Posted by
J.P. Farris on Monday, July 31, 2006 3:59:04 PM
I was shocked and dismayed when I read of the tragedy at Kana where 56 innocent people, mostly women and children were killed. I was also grieved when I saw a picture of a terrified Israeli child crying.
Israel agreed yesterday to halt air attacks on south Lebanon for 48 hours in the face of widespread outrage over an air strike that killed at least 56 Lebanese, mostly women and children, when it leveled a building where they had taken shelter.{http://news.bostonherald.com/international/view.bg?articleid=150696}
Then I did a little digging to find more about the story.
Some 150 rockets were fired from the Lebanese village of Qana over the past 20 days, Air Force Chief of Staff Brig.-Gen. Amir Eshel said on Sunday evening.
Speaking to reporters, Eshel added that Hizbullah rocket launchers were hidden in civilian buildings in the village. He proceeded to show video footage of rocket launchers being driven into the village following launches.{http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1153292030858&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull}
The Knesset held a special session on the war today, turning into a scene of parliamentary bedlam during Defense Minister Amir Peretz's speech. Three Arab MKs were thrown out of the plenum by Speaker Dalia Itzik, beginning with Ibrahim Tzartzour, who called Peretz a "child murderer."
Peretz said that Israel cannot agree to an immediate ceasefire, "because then we will find ourselves back in the same position a few months from now." He said that the worst thing is that the Lebanese government "abandoned its civilian population in the south of the country to the hands of [Hizbullah leader] Nasrallah, who turned the population into a defensive shield for his terrorists."
{http://www.israelnn.com/news.php3?id=108826}
Israel must not agree to an immediate cease-fire, but rather expand and strengthen its attacks on Hizbullah, Defense Minister Amir Peretz told an emergency session of the Knesset on Monday.{http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?apage=2&cid=1153292036616&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull}
Thousands of civilians trapped in south Lebanon's war zone for three weeks made an exodus for the north Monday, taking advantage of Israel's 48-hour pause in airstrikes to flee.{http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1153292041277}
After reading so much into it I decided to look into a couple of blogs from people who are there, and I learned a disturbing truth. Sometimes the whole story doesn’t get told.
The attack actually took place sometime after midnight last night and the building collapsed around 8:00 AM today. The IDF would like to know why. I'd also like to know why people stayed overnight in a building that had been hit by missiles. Surely they must have known that it was at risk of collapse.
"The attack on the structure in the Qana village took place between midnight and one in the morning. The gap between the timing of the collapse of the building and the time of the strike on it is unclear," Brigadier General Amir Eshel, Head of the Air Force Headquarters told journalists at the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv, following the incidents at Qana.{http://israelmatzav.blogspot.com/2006/07/qana-building-collapsed-eight-hours.html}
The stories I had read earlier led me to believe that the innocent victims had received no warning when the building got bombed, but the above account says different.
I also read a blog from Lebanon where a letter was posted to Nasralah about Hezbollah tactics.
Firstly I would like to begin with my condolences for all those that perished in this unacceptable, barbaric act…
My condolences go as well to the hundreds who have been savagely murdered in the last 19 days…
My condolences go out as well to the Lebanese people for the loss of their country, that is if they do not take action.
For the last two weeks, we have been screaming that HA are hiding amongst civilians to attack Israel…we posted on boards, we mass mailed, some wrote to news papers and major news channels…
And yet, the most concerned, the Lebanese people that were themselves the victims, stood silent…they felt powerless and defenseless…
Some accused us of treason…some even went all the way to claim we fabricated those stories…
Today, the proof is with you, in front of you and yet some of you refuse to see…you refuse to see that HUMAN BEINGS are being used as SHIELDS…yes HUMAN BEINGS…kids, women, infants…
Mr. Nasralla, we understand the necessities of a guerilla war…we understand that you are fighting what you and your people consider a battle of existence…but we are not in the Mekong delta or the jungles of Vietnam…this is Lebanon Mr. Nasralla…the 10452Km2 are totally inhabited…so wherever your people hide, they are endangering HUMANS…
You vowed Jihad on the Israelis…but the whole country has not…you vowed their destruction and care less if in the process you loose your life…but the whole country has not…
Lebanon and the Lebanese Mr. Nasrallah are people that want to live…we want peace…we do not want to be torn to pieces or suffocated by imploding bombs…
When those people stayed in Qana despite the warnings issued by the Israelis to evacuate, they did so because they had put their faith in the men of the resistance…they believed that those men would protect them, would keep them safe from the Israeli enemy…
Alas…they discovered, and it was too late when they did, they discovered that those men who were supposed to protect them, were in fact hiding behind them.
They discovered that those men were taunting the Israeli by firing at him from behind inhabited buildings, daring him to reply…your men, Mr. Nasrallah, were playing Russian roulette but with the gun aimed at the heads of the innocent victims instead of theirs…
We all agree that the Israelis are retaliating with excessive force…no one is challenging this…what I am challenging is your tactics of turning this excessive force to your benefit at the cost of the lives of the civilians…this is, at best, Mr. Nasrallah, a criminal act, punishable, if not by the laws of the country which are so often bent and twisted, but by the Lord himself…that Lord whose name you use to call your party…
Was this what you meant when you claimed you were reserving surprises to the Israeli enemy??? was this your “after Haifa” ??? Was Quana your after Haifa? If so, then I congratulate you on your napoleonean thoughts…
Pray tell me, were you counting on the public outcry to force the Israelis into a cease fire and thus claim your victory??? Like what happened in April 1996??? Is this what you were aiming at when you fired rockets from the vicinity of the UN post not three days ago, causing a retaliation that killed four UN soldiers???
