Qana: What Happened for Eight Hours?
The IDF is trying to figure out why the building housing 60 Lebanese in Qana collapsed at 8 AM, when the only target in the immediate vicinity was struck between midnight and one AM.
One option is that the building was left tottering after the first blast, but people refused to leave. Another option is that Hizbullah explosives stored in the building exploded, causing the collapse.
While that last option simply makes it more obvious, let there be no equivocation: the responsibility for the death of these civilians lies entirely at the feet of the Hizbullah. It is not enough to say that there were missile launchers “in the neighborhood” — they were right next door. The IDF struck and destroyed that target, which otherwise would still be in use at this very moment, terrorizing Israeli civilians as far south as Netanya. No one should have to tolerate a missile launcher in their neighborhood.
The Hizbullah set up precisely that, an array of launchers in residential neighborhoods, with the Lebanese cheering every step of the way. Do we remember the same Lebanese officials claiming that they were helpless to stop Hizbullah, and that they were not to blame for Hizbullah’s unprovoked attack on Israel?
As a retired Canadian Major General, friend and former superior of the Canadian UN observer killed last week, said, “Hizbullah fighters were all over [the UN] position. They use the UN as shields.”
The observer himself wrote via email, just days before his death, that the Israeli shelling “has not been deliberate targeting, but has rather been due to tactical necessity.” This is the writing of the UN observer on scene, correctly attributing the all-too-proximal shelling to Hizbullah’s deliberate choice to set up rocket launchers nearby. Kofi Annan’s declaration that the Israeli shelling of the UN post was “apparently deliberate” can be explaned only as the result of abysmal ignorance or gross anti-Semitism.
Israel continues to do the right thing in Lebanon and Gaza. Let the blame fall upon Hizbullah where it belongs.
Why not just go in and flatten any area that Hezbullah is operating from? It won\’t make a PR difference whatever Israel does. Damned if you try to fight surgically and damned if you don\’t. Certainly decreases your odds of total victory trying to fight with one hand tied behind your back. It certainly would end the war faster with less Israeli soldier casualties. Anything less
than total victory by Israel will be viewed as a victory for Hezbullah. I fear, the window of opportunity to destroy Hezbullah
is closing.
As long as Hezbellah uses the civilians and the UN as protection, the IDF should see them as aiding Hezbbollah. We tend to forget that in WW2 that we bombed German and Japanese cities that also had large civilian populations and that we assassinated Admiral Yammamato-the architecht of Pearl Harbor. We also forget that the Union won the Civil War only after Sherman and Sheridan turned Georgia and the Shenandoah Valley devoid of any possible support for the Comfederate war effort. We should remember that war is hell and not the practical implementationn of a seminar in international law .
Mabat on Reshet Bet showed real-time airborne video (shown at a news briefing by the IDF) of Katyushas being launched from Kafr Kana (Qana). Quality is excellent; you can see and count the launches. The trucks then drove a short distance and parked under buildings in the village. You can also see an IAF fighter jet coming in while the missiles are being fired, to target the launchers.
Hizbullah announced there had been no missiles in the village, and all was an evil, intentional act on the IAF’s part. Anyone want to bet if the mainstream media will show the publicly available video revealing the truth of the aerial operations at Kafr Kana?
If you aren’t in Israel and you want to see the video (in Hebrew), see http://www.nrg.co.il/online/1/ART1/456/865.html .
Let’s observe carefully to see what “atzmaut” now consists of as applied by the present PM.
“the responsibility for the death of these civilians lies entirely at the feet of the Hizbullah”
I think that Israel should have some responsibility for their deaths.
Alan Dershowitz has a brilliant piece titled “The Arithmetic of Pain” about the use of civilian shields. The essential point is that when the media, humanitarian groups and the UN condemn Israel for civilian casualties “this chorus of condemnation actually encourages the terrorists to operate from civilian areas”. It is important to chide all these organizations to exhibit responsibility in order to minimize future civilian casualties by removing the propaganda advantage of civilian shields. I have sent numerous letters to editors of papers stressing how abhorrent civilian casualties are, and that irresponsible reporting (which ignores the deliberate use of civilian shields)will lead to future civilian casualties- and that they will share in the blame. I have gotten some serious and thoughtful replies. It only takes a few minutes to compose a basic letter, which can then be modified and sent in response to many different news stories. The wheel that squeaks the most gets the most oil- the more who write to editors, UN personnel, etc, the more effective.