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It happens every time. Israel is forced into a defensive war, and winds up defending itself against canards of aggression and excessive force. Around the water cooler and on talk radio, Israel's supporters are put on the spot: Why are so many Lebanese civilians being killed? Why the destruction of so much infrastructure? Can't Israel show some restraint? At times like this, every Jew becomes an ambassador for Israel. Even if you don't agree with everything Israel does, we must defend Israel's right to self-defense. So let's sort out fact from fiction -- for the sake of Israel, and for ourselves. Myth: Israel is attacking and killing hundreds of Lebanese civilians. Fact: The death of any innocent civilian is tragic and Israel regrets the loss of life. [Click here to see missile attack on Haifa.] Why are civilians dying? Because Hezbollah is hiding among civilians, using villages, mosques and even private homes to store and manufacture weapons caches that include 12,000 missiles. This creates a conundrum for the Israeli military, where Hezbollah wins either way: If the IDF shies away from attacking because of the proximity of civilians, Hezbollah's terror infrastructure remains in place. And if the IDF attacks, no matter how carefully, there will be collateral damage -- triggering condemnation in the media, and emboldening Hezbollah to operate from civilian areas. Following the missile strike that killed civilians in Qana, Israeli officials showed aerial footage taken two days earlier of Katyusha rockets being fired near houses in Qana, and of a Katyusha launcher firing missiles and then being driven into Qana and hidden inside a house. Further, two days before the strike, the Israeli military's Al-Mashriq radio that broadcasts into southern Lebanon warned residents their villages would be "totally destroyed" if missiles were fired from them. Leaflets with similar messages were dropped in some areas one day before. Even the UN's humanitarian chief, Jan Egeland, said: "Hezbollah must stop this cowardly blending... among women and children. I heard they were proud because they lost very few fighters and that it was the civilians bearing the brunt of this." Some reports show that Hezbollah is trying to maximize Lebanese civilian deaths, presumably for its own propaganda purposes: Roadblocks have been set up outside some villages to prevent residents from leaving. In the Qana incident, the bombs were dropped at 1 a.m., but the building collapse took place at 7 a.m., leading to speculating that Hezbollah munitions stored in the house might have brought it down, perhaps deliberately as a way to pressure Israel into a ceasefire. Meanwhile, in order to minimize civilian casualties, Israel has dropped warning leaflets in Lebanon, advising residents to protect their own safety by "avoiding all places frequented by Hizbullah." When was the last time that Arab terrorists alerted Israeli civilians of an impending strike? So let's be clear who bears responsibility for the deaths of Lebanese civilians. As Alan Dershowitz writes: A bank robber who takes a teller hostage and fires at police from behind his human shield is guilty of murder if they, in an effort to stop the robber from shooting, accidentally kill the hostage. The same should be true of terrorists who use civilians as shields from behind whom they fire their rockets.
Fact: That UN post, in the words of the Canadian peacekeeper who was killed there, was being used by Hezbollah as cover. As retired Canadian Major General Lewis Mackenzie, interviewed on CBC radio, explained: "We received emails from [the Canadian peacekeeper who was killed at the UN post] a few days ago, and he was describing the fact that he was taking fire within, in one case, three meters of his position for tactical necessity, not being targeted. Now that's veiled speech in the military. What he was telling us was Hezbollah soldiers were all over his position and the IDF were targeting them. And that's a favorite trick by people who don't have representation in the UN. They use the UN as shields knowing that they can't be punished for it." Furthermore, Hezbollah has attacked UNIFIL observers repeatedly this week. From the UN's own press releases: In the last 24 hours... Hezbollah fired from the vicinity of four UN positions at Marwahin, Alma Ash Shab, Brashit, and At Tiri. (27 July 2006) One unarmed UN military observer, a member of the Observer Group Lebanon (OGL), was seriously wounded by small arms fire in the patrol base in the Marun Al Ras area yesterday afternoon. According to preliminary reports, the fire originated from the Hezbollah side during an exchange with the IDF. He was evacuated by the UN to the Israeli side, from where he was taken by an IDF ambulance helicopter to a hospital in Haifa. He was operated on, and his condition is now reported as stable. (24 July 2006) Note that the UN observer was injured badly enough to be evacuated to an Israeli hospital -- where they saved his life. Kofi Annan's reaction? Not a word of condemnation against Hezbollah, and not a word of gratitude for Israel's rescue of the UN observer. Myth: Israel is needlessly targeting Lebanon's civilian infrastructure. Fact: Prior to the fighting, Lebanon was recovering from a long, destructive civil war. Last year's "Cedar Revolution" against Syrian occupation gave the world high hopes for the possibility of a new Lebanon. Tourism was on the rise, business was improving, and national infrastructure