THE Palestinian big lie against Israel keeps shifting as the truth emerges. Pot, Kettle, Black.
The first big lie was that the Israelis had perpetrated a massacre in Jenin, killing more than 500 people and then stashing them in mass graves. Then, as aid workers and journalists uncovered no evidence of mass graves, the lie was that the Israelis had secretly transported the dead bodies in refrigerated trucks.
Podhoretz is unseemly in his haste to shut the book on this. The Palestinian dead and missing are only now being tallied. They still have to do a lot of searching and digging. It will be very suspicious if, at the end of that process, there are still many missing and unaccounted for Palestinians.
... "the convention forbids violence being used against civilians, as well as inhumane or degrading treatment . . . It is claimed that civilians died in Jenin when their houses were demolished. The convention prohibits the destruction of property except where military operations make it absolutely necessary."
Lies. Lies lies lies. Damnable, outrageous, unseemly lies.
Shrieking denials are not a good substitute for an independent investigation.
The simple truth is this: International law relating to the conduct of the incursion exculpates the Israelis and convicts the Palestinian Authority. Period.
Bald assertions of Israeli innocence and Palestinian guilt are worthless. There should be an independent investigation.
The Israelis went into Jenin and made a systematic search for bomb laboratories and terror cells that had been hidden among civilians. The purpose was to destroy the laboratories and take prisoner or kill those who had been building the suicide bombs and directing the suicide attacks.
This supposed goal doesn't justify massive Israeli crimes against Palestinians. Israelis who commit crimes against Palestinians should be brought to justice.
Article 37 outlaws the use of civilian populations as a shield for military actions.
Israelis who forced Palestinians to serve as human shields should be punished, along with their commanders.
It explicitly prohibits "the feigning of civilian, noncombatant status; and the feigning of protected status by the use of signs, emblems or uniforms of the United Nations or of neutral or other States not Parties to the conflict."
Allegations of Palestinian wrongdoing cannot in any way exculpate Israelis or free them from the obligation to obey international law.
Article 38 specifically addresses the ambulance issue: "It is prohibited to make improper use of the distinctive emblem of the red cross, red crescent or red lion and sun." And yet this is precisely what the Palestinians have done. The Israelis have stopped and searched ambulances emblazoned with the Red Crescent and found suicide belts hidden in them. One of these incidents, on March 27, was captured on videotape.
Two wrongs don't make a right. A rare incident like this provides no justification for widespread Israeli violence against ambulances and medical personnel. Israelis are not released from any of their moral and legal obligations.
