Hezbollah and public relations

We learn today that the two Israeli Defense Forces prisoners swapped with Hezbollah for Lebanese prisoners are dead. It had been widely suspected, but confirmed when Hezbollah members pulled two coffins out of the van in the swap.

Coverage so far in American media gives us the basic facts. Certainly this is a sad day for Israel. Certainly it is humiliating for Israel and has the effect of encouraging other attempts for Hezbollah or Hamas to attempt to capture Israeli soldiers. I won't weigh in on the question of whether or not Israel made the right decision or even had much of a choice in the matter, but certainly this is a bad public relations moment for Olmert's government.

In Lebanon, the response is the polar opposite, of course. The main person released, Samir Kuntar, who entered Israel in 1979 and murdered a man and his four year-old daughter. He is receiving a national welcome. It was the attempt to get Kuntar released that provoked the capture of the two Israeli soldiers in the first place. The kidnapping then provoked the disastrous war Israel launched against Hezbollah in 2006.

While Israel mourns and Lebanon celebrates, the rest of the world watches. I can't think this is a helpful moment for Hezbollah outside of the region. How vile do you need to be in order to withhold the fact that these two men were long dead and dishonestly trade them for five prisoners, the most high profile of which is a man who killed a four year old girl in the name of his ideology?

The BBC published a quote from the father and grandfather of the 1979 victims:

Ehud Goldwasser's father, Shlomo Goldwasser, said he was mystified by the Lebanese celebrations, coming after the recent war with Israel.

"I cannot understand what the Lebanese are so glad about and happy about," he said.

"They sacrificed over 700 of their best warriors and all their economy, and what they get for what they did is a murderer, a bloody murderer of a three-and-a-half-year-old girl and her father - and for this they are making all this glory, for this they sacrificed so much. So I feel only pity for them."

I am generally not a big defender of Israel. I'm a believer in the two-state solution that includes Palestinian control of East Jerusalem. I think that Israel has illegally annexed the Golan Heights. But it is hard to see Hezbollah as victims when they pull off cold-blooded stunts like this.