Israel: Hezbollah Responsible For Lebanon Qana Civilian Deaths

The Israel News Agency ^ | July 30, 2006 | Joel Leyden

[IsraelBeach]

Israel: Hezbollah Responsible For Lebanon Qana Civilian Deaths

Thousands of Israeli civilians take cover in bomb shelters

By Joel Leyden
Israel News Agency

Jerusalem-----July 30.....The following communication was transmitted from the Israel Defense Forces to the Israel News Agency.

"This morning, the Israel Air Force attacked Hezbollah missile launch sites in the area of the village of Qana, Lebanon. An area from which hundreds of Katusha missiles were launched towards the Israel city of Nahariya and the Israel communities in the western Galilee."

The IDF will defend the citizens of Israel from terror attacks by the Hezbollah and the responsibility for any civilian casualties in Lebanon rests with the Hezbollah who have turned the suburbs of Lebanon to a war front by firing missiles from within civilian areas.

Residents in this region in Lebanon and specifically the residents of Qana were warned several days in advance by both Israel and Lebanon radio to leave the village.

Eighteen Israelicivilians have been murdered and over 400 have been wounded from these rocket attacks which have disrupted the lives of thousands in Israel.

A Canadian UN officer serving as a military observer in the United Nations base hit by an Israel strike last Tuesday emailed his former commander that Hizbullah was using his UN post as a human shield. Major Paeta Hess von Kruedener was also clear that the Israel Air Force was not targeting the observers.

The UN commander, Major General Louis Mackenzie said in an interview with a Canadia radio station that his former soldier had written to him six days before his death about the recent developments in Lebanon. According to a report in The Jerusalem Post, Kruedener wrote that the IAF strikes near the post were “necessary”. He also noted that the IDF fire was not aimed specifically at the UN post, but rather at the terrorists.

(Photo) A young Israeli girl is evacuated from Nahariya hospital after a Hezbollah rocket attack made a direct hit on the hospital. Photo: AFP

Charles Krauthammer of the Washington Post described the killings of civilians in Qana and other villages in south Lebanon as such: "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 2,000 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?"

Krauthammer continues: "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. Israel 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."

(Cartoon) Hezbollah use of civilian and UN human shields.

Krauthammer adds: "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. Israel soldiers die so that Lebanese civilians will not, and who does the international community condemn for disregarding civilian life?"

(Photo) Nahariya hospital, among many Israeli civilian targets hit by Hezbollah and Hamas terror rockets. Photo: AP

Israel Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said today that Israel had told the residents of the Lebanese village of Qana to leave before the raid. "All the residents were warned and told to leave. No one was ordered to fire on civilians and we have no policy of killing innocent people. The village and its surrounding areas were a source for launching hundreds of rockets."

- 30 -

Israel News Agency

[upchuck]

It must be inspired by Satan.

Not a doubt in my mind you're right on the money.

IMHO, ultimately this, and all of the WOT, is a conflict between God and Satan.

IMHO, God's gonna win if we have the stones to help Him.

Cease fires, treaties, negoiations, and general PC Bullsh1t are not helping Him, IMHO.

[popdonnelly]

"Not only are hezbollah responsible, they're guilty of war crimes."

Very true. They never adhere to any internationally recognized standard of warfare. And it's okay, apparently, for them to randomly fire rockets at civilian areas. They will keep hiding behind civilians until the civilian deaths it causes no longer raise a stir.

[agrace]

Charles Krauthammer of the Washington Post described the killings of civilians in Qana and other villages in south Lebanon as such: "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 2,000 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?"

Hear, hear, what other country indeed. Worth repeating.

[claudiustg]

---The word that obviates all thinking and magically inverts victim into aggressor is "disproportionate" as in the universally decried "disproportionate Israeli response."---

The first place I remember hearing that word was the Democrat talking points, straight out of the DNC.

[NormsRevenge]

Not only are hezbollah responsible, they're guilty of war crimes.

--

I'd Add Kofi to the list of those guilty of war crimes... ut hat's just me. ;-)

[claudiustg]

---In my opinion the UN is also guilty of using human shields by leaving unarmed observers in close proximity to terrorist positions.---

The UN is guilty of more than that. They are complicit in the Hezbollah war crimes every step of the way.

[crazycat]

Not only are hezbollah responsible, they're guilty of war crimes.

It's very revealing that all the people demanding ceasefires etc are not also demanding that NasNutter etc should be prosecuted for anything.......

[Smile-n-Win]

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.

This should be repeated often, until each and every peacenik gets it.