was being rebuilt. Hezbollah has now used this infrastructure to support its own violent agenda. For years, weapons shipments passed through the capitol's international airport, across the Beirut-Damascus highway, and through various coastal ports. That's why Israel has been forced to bomb the transportation network, to hinder the arrival of arms from Syria/Iran, and to stop Hezbollah from moving the kidnapped Israelis out of the country. Other Israeli strikes have targeted telephone links used by Hezbollah to communicate, Hezbollah offices, banks that handle their money, and TV transmitters from which Hezbollah's Al-Manar station is broadcast. (they're the ones who spread the story that 9-11 was an Israeli plot -- a version of events now accepted by majorities throughout the Muslim world). In fact, Israel is carefully selecting targets, in order to minimize damage. Writes David Frum of the American Enterprise Institute: [Israel] has fought this war on its northern border as humanely as it can. Flip the switch in Beirut and the lights come on; open the taps, and the water flows. Essential services have been spared. The runways at Beirut Airport have been bombed to stop reinforcements to Hezbollah, but the control towers and the newly built terminal have been spared because Lebanon will need them later. Myth: Israel's military response is "disproportionate and excessive." Fact: We need to define our terms: Israel's response may be "disproportionate," but it is not "excessive." In war, you don't measure response by what the enemy has done in the past, but rather how to stop their threats to attack you in the future. Hezbollah is threatening to send missiles into Tel Aviv, and there is the looming threat of Iran supplying Hezbollah with nuclear weapons. This is a serious security threat that must be eliminated. Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen exploded the myth of "excessive force": For Israel, a small country within reach, as we are finding out, of a missile launched from any enemy's back yard, proportionality is not only inapplicable, it is suicide... It is not good enough to take out this or that missile battery. It is necessary to reestablish deterrence: You slap me, I will punch out your lights. Hezbollah boasts 12,000 missiles -- not for defense, but to destroy Israel. Why would the world not allow Israel to defend itself? Because it is more comfortable to live with the illusion of peace, to hope that this will pass and things will somehow work out. But Israel cannot afford to ignore the reality of the threat. It is true that the fighting has produced more Lebanese casualties than Israeli casualties. But if Israel were to tell its citizens not to hide in bomb shelters, so that the thousands of rockets launched from Lebanon would kill many more Israelis, would the world's journalists and government leaders then smugly agree that Israel's effort to stop Hezbollah is indeed "proportionate"? Myth: Hezbollah has a justified grievance and is being provoked by Israel. Fact: Charles Krauthammer said it best: What's the grievance here? Israel withdrew from Lebanon completely in 2000. It was so scrupulous in making sure that not one square inch of Lebanon was left inadvertently occupied that it asked the United Nations to verify the exact frontier defining Lebanon's southern border and retreated behind it. This "blue line" was approved by the Security Council, which declared that Israel had fully complied with resolutions demanding its withdrawal from Lebanon. In the meanwhile, Hezbollah has created a mini-state inside of Lebanon -- with territory, weapons and soldiers. Over the past six years, Hezbollah has launched dozens of attacks across the internationally-recognized border on both civilian and military targets within Israel. The current crisis began on July 12, when Hezbollah launched rockets at Israeli towns and cities in an unprovoked attack, and then crossed the border killing eight Israeli soldiers engaged in routine patrol and kidnapping two more. Hezbollah "claims" that it is fighting over Shebaa Farms, a small tract of land where the borders of Israel, Lebanon and Syria converge. The UN maintains that Shebaa Farms was captured from Syria in 1967, and is subject only to Israeli-Syrian agreement. Shebaa Farms is a thin smokescreen. Hizbullah's goal is the total destruction of Israel, plain and simple. (Read the Hizbullah charter, and Hezbollah's goals in their own words.) Even Arab states like Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan have now chastised Hezbollah for its "unexpected, inappropriate and irresponsible acts." Myth: Lebanon bears no responsibility for the actions of Hezbollah. Fact: According to UN Security Council Resolution 1559, it is the responsibility of the Lebanese government to disarm Hezbollah and to assert Lebanese sovereignty in southern Lebanon. The Lebanese government has completely failed in this regard, standing by while Hezbollah has assembled weapons stockpiles and entrenched itself in Lebanese towns. Further, Lebanon cannot claim disassociation: Hezbollah is actually part of the Lebanese coalition government, holding two seats in the cabinet! The irony of all this is that most of the world -- including the Lebanese population -- hopes that Israel will succeed in doing the job that the Lebanese army has not: liberating southern Lebanon from Hezbollah rule, and giving it back to the Lebanese. Let's all do our part to promote the facts, and to help Israel win its battles on all fronts.
