Kuntar says he's jealous of 'the Zionists'

Released killer says he envies Israel for not sparing any effort in bringing back captured soldiers.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
kuntar nazi 224.88 (photo credit: AP [file])
kuntar nazi 224.88
(photo credit: AP [file])
"I'm jealous of the Zionists, who don't spare any effort in bringing back captured soldiers or soldiers' bodies," convicted killer Samir Kuntar, who was released Wednesday in Israel's prisoner swap with Hizbullah, told the group's Al Manar TV on Thursday night. "Seriously, we are jealous of our enemy and its care for a [body] and how it goes to the end of the world in order to return it, and of its concerns for captives and how it will go to the very edge to bring them back," he said. Kuntar blasted Arab nations for not doing enough in the years of conflict with Israel to help the Palestinian cause and slammed them for sufficing with solidarity gestures alone. The convicted murderer attacked late Egyptian president Anwar Sadat, saying he reaching a peace deal with Israel over the return of Sinai at the Palestinians' expense. In the interview, Kuntar displayed an apparent wide knowledge of Israel and its methods of operation, particularly in the intelligence field. In 1979, Kuntar and three other members of Abu Abbas's Palestine Liberation Front entered a Nahariya apartment building where they took Danny Haran, 28, and his four-year-old daughter, Einat, hostage. As police arrived on the scene, the terrorists pulled Danny and Einat down to the beach, where Kuntar shot Danny dead and crushed Einat's head on the rocks with the butt of his rifle, killing her. Two of Kuntar's men were killed during a shootout on the beach with police, while Kuntar and Ahmed Abrass were captured. Abrass was released in the May 1985 Ahmed Jibril prisoner exchange deal. Kuntrar denied killing Einat saying it was invented by Israel. Kuntar told Al Manar that he and the terror cell had sought to take a hostage from the house and found Danny holding Einat. Kuntar said that Danny insisted on holding onto his daughter and had he not done so, the terrorists would have kidnapped him and taken him to Lebanon. Kuntar maintained that Einat was killed by Israeli fire.