their citizens, their country will also do its utmost to retrieve them should they fall into the hands of the enemy. This is the tradition of Israel's deep reverence for human life and for its fallen. Both old Jewish ethics and new Israeli sense of morality support this principle, even if the price is almost unbearable. 

 

However, the present ‘deal’ seems to be particularly irrational and painful. Though it was not absolutely certain, intelligence said clearly that the abducted soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev were dead. To release convicted murderers for dead bodies is not only too generous but also very dangerous in more than one sense.  In the Ahmad Jibril precedence in the eighties Israel exchanged 6000 Arab fighters captured in Lebanon and released 70 convicted terrorists with blood of Israeli civilians on their hands – for freeing 5 Israeli soldier POW-s.  Within 18 months Israel counted its 31 new civilian victims at the hands of those who were among the 70 released terrorists. Furthermore, such great successes for kidnappers of Israeli soldiers in non-combatant times are the strongest motivators for them to do it again next time. No wonder that Israel’s two intelligence bodies, the Mossad and the Shabbak, strongly opposed the present deal.

At the end the emotional and humanitarian urge to ease the sufferings of the families of the soldiers won again in Israel against rational thinking.  This is irrational, but at the same time is somehow also elevating.

 

There isn’t any other symmetry in this exchange either between receiving bodies of soldiers who guarded a border to protect civilians, and handing over live terrorists who penetrated Israel to kill innocent civilians. Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev were serving as ordinary IDF reserve soldiers, patrolling a border fence on Israeli sovereign territory, when they were abducted by Hizbullah on 12 July 2006 in an unprovoked cross-border attack.

On the other hand, Samir Kuntar, the foremost terrorist of the five released in the deal, is a heinous murderer, responsible for one of the most despicable terror attacks on Israel. Kuntar lead a squad of four who infiltrated Israel via the sea on 22 April 1979. At midnight they broke into the Nahariya home of the Haran family and abducted the father Danny and his three-and-half-year-old daughter Einat.  When Israeli security forces approached, Kuntar shot the father at close range while the terrified little girl looked on, then slaughtered the little girl in subhuman cruelty; by smashing her head against a rock several times with the butt of his rifle. Then he surrendered to save his own skin.

In the gunfire two Israeli policemen and three of the terror squad were killed. In the meantime the mother, Smadar, was hiding in the home's crawlspace with her two-year-old daughter Yael. Tragically, she accidently smothered her baby while stifling her cries to prevent the terrorists from discovering them. The tragedy of a whole family was complete.

 

This Samir Kuntar is the hero of Hezbollah, of the Palestinians and a large part of the Arab world! They have been celebrating him for years as their idol, and now have given him a hero’s welcome. Similar “heroes” were the two Palestinians who murdered at point blank the 33-year-old and pregnant Tali Hatuel and her four daughters aged 3 to 11, in her car held-up at Kfar Darom.

What people can execute little girls in mafia style? What nations can have such people as their role models? Shame on such nations.  Woe to such nations.

An organization can be judged by whom it chooses to idolize and to hold up as an example for its youth. Tellingly, Samir Kuntar, a vile child-killer is the hero of Hizbullah, the Iranian-backed extremist Islamist terror organization, which worships death and destruction in the most inhuman ways, and clings to its goal of destroying Israel.

 

Hizbullah’s leaders are war criminals, but unfortunately it hasn’t been said clearly and loudly enough. Hizbullah has been the largest obstacle to any peace in the region and a threat to Lebanon’s stability, not only a danger to Israel. It is continuing to smuggle arms and ammunition into Lebanon, and to rebuild its missile arsenal; it trains, equips and deploys terrorists not only throughout Lebanon, but also for international terrorism. The international community must act with determination to remove this threat.

The international community and even Israel have been at fault for mostly keeping silent about Hizbullah’s war crimes. By killing 7 Israeli soldiers and kidnapping two in an unprovoked attack, along with its simultaneous bombardment of northern Israel, Hizbullah sparked Israel’s Second Lebanon War which demanded the death of more than a thousand people and caused fear and suffering for millions on both sides.

Then, breaking all written and unwritten human laws, Hizbullah denied any access to the two kidnapped men, or any information about them, in order to maximize the suffering of their families and of a society where humanist considerations are stronger than its direct interest. This unlawful, pirate-like attitude of Hizbullah is a war crime and this should be emphasized in every mention of their name until they are recognized internationally as a terrorist organization.

 

Last but not least, blessed be the memory of the fallen Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev.