Published: Thursday, July 27, 2006
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Myth: Israel deliberately attacked a United Nations post, killing four UN personnel.
Hear related audio on this topic
QANA -- RIGHTEOUS FOOLS
Well by now you have heard of the great human tragedy that has taken place. It is hard to miss since it is on the front pages of every newspaper all over the world, as well as being the top story on CNN, FOX, BBC and all other news stations. It is so horrific that the United Nations created an emergency meeting on Sunday to convene on how to remedy this tragedy. Yes, you most certainly know of the horrible destruction that I am referring to -- Congo.
Fooled you.
And so has the press, with the aid of the Arab world.
Actually Congo did make it to the front page of Sunday’s New York Times. Thanks to the fact that it was having its election for the first time in 40 years, the Times actually did devote a page (versus three to the Mideast conflict) to write about Congo. Here is an excerpt:
Though Congo’s civil war supposedly ended four years ago … the fighting and chaos here continue to kill about 1,250 people each day, mostly from hunger and disease. In all, nearly four million people have died as a result of the conflict since 1998, almost half of them children under the age of 5, according to the International Rescue Committee.
You read correctly, those figures are not typing mistakes – 1,250 people die each and every day! Four million people dead, most of them children. Four million ... can you spell genocide?
Where is the outrage? Where are the mass protests? Where is the mass media coverage? Where is Kofi? Where are the UN emergency meetings? Where is the offer of international forces?
The world would like for Israel to focus on proportions, as in a proportional response to Hezbollah rockets. I agree whole-heartedly, lets make proportional suffering the operative issue. The human tragedy in Congo demands a proportional response -- it should be first and foremost on people’s minds.
But it is not.
So don’t be fooled. This is not about human suffering or tragedy, nor every other emotional plea the world will use to condemn Israel. This is not to say that suffering and tragedy did not occur; there is no denying that this certainly was the case in yesterday’s events. But do not allow yourself to think for a moment that it was the pain and loss of life that bothers people. If it did, there would be greater cries for justice and protection of human life at the daily slaughter of scores of Iraqis. There would be mass movements and rallies to save millions of innocent lives lost in the Congo, and Rwanda and Darfur. But there isn’t. This is not about human suffering. This is about utilizing a false righteous indignation to condemn Israel -- plain and simple.
So don’t be fooled.
(91) Anonymous, 27/7/2006
'Disproportionate' in What Moral Universe? Charles Krauthammer Must read
What other country, when
attacked in an unprovoked aggression across a recognized
international frontier, is then put on a countdown clock by
the world, given a limited time window in which to fight
back, regardless of whether it has restored its own
security?
What other country sustains 1,500 indiscriminate rocket
attacks into its cities - every one designed to kill, maim
and terrorize civilians - and is then vilified by the world
when it tries to destroy the enemy's infrastructure and
strongholds with precision-guided munitions that sometimes
have the unintended but unavoidable consequence of
collateral civilian death and suffering?
Hearing the world pass judgment on the
Israel-Hezbollah war as it unfolds is to live in an
Orwellian moral universe. With a few significant exceptions
(the leadership of the United States, Britain, Australia,
Canada and a very few others), the world - governments, the
media, U.N. bureaucrats - has completely lost its moral
bearings.
