Posted on 07/31/2006 1:39:58 AM PDT by Clive
On Sunday, the Israeli Air Force launched missiles at the Lebanese town of Qana, killing at least 54 civilians, most of them children. It was a horrible tragedy, one that unleashed understandable fury among the people of Lebanon, and sincere expressions of regret among Israeli political and military officials.
Some are calling this a war crime, and they're right. But the culpable party is Hezbollah, not Israel.
While it was Israeli planes that launched the missiles, these attacks did not materialize out of thin air. Since this conflict began on July 12, about 150 rockets have been fired from the vicinity of Qana, with the launchers hidden among civilian targets in the town itself. Speaking to reporters on Sunday evening, Israeli Air Force Chief of Staff Brig.-Gen. Amir Eshel produced video footage showing the launchers being driven into Qana following fusillades.
For Hezbollah, this is a clever tactic. If Israel doesn't attack Hezbollah's human shields, the group keeps its weapons. If Israel does attack, Hezbollah scores a propaganda victory. From a terrorist's point of view, it's win-win: Hezbollah's leaders don't care about the lives of innocent Lebanese civilians any more than they care about the lives of Jews.
The global community shouldn't let Hezbollah get away with this cynical, deadly game. In its primer on the current conflict, Human Rights Watch (hardly a pro-Israeli outfit) makes it clear which side is guilty of war crimes in Qana: "Hezbollah must take all necessary precautions to protect civilians against the dangers resulting from armed hostilities, and must never use the presence of civilians to shield themselves from attack. That requires positioning its military assets, troops and commanders as much as possible outside of populated areas. The use of human shields is a war crime."
It also bears mention that Israel has done its best to separate Hezbollah from those human shields. On Thursday, three days before the deadly Qana attack, Israeli military radio broadcast repeated warnings into southern Lebanon telling residents their villages would be "totally destroyed" if missiles were fired from them. On Saturday, a day before the attack, Israeli planes dropped leaflets containing the same message.
In many cases, civilians had difficulty acting on these warnings, because Israeli air-strikes on roads made the journey north too difficult and risky. But most people have gotten out. And no reasonable observer can accuse the Israelis of deliberately targeting civilians (as Hezbollah has been doing for three weeks now). If Israel really were seeking to exterminate Lebanese civilians, the body count would be well into five figures.
Nothing that we or anyone else write will ease the agony wrought in Qana and the many other places -- on both sides of the Lebanese-Israeli border -- where innocents have perished. But mercifully, we in Canada are not in that situation. Our removal from the conflict gives us the ability to look beyond the immediate carnage, and examine the deeper intentions of the parties to this war. And according to both civilized morality and international law, it is not Israel that has the blood of innocents on its hands, but Hezbollah.
ping
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How come so many women and children were concentrated in an area where Israelis had WARNED they were going to bomb DAYS in advance? I think Hezballah has the answer. And I believe Hezballah thinks NOTHING of using women and children in a propaganda campaign against Israel and the west.
Wake up world!...When war comes..innocents are killed...Can anyone remember 9/11???
Please send me a FReepmail to get on or off this Canada ping list.
The slaves of satanallah ARE EVIL!
They MURDERED 3,000+ American Citizens in an unprovoked sneak attack on 911.
Look at Beslan, they MURDERED CHILDREN!!!
Time to send muuuhhamheads little death cult to hell! islam IS LAME!
Thoughtful and well-written piece. I echo the writer's conclusions..
As Golda Meyer once said, "there will be no peace until the arabs love their children more than they hate the Jews."
Mark
Yet.
High Volume. Articles on Israel can also be found by clicking on the Topic or Keyword Israel.
also Keywords 2006israelwar or WOT [War on Terror]
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The Hezzies scumbags set up shop in villages, some dressed as civilians, and begin lobbing rockets at the Israelis;
the Israelis come back and warn the so called "innocent" civilians to get out of the area; the civilians do not leave, either because they don't want to be bothered or the Hezzies won't let them;
Somc civilians get killed in an airstrike - because they weren't really "innocent" civilians, because they were human shields or they didn't want to be bothered to leave.
Sorry, I'm having a hard time summoning up much sympathy!
They were bombs from all other reports. Why state they launched missiles? A little word play is in work. IMHO.
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