  

-   o   -   o   -

 

 

Scroll down to read Take-A-Pen’s previous Letter-writing Calls, some of them still relevant:

LW Call ii: Help to dismantle the ‘Muhammad Al Durra Fraud! - UPDATE: Feb.15, 2008, and

LW Call iii : Save SDEROT & Save GAZA!   -   UPDATE:  January 22, 2008

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LW Call ii - Help us to spread the truth about the Muhammad Al Dura image!

 

Let’s act to further check and discredit the most probably fake France 2 movie about killing Muhammad al-Durra***!

                              ------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Can France 2’s famous Muhammad Al Dura film be a fake?

 

 

Famous   frame of the probably fake France TV-2 movie about the alleged killing of   the Palestinian kid Muhammad al-Durra   by Israel,       on
Sept.  30, 2000.

January 22, 2008

A/ New Evidence against the Al Dura Fraud provided by surgeon! - by Endre MOZES* - Dec 17, 2007 – See on our English page  - Click ‘English’ button above

 

      Read below: 

B/ Reader’s Letter about Al Durra, by Take-A-Pen, published in the Jerusalem Post : “Nothing supports France-2 saying that Israeli soldiers killed the boy” (Nov.22)

C/ Backgrounder about the Al Durra case - by Take-A-Pen*- October 25, 2007, Update: February 15, 2008  -   (Also in English, Russian, Spanish, Dutch, French, German, Hungarian, Finnish, Swedish and Danish on Take-A-Pen’s relevant pages)

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  B/ Reader’s Letter by Take-A-Pen, published in The Jerusalem Post :

     ”Not a single frame supports France 2’s view that Israeli soldiers killed the Al-Durra boy” 

To the Letter Editor                                 (as published on November 22, 2007)

More important than the personal

Sir, - Re: "Outcry raised over missing minutes in al-Dura film"(Nov.19): It is commendable that the Post is covering this case, which has suffered from insufficient media attention. But I disliked the tone of this article, which repeatedly generalized supporters of Philippe Karsenty’s views such as myself  as 'crying foul', as if this were a football match. 

Our international media-watch organization, Take-A-Pen, has followed this important and tragic case since September 2000.  I traveled to Paris to learn and do more for the truth and not to support a person, though I respect Karsenty's courage in standing up for what he believes.

The article discussed the interesting point that France 2 presented only 18 minutes of footage instead of the known 27 minutes. I saw those 18 minutes together with the jury, and there isn’t a single frame there supporting France 2’s Charles Enderlin’s original voiceover assessment that Israeli soldiers killed the boy, or were involved in his death in any way. On the other hand, I observed and upon request can present many indications that France 2's film was staged; as Philippe Karsenty says.

More important than the personal aspect is the fact that hundreds of millions have believed for years France 2's statement about terrible Israeli brutality committed against a young boy; a belief that today seems totally unfounded.

ENDRE MOZES, Chairman

Take-A-Pen, Haifa

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  C/ Al-Dura Backgrounder by Take-A-Pen*      - October 25, 2007,  Last Update: February 15, 2008

 

   On September 30, 2000 the world watched with horror and pain France 2 TV’s movie showing how a Palestinian boy, Muhammad al-Durrah, was killed in crossfire between Palestinian gunmen and Israeli soldiers.  In his voiceover France 2’s reporter Charles Enderlin asserted (though, as it turned out he had not been present at the event and leant on the sole witness Palestinian cameraman Talal Abu Rahma) that Israel killed the boy, implying it was deliberate.

 

     The footage spread fast across the world, and the images, together with the accusation against Israel, became the most powerful icons of hate; for Palestinians, for the global Jihad and for Israel- and Jew-haters around the world. For an example, Jewish journalist Daniel Pearl's killers used al-Durrah's image in the video showing Pearl's beheading.

 

     Since then more and more experts around the world - and recently the Israeli Defense Forces itself - concluded that the France 2’s al-Durrah movie must have been a forgery and their accusation untrue. Analyses of site layout and ballistic evidence prove IDF soldiers could not shoot the boy.

 

    Sensational Breakthrough on 14 November - Crucial Day in the Court

    France 2 broadcast less than 1 minute of the 27 minutes raw footage shot by Rahma. The full footage could have spilled light on the truth, but France 2 has always refused to make this crucial evidence available to experts or to the public. Instead, they accused French investigating reporter Philippe Karsenty, one of those who said the footage was a fraud, of libel. Last year France 2 almost won the case. Karsenty, despite a recommendation from the prosecutor to rule in his favor, was found guilty and was fined 1 Euro in damages.