The word that obviates all thinking and magically inverts
victim into aggressor is "disproportionate,"
as in the universally decried "disproportionate Israeli
response."
When the United States was attacked at Pearl Harbor, it did
not respond with a parallel "proportionate"
attack on a Japanese naval base. It launched a four-year
campaign that killed millions of Japanese, reduced Tokyo,
Hiroshima and Nagasaki to a cinder, and turned the Japanese
home islands to rubble and ruin.
Disproportionate? No. When one is wantonly attacked by an
aggressor, one has every right - legal and moral - to carry
the fight until the aggressor is disarmed and so disabled
that it cannot threaten one's security again. That's what it
took with Japan.
Britain was never invaded by Germany in World War II.
Did it respond to the blitz and V-1 and V-2 rockets with
"proportionate" aerial bombardment of Germany? Of course
not. Churchill orchestrated the greatest land invasion in
history that flattened and utterly destroyed Germany,
killing untold innocent German women and children in the
process.
The perversity of today's international outcry lies in the
fact that there is indeed a disproportion in this war, a
radical moral asymmetry between Hezbollah and
Israel: Hezbollah is deliberately trying to create civilian
casualties on both sides while Israel is deliberately trying
to minimize civilian casualties, also on both sides.
In perhaps the most blatant terror campaign from the air
since the London blitz, Hezbollah is raining rockets on
Israeli cities and villages. These rockets are packed with
ball bearings that can penetrate automobiles and shred human
flesh. They are meant to kill and maim. And they do.
But it is a dual campaign. Israeli innocents must die in
order for Israel to be terrorized. But Lebanese innocents
must also die in order for Israel to be demonized, which is
why Hezbollah hides its fighters, its rockets, its
launchers, its entire infrastructure among civilians.
Creating human shields is a war crime. It is also a
Hezbollah specialty.
On Wednesday, CNN cameras showed destruction in Tyre.
What does Israel have against Tyre and its inhabitants?
Nothing. But the long-range Hezbollah rockets that have been
raining terror on Haifa are based in Tyre. What is Israel to
do? Leave untouched the launch sites that are deliberately
placed in built-up areas?
Had Israel wanted to destroy Lebanese civilian
infrastructure, it would have turned out the lights in
Beirut in the first hour of the war, destroying the
billion-dollar power grid and setting back Lebanon 20 years.
It did not do that. Instead, it attacked dual-use
infrastructure - bridges, roads, airport runways - and
blockaded Lebanon's ports to prevent the reinforcement and
resupply of Hezbollah. Ten-thousand Katyusha rockets are
enough. Israel was not going to allow Hezbollah 10,000 more.
Israel's response to Hezbollah has been to use the most
precise weaponry and targeting it can. It has no interest,
no desire to kill Lebanese civilians. Does anyone imagine
that it could not have leveled south Lebanon, to say nothing
of Beirut? Instead, in the bitter fight against Hezbollah in
south Lebanon, it has repeatedly dropped leaflets, issued
warnings, sent messages by radio and even phone text to
Lebanese villagers to evacuate so that they would not be
harmed.
Israel knows that these leaflets and warnings give the
Hezbollah fighters time to escape and regroup. The advance
notification as to where the next attack is coming has
allowed Hezbollah to set up elaborate ambushes. The result?
Unexpectedly high Israeli infantry casualties. Moral
scrupulousness paid in blood. Israeli soldiers die so that
Lebanese civilians will not, and who does the international
community condemn for disregarding civilian life?
(90) Anonymous, 31/7/2006
The monstreous face of hezballah must be revealed
I'm a Lebanese Christian. Please allow me to express first of all my approval to all what Israel is doing in Lebanon. I want to declare that the real criminal is Hezbollah not the IDF. Hezbollah is tanking the civilian and the whole Lebanese people as hostage. He is using civilians as human shield when he hide behind them to attack Israel. These facts must be denounced to the face of the occidental world please don't let Hezbollah win in this battle, the battle of disinformation. Hezbollah and all fanatic islamists became masters in the art of victimization I mean in the art of showing them selves as victims when in reality they are criminals and terrorists. I fear that they will be able to use the Lebanese Christian areas and civilians as they are using their own people. They know no mercy, they have no human conscience. The world must know this reality.