[Smile-n-Win]

I'd Add Kofi to the list of those guilty of war crimes... ut hat's just me. ;-)

Not just you: see my new tagline! :-)

[Luke21]

This is as different as night and day from what the lying pigs in the MSM are reporting.

[GeronL]

This article is 115% correct. Eepecially the part about the world leaders, media and bureaucrats have gone insane in their support of mad dog terrorists. and their hatred of the joooooooos...

[bobby.223]

charlie nailed it. the hell with this "on the clock" crap. bomb 'em 'till none are left.

[shield]

Video posted at Flopping Aces of Hez Missiles firing from behind building that was bombed by Israel. There's also a another video of an UN ambulance moving Hez terrorist around.

[sam_paine]

I know it's frowned on to post DU responses, but something awful has happened to America, and I can't find a better place to comment on it.

McCarthy destroyed America (holdonnow...I'll get to the point.)

Regarding the veto of the "condemnation" from the UN, there were two back-to-back posts...

• manic expression (1000+ posts) Sun Jul-30-06 04:08 PM Response to Reply #13 39. Not denouncing murder is 'good'? n/t
  
• IndianaGreen (1000+ posts) Sun Jul-30-06 04:10 PM Response to Reply #39 41. When "they" do it, it is called murder. When "we"(US/Jews) do it, it is called a virtue.

What struck me was their associated chosen "avatars."

Murderer Che Guevara for one, and if I know my bearded psychos, Karl Marx. Murder in the name of communist/socialist causes is fine, Jews/America bad.

The reason we're not sposed to post DUmmie comments is because we know they're typically nuts and 'so what's the point?'

The point is, that although as Ann has pointed out, McCarthy was right, and Commies had infiltrated our government, the whole PR disaster of "McCarthyism" made anyone who pointed at the obvious Commie Bogeymen in the room into a hysterical loon.

So I promised a point, for better or worse....

The reason the political discourse in this country has reached such a fevered pitched is that it is not the old conservative/liberal-what's-best-for-freedom-and-liberty, but this is now an open battle for "what's-best-for-the-proletariat."

Is there really any reason that a "Land Redistribution and Proletariat Empowerment Amendment" could not one day be passed democratically, if things continue this way?

In other words, take the perspective that McCarthyism allowed all those commies to come out into the open to criticize "The American Way," and you would have exactly what we have now. Americans that hate America and revere communist "revolutionaries" more than George Washington.

So now we act surprised that the MSM is biased against conservatives and the UN is run by a bunch of anti-American dictators. And we act as if we "just get our message out" or if we "just pass the Fair Tax" then all the voters will come around.

How can it when we've let the infestation fester right under our noses?

[kinghorse]

Would it be a stretch to call it barbarity if one side would use this opportunity to herd it's mental hospital residents into a warren from which Hizballah could draw IAF fire? What should one presume when one sees picture of lifeless gangly, gaunt and strangely retarded corpses being brought out of the rubble?

What sort of barbaric society nods in silent approval as co-conspirators with a desperate Hizballah in this sort of diabolical gambit?

[kinghorse]

We have seen the same sort of dazed looking unhealthful male folks being rescued from bombed out buildings in Beirut. I have personally seen two such photo opportunities being presented by the other side since hostilities started.

Diablolical, cynical, politically driven, no holds barred barbarity. How do you counter this?

[dervish]

Bottom line, 90% of the world would feel much better if the Israeli response was proportionate, IOW many more Israelis were dead.

The world loves Jewish victims.

[Lando Lincoln]

I believe Oswald acted alone. I believe Elvis is dead. I believe there is nothing unusual at Roswell, New Mexico. I believe Hezbollah killed their own innocent in Qana - they are evil.

Lando

[M. Espinola]

Iran's Hizballah killers murdered these people and are attempting to blame Israel.

In Iraq & Afghanistan the jihadist enemy (many from or trained by Iran or Syria) murder innocent civilians, women and children every day at an overall average rate of 3000 people a month! No reactions from the liberal world or in the Arab streets.

Where was the outcry from the Arab/Muslim world when Americans were slaughter, burned and hung on a bridge in Iraq?

[Sal]

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. Israel soldiers die so that Lebanese civilians will not, and who does the international community condemn for disregarding civilian life?"

By now there is no one in Lebanon who doesn't know exactly what's going on. There should be no more needless deaths of Israeli soldiers.

There should be ONE more warning issued and ONLY ONE:

All you "civilians" in Lebanon know who and where the Hezbollah serial killers are and what they're doing. If you're helping them or even just ignoring what they're doing, you are now fair targets. If you're innocent, get out. If you stay, you'll be killed. This is the only warning you will get.