The outcry wasn’t strong enough…lets do a Qana II…it will have an impact for sure…it never fails…people are so gullible…we get the cease fire and come out as heroes…and in the way we cause Israel to suffer humiliation…
Some victory for Lebanon Mr. Nasrallah…
Anyways, I am sorry for all those souls that are being lost day by day as this nightmare that has engulfed my country goes on, and I pray all the Gods of all the religions to make this madness cease.
Lebanon wants to live.
Lebanon wants to breathe.
Lebanon wants peace.
Give us peace, do not tear us to pieces.{http://www.ouwet.com/othello/other/the-sad-truth-about-hezbollah-tactics/}
And here is a video link about how Hezbollah uses human shields:
{http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68yOJVQA51E}
Here is a portion of an article about the Hezbollah tactic of using human shields:
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 Hayil. 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 (sidelocks) and a great laugh. He and my son have become like brothers. While both of them tried out for the elite paratroopers unit, only his friend 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 Israel Air Force 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 nonstop. We managed to kill 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 than 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 that killed many civilians in Kafr Qana, 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 amid civilians."
Terrorists and their supporters have lost the right to complain about civilian casualties, since all they have is one goal: this entire war is to 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 explosive belt meant to kill civilians in Israel was detonated harmlessly by our forces in Nablus.{http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/744436.html}
Hezbollah hides its arms in private homes, inviting attack, and weaves its tunnels beneath the communities of civilian women and children. It's only with incredible chutzpah that anyone blames Israel for bombing those places where the enemy stockpiles its weapons and reserves. Israel aims at places where terrorists hide; Hezbollah aims at women and children where they live.
"We are doing something that no other country would do," Tzipi Livni, the Israeli foreign minister, says in an interview with the German magazine der Spiegel. "We warn the people using Lebanese television, radio and flyers that we spread over the affected areas. We ask the people to leave their homes and get themselves to safety."{http://jewishworldreview.com/cols/fields073106.php3}
According to a pair of Gallup polls released last week, 83 percent of Americans say Israel is justified in taking military action against Hezbollah, while 76 percent disapprove of Hezbollah's attacks on Israel. Yet when asked which side in the conflict the United States should take, 65 percent answer: neither side. Indeed, 3 in 4 Americans say they are concerned that the US military will be drawn into the fighting, or that it will increase the likelihood of terrorism against the United States.
Gallup's numbers suggest two things. First, that most Americans, sizing up the warfare in northern Israel and southern Lebanon, recognize that Hezbollah is the aggressor and that Israel is fighting in self-defense. And second, that most Americans believe this fight has nothing to do with the United States.
Welcome to Sept. 10.
For years Osama bin Laden had preached that it was "the duty of Muslims to confront, fight, and kill" Americans. His adherents had responded by blowing up the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, and slamming a boat laden with explosives into the USS Cole. Yet most Americans paid no attention to Al Qaeda and its threats -- until 3,000 people lost their lives on Sept. 11, 2001.
Has nothing been learned from that experience?
Hezbollah's barbaric assault on Israel -- kidnapping and murdering soldiers who weren't engaged in hostilities, firing waves of missiles into cities and towns, packing rockets with ball bearings meant to maximize suffering by shredding human flesh -- is part and parcel of the radical Islamist jihad against the free world. Nothing to do with the United States? It has *everything* to do with the United States. Hezbollah hates Americans at least as implacably as Al Qaeda does, and rarely misses an opportunity to say so.
"We consider [America] to be an enemy because it wants to humiliate our governments, our regimes, and our peoples," railed Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, at an enormous rally in February 2005. (Video of Nasrallah's speech, which was broadcast on Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV, has been posted on the internet by MEMRI, the Middle East Media Research Institute.) "It is the greatest plunderer of our treasures, our oil, and our resources. . . . Our motto, which we are not afraid to repeat year after year, is: 'Death to America!' “{http://www.townhall.com/columnists/column.aspx?UrlTitle=hezbollah_is_our_enemy,_too&ns=JeffJacoby&dt=07/31/2006&page=2}
With no desire to occupy the south of Lebanon again, and no clear alternative in sight to Hezbollah's rule there, the Israelis might have preferred to conduct a guerrilla war, striking and withdrawing, much like the one Hezbollah has been waging against them.
But such a war could go on approximately forever. Now the Israelis are talking vaguely about establishing a "security zone" in the south of Lebanon. It used to be called a "buffer zone" when the Israelis occupied the southern part of Lebanon for a long, draining 18 years. But with Hezbollah's rockets now raining on Israelis, that long ordeal begins to look like a peaceful idyll, and Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon six years ago a big mistake. For Hezbollah has had six years to prepare for this war.{http://www.townhall.com/Columnists/PaulGreenberg/2006/07/31/notes_on_a_war?page=full&comments=true}
I am saddened each time I hear of civilian casualties because of Israeli attacks. I am angered that Hezbollah would use people as human shields. I also believe as was pointed out by Anderson Cooper last week that Hezbollah manipulates the media into showing only what they want you to see. However, I do believe some in the media are beginning to get wise to those tactics.