Today, Samir Qantar is to receive a hero’s welcome when he is handed back to the Lebanese in a prisoner swap. So what makes him a hero to the Lebanese?

Well, thirty years ago he broke into the home of an Israeli in northern Israel, killed a couple of Israelis and then slammed the head of a four year old girl against a rock and killed her. Another young child who was two years old and being hidden in a closet accidentally suffocated to death when her mother was trying to tried to stifle her cries. This reminds me of a neighbour of mine who told me that when they were hiding from the Nazis her mother accidentally stifled her own child. Can you imagine the horror of such an experience?

The animal responsible for this outrage is now feted as a hero in Lebanon.

This is the sort of scum whose return makes the Lebanese celebrate. A vicious child murderer!

No doubt there will be dancing in the streets, that shrill shrieking that Arab women do and even a Bank Holiday has been declared. When a nation has nothing really to be proud of then the return of a vile monster like Samir Qantar has to do.

By contrast, on the Israeli side, where the two coffins containing the alleged bodies of the two soldiers whose kidnapping sparked the war in 2006, there is solemn and respectful silence. After all, they are receiving the dead bodies of Israelis who will now be buried in Israel.

I am in awe of the dignity of the Israelis and marvel at this essential difference between Jews and Arabs.

Lebanon will receive the bodies of 199 dead Lebanese militants but that apparently is not a solemn occasion for Arabs. No need for mourning in Lebanon where life is so worthless that not even dead bodies are received with dignified respect. There will be a hoopin’ and a hollerin’ and partying in Lebanon but it won’t fool anybody in the civilised world.

The truth is that two dead Israelis are worth more than one vicious convicted child murderer and almost two hundred dead Arabs. Hard to understand really what the celebration is all about on the Lebanese side. I would have thought that the dead deserve less partying and more respect, but then I’ll never fathom the mind of Arabs.