Special to WorldTribune.com

Israel’s assassination of notorious terrorist Samir Kuntar was carried out as a “response” to his close ties with Iran and his planning of a major terror attack on the Golan Heights, an analyst said.

Kuntar, a top commander for Iran terror proxy Hizbullah, was killed in an Israeli air strike in Damascus, Syria on Dec. 19.

“There’s every reason in the world that this vile person received his punishment, but that isn’t the reason for the action,” Dr. Eran Lerman, former deputy head of the National Security Council, told Arutz Sheva on Dec. 21.

“The reason for the operation is that the Iranians and their allies use this person (Kuntar)…in order to create among the Druze population and additional sources in the Syrian Golan Heights a base of influence and terror, in service of the Iranian interests, and this situation obligates Israel into response actions.”

Lerman, who currently lectures at Shalem College in Jerusalem, said “the intention of the Iranians, more than of the Syrian regime, is to turn the Golan Heights into a strategic potential base for direct action against Israel, and also (to create) a lack of stability in Jordan, so as to be able to influence events across the Jordan River in Judea and Samaria.”

In 1979, Kuntar murdered three Israelis, including 31-year-old Danny Haran, and Haran’s 4-year-old daughter who he beat to death with his rifle butt. The girl’s two-year-old sister was accidentally smothered to death by their terrified mother who was trying to prevent them from being discovered.

Newsweek called the attacks “so sickening they give pause even to some of Israel’s enemies.”

“He killed a civilian family, including a baby, many years ago and he’s still involved in terrorism,” Israeli National Infrastructure, Energy, and Water Minister Yuval Steinitz said. “So if something happened to him, I think that no civilized person can be sorry.”

Danny Haran’s brother, Roni, told Ynetnews that he had “waited for this moment for seven years, since Kuntar was released from prison.

“Samir Kuntar never regretted his actions, and there is a small consolation in [his assassination], although it doesn’t take away the pain. I hope that this gets the message across that whoever murders Jews in Israel and in the world will end up like Samir Kuntar. As it stands, in the Middle East, this seems like the only language they understand.”

Hizbullah reportedly retaliated for the killing of Kuntar on Dec. 20 by firing three rockets into Western Galilee in northern Israel. Israel Defense Forces (IDF) responded with targeted artillery fire.

“The IDF holds the Lebanese Army responsible for attacks emanating from its territory,” an IDF Spokesperson told Breitbart Jerusalem.

  Danny Haran, Iran ties made him target for assassination by the Israelis, Kuntar’s track record, Samir Kuntar, WorldTribune.com, Yuval Steinitz