This is the result of the coranic doctrines that doesn't recognize any value to human being the coran doesn't recognize human rights there is only "Allah" rights. And this Allah is not the same God that revealed him self to man through the Bible. So with Islam we find ourselves in front of a god who is much like the pagan gods with this only difference that he is lonely (unique) he ignore communion, relation, Love. Despite all what some coranic verses can say. This god teaches his subjects to be aggressive to ignore the right to be different to have a different opinion to be free. The coran divide the world in two parts: Dar assalam, the house of peace that contains Muslims and dummies, and dar al harb: the house of war that contains all the others... So it is easy to understand that with such mentality we can not have true dialogue, democratie...So again God the true God bless Israel for all what he is doing in order to permit to the free world to get ride of such enemies of the human race.
(89) Anonymous, 29/7/2006
Cry to those Using Babies as Sheilds
By
Naomi Ragen
My son is in the army. He is not the type at all, believe
me. Quiet, studious, a writer, a lover of Jewish history,
Talmud, ethics. He spent two years in a pre-army program in
the Galilee called Karmei Chayil. He made many good friends
there from all over the country, and now he and all his
friends are in the army. One of them I know well. A bit
chubby, with payot, and a great laugh. He and my son have
become like brothers. While both of them tried out for the
elite paratroopers unit, only he made it in. He and his
unit are the ones in Lebanon. They were there over a week,
fighting under horrific conditions, running out of food and
water. Even though the Israeli airforce dropped tons of
leaflets warning civilians to flee because they were in
terrorist territory and likely to be injured, they still
encountered civilians. My son spoke to his friend
yesterday,and this is how he described it:
"The village looked empty, and then we heard noises coming
from one of the houses, so we opened fire. But when we
went inside, we found two women and a child huddled in the
corner of the room. We were so relieved we hadn't hurt
them. We took up base in one of the empty houses. And then
all of a sudden, we came under intense fire. Three rockets
were fired at the house we were in. Only one managed to
destroy a wall, which fell on one of us, covering him in
white dust, but otherwise not hurting him. I spent the
whole time feeding bullets to my friend who was shooting
non-stop. We managed to killed 26 terrorists. Not one of
us was hurt. Our commanding officer kept walking around,
touching everybody on the shoulder, smiling and encouraging
us: "We're are better than they are. Don't worry." It
calmed us all down. And really, we were much better then
them. They are a lousy army. They only win when they hide
behind baby carriages."
Please remember this when you hear about the "atrocity" of
the Israeli bomb dropped on Kfar Cana, killing many
civilians, a place from which Hezbollah has fired hundreds
of rockets at Israel. Unlike previous administrations, Mr.
Olmert has my respect when he says: "They were warned to
leave. It is the responsibility of Hezbollah for firing
rockets amidst civilians."
Terrorists and their supporters have lost the right to
complain about civilian casualties, since all they have done
this entire war is target civilians. Every single one of the
more than 2,500 rockets launched into Israel, is launched
into populated towns filled with women and children. Just
today, another suicide belt meant to kill civilians in
Israel was detonated harmlessly by our forces in Nablus. So
don't cry to me about civilian casualties. Cry to those
using your babies and wives and mothers; cry to those who
store weapons in mosques, ambulances, hospitals, and private
homes. Cry to those launching deadly rockets from the
backyards of your kindergartens and schools. Cry to the
heartless men who love death, and however many of their
troops or civilians die, consider themselves victorious as
long as they can keep on firing rockets at our women and
children.
Save your sympathy for the mothers and sisters and
girlfriends of our young soldiers who would rather be
sitting in study halls learning Torah, but have no choice
but to risk their precious lives full of hope, goodness and
endless potential, to wipe out the cancerous terrorist cells
that threaten their people and all mankind. Make your
choice, and save your tears.
That terrorists have been unsuccessful in killing more of
our women and children is due to our army, God and prayers,
not to any lack of motivation or intention on their part.
If you hide behind your baby to shoot at my baby, you are
responsible for getting children killed. You and you alone.