    However, on 12 September 2007 the case took a new turn. On that first day of the present appeal trial, the judge ruled that France 2 must submit the entire footage to the court by the next hearing on November 14.  (Take A Pen and its friends, inside and out of our organization, may feel true satisfaction; our previous intensive letter-writing campaign, to TV France 2 and to French President Sarkozy**, had probably contributed to the court’s will to reveal the truth this time.

    On November 14 the next two breakthroughs followed. First of all; France 2 didn’t present the full original raw footage, but 18 minutes only; Secondly, the newly revealed 17 minutes was full of contradictions regarding the authenticity of the footage. And, most importantly, the footage didn’t show a single frame, which supported in any remote way France 2’s statement about Israelis killing the boy, or being involved in his death in any way. Everybody has now a very good reason not to believe any more to France 2’s al-Durrah story, which was literally a ‘one-man-show’, based on the sole eye-witness, the Palestinian cameraman Talal Abu Rahmeh.

 

    Our strong wish is now that the full truth about the Al-Dura case be found. That Philippe Karsenty’s mouth be not shut. That the horrible Al-Dura libel be dismantled. That it perpetrators be discredited forever.

 

    The future? In Paris, the city where Captain Dreyfuss was once unjustly sentenced and much later rehabilitated, TV France 2 may also become from the accuser the libelous party; for disseminating its probably fake Muhammad Al-Durrah movie and the unfounded accusation it made, and for obstructing the finding of truth, by concealing the full raw footage for so long and partly even today.

 

    Take-A-Pen’s chairman was in the Paris courtroom on November 14, to immediately inform You, in a joint project with the prestigious HonestReporting organization, about the outcome of the hearing –  SEE OUR REPORT AND YOUTUBE MOVIE, ON TOP OF THIS HOME PAGE!(Nov. 15, 2007)

    We’ll be in the Paris courtroom again on 27 February 2008, to follow the hearing and, it is reached, to hear the VERDICT, hopefully a positive one. 

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   *Endre MOZES, Take-A-Pen’s chairman wrote this backgrounder/editorial, see at http://www.take-a-pen.org/CallForAction/CFA.html

    ** See at http://www.take-a-pen.org/CallForAction/CFA.html

    *** The name Al Dura is written in many forms, incl. al Dura, al-Dura, Al Durra, Al Durrah and more.

 

  

   You may read selected previous letters and articles about this case:

 

(1) Take-A-Pen Chairman’s Letter to President of France, Nicolas Sarkozy; re: the Al-Durrah case - read below

(2) Background info for the Muhammad al-Durrah fake  -  in English and in French:

           http://www.theaugeanstables.com/2006/09/18/cybercast-news-service-weighs-in-on-al-durah-trial/

(3) IDF demands France 2 video of al-Dura shooting -  read below

(4) September 23, 2007 - Dam Bursts at Al Dura Trial! by Nidra Poller - read below

 

  Based on all these you can write your own letter! to your own paper or TV station, asking coverage and proper commentary about the case; or to the court or to President Sarkozy, demanding justice:.  France 2 and not Karsenty is the libelous party.

                    

 

(1)  Take-A-Pen Chairman’s Letter to President Nicolas Sarkozy:

 

To: Le Président de la Republique, Nicolas Sarkozy

      Via Facsimile: 00 33 1 47 42 24 65


Dear President Sarkozy:    September 3, 2007

 

Subject: Trial of Philippe Karsenty about the Mohammed al-Durrah fake - and

               the role of France’s President

Your election to France’s president has changed the world’s spiritual map.  France, one of the world’s opinion leaders, radiates sincerity again.  Many people around the world start to believe again that honest and brave leadership may be stronger than deals and political correctness.

We are approaching you about a complex legal case coming to an appeal court in France soon; where a defamation case, a blood libel against the Israeli people, and the reputation of France, its justice system and its President are at stake.

Below I recall some facts about this case and about the close involvement of the French presidency.


(We, Take-A-Pen, are a global volunteer organization around the world which in 18 languages and in many countries watches the media and public life for their truth or untruth said and done, particularly about Israel and the Middle East. We act and publicly write in defense of the truth.)

 

One of the worse atrocities against truth the world has seen in recent years was the less than a minute long movie of France’s TV-2 about the alleged deliberate killing of a Palestinian boy, Mohammed al-Durrah, by Israel.

This movie and the photos became the most powerful icons of the Palestinians, of global Jihad and of hatred of Israel around the world.

Powerful icons both for honest people who naïvely believed that such cruelty had really happened, an