A War Crime at Qana?

WSJ. On Line ^ | August 6, 2006 | ORDE F. KITTRIE

[yoe]

The Qana tragedy has intensified accusations that Israel's actions in Lebanon violate international law. Every death of an innocent person is extremely regrettable; but there is no evidence Israel has committed any war crimes. In contrast, Hezbollah, Iran and Syria have clearly violated international law in this conflict. Moreover, Israel's conduct compares favorably to how its most powerful accusers have behaved when their own interests have been threatened.

International law has three major prohibitions relevant to the Qana incident. One forbids deliberate attacks on civilians. Another prohibits hiding forces in civilian areas, thereby turning civilians into "human shields." A third prohibition, the proportionality restriction that Israel is accused of violating, involves a complicated and controversial balancing test.

Geneva Convention Protocol I contains one version of the proportionality test, the International Criminal Court Statute another; neither is universally accepted. As a result, the proportionality test is governed by "customary international law," an amalgam of non-universal treaty law, court decisions, and how influential nations actually behave. It does not hinge on the relative number of casualties, or the force used, however, but on the intent of the combatant. Under customary international law, proportionality prohibits attacks expected to cause incidental death or injury to civilians if this harm would, on balance, be excessive in relation to the overall legitimate military accomplishment anticipated.

[snip] The aircraft did not deliberately target civilians; but Hezbollah rockets are targeted at civilians, a clear war crime. U.N. humanitarian chief Jan Egeland last week called on Hezbollah to stop its "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." If Hezbollah used Lebanese civilians in Qana as "human shields," then Hezbollah, not Israel, is legally responsible for their deaths.

[yoe]

Did you know Hezbollah hired a PR firm? The propaganda war is failing as the truth takes over myth.........

[in hoc signo vinces]

Then all of the Hezzies actions would be war crimes...the press is showing the face of evil every time they try to be Hezzie apologists and/or Israeli critics...

[EagleUSA]

The propaganda war is failing as the truth takes over myth.........
-----
The good news is that the important part of the world gets it, and is wise to the methodology of the terrorists and their supportive minions.

[onedoug]

Press on Israel, regardless.

[ClearCase_guy]

there is no evidence Israel has committed any war crimes. In contrast, Hezbollah, Iran and Syria have clearly violated international law in this conflict.

Well, yeah ... but ... who cares about that? Certainly not the UN.

[ASA Vet]

You'd think that by now the WSJ would have learned that Qana was faked.

[Finger Monkey]

U.N. humanitarian chief Jan Egeland last week called on Hezbollah to stop its "cowardly blending" among women and children

?? Someone from the U.N. sees things as they really are?

Wow.

[dervish]

Hezbollah commenting on the deliberate murder of 11 Israeli civilians in Kfar Giladi an Israeli Kibbutz:


Hizbullah's Al-Manar television station broadcast a special bulletin, with the announcement, "Today is one of achievements. The enemy has admitted to having dead and wounded following landing of the resistance rockets. The enemy's television pictures show the great blow and panic. There are cases of collapsed nerves and hysteria on their part. They never expected a great blow such as this by our resistance rockets."

http://www.israelnn.com/news.php3?id=109264

[CarrotAndStick]

Let's not cry over Qana



The Pioneer (India) | Wednesday, August 02, 2006 | Kanchan Gupta

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1676278/posts



On Monday, July 31, a travesty of sorts was committed when the Lok Sabha unanimously adopted a resolution whose contents amount to a scathing indictment of Israel for "the large-scale and indiscriminate bombing of Lebanon... which has resulted in the killing and suffering of large numbers of innocent civilians, including women and children, and widespread damage to civilian infrastructure."

The resolution "conveys the deepest condolences, sympathy and support of the people of India to the people of Lebanon at this difficult time. The people of India are ready to make their contribution in providing humanitarian relief to the victims of this tragic conflict." It calls "for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire so that further destruction of Lebanon is prevented."

It's nice to see such noble thoughts emerge from the din and noise that marks parliamentary proceedings, drowning out the best speeches made with the best of intentions. But nobility of thought as reflected in the resolution does not in any manner distract from the fact that the document glosses over the truth and provides official approval to what is at best factional opinion that finds favour with terror-appeasers.

The resolution does not mention, even in passing, that the flashpoint which triggered the current crisis in West Asia was Hizbullah's cross-border raid into Israel, the slaying of four Israeli soldiers and the kidnapping of two others. It does not apportion blame where it rightly belongs - the continuous assaults by Hizbullah terrorists who have been shelling northern Israel without any let, scoring devastating hits in Haifa and other towns. It ignores the fact that Lebanon is in violation of UN Security Council Resolutions 1559 and 1680 which call for the disarming of all militias, including Hizbullah. It sidesteps the utter and shameful failure of the United Nations International Force in Lebanon to maintain peace, leave alone restrain Hizbullah, the 'Party of God' wedded to anti-Semitism.

The immediate backdrop of the Lok Sabha resolution is Sunday's Israeli bombing of a southern Lebanese village and Shia - read Hizbullah - stronghold, Qana, killing 56 civilians, 37 of them children. Neither television footage nor newspaper photographs of the dead and the injured presented a pretty picture on Monday morning. But there's nothing pretty about war, more so when there is heart-wrenching collateral damage; just like there's nothing pretty about terrorist strikes when innocent men, women and children are blown to smithereens, as they were in Mumbai on July 11.

The grisly sight of the bombed building in Qana with rescuers pulling out dead children from the rubble, however, tells only part of the story. The other part, which should have found space in the Lok Sabha resolution, is how Hizbullah uses human shields to protect foot soldiers of jihad.

Ever since Israel launched its retaliatory strikes - now being described as "disproportionate" by terror-appeasers at home and abroad - it has been taking the rather unusual precaution of dropping leaflets asking civilians to move out of the conflict zone. Similar leaflets had been dropped in Qana, too, but people either chose to voluntarily stay back or were prevented from leaving by Hizbullah squads. Since it is unlikely that those who died or were wounded in the attack on Qana were there of their own free volition after being warned by the Israelis of an impending air raid, we must presume that the Hizbullah prevented them from fleeing the village.

For, as the Lok Sabha resolution and lib-left response across the world to what is now being described as 'Qana massacre', show it serves Hizbullah's purpose if civilian casualties continue to mount: Israel will be held guilty of "indiscriminate bombing" and the "killing and suffering of large numbers of innocent civilians" even as a stunning silence will be maintained about terrorists who have no compunction about letting innocent people die.

In its haste to condemn the Israelis for fighting a just war for their very existence, the Lok Sabha has chosen to ignore, as have those who are appalled by the sight of blood when it is spilled by victims of terrorism but look the other way when terrorists lay to waste human life, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's touching apology. "I am sorry from the bottom of my heart for all deaths of children or women in Qana.... We did not search them out ... they were not our enemies, and we did not look for them."

Mr Olmert need not have offered his regret, but that he did so sets him and Israel apart from those who seek to destroy the Jewish state. It underscores the point that the war against terrorism is essentially a war between civilisations and cultures. Tragically, while electing to speak on behalf of the people of India, our parliamentarians chose to back the wrong side in this conflict.

We have chosen to back those who think nothing of using women and children as cannon fodder, of hiding behind civilians to protect themselves from those seeking to avenge atrocities committed by them. We have, through the resolution, endorsed the criminal act of Hamas and Hizbullah digging themselves into trenches while collateral damage mounts.

"The Israelis might have nuclear bombs but we have the children bomb," Sheikh Yusuf-al Qaradawi, the much-feted theologian of terror, once famously declared, adding, "these human bombs must continue until liberation." Which, according to jihad's lexicon, means the extermination of Israel from the map of the world.

Of course, it is inconsequential what the Lok Sabha has to say about Israel's desperate strikes against Hizbullah bases in southern Lebanon. Only those with an exaggerated sense of self-importance would presume that Tel Aviv will be awed into suspending its counter-attack and allowing Hizbullah to step up its shelling of northern Israel.

That, however, does not minimise the political message which has been sent out by the Lok Sabha: India, it would seem, lacks the courage and the commitment without which the war against terrorism cannot be taken to its logical conclusion. A nation that is still mourning the senseless slaughter of 200 commuters in Mumbai, has been portrayed as too weak-kneed to stand up and confront the peddlers of terror.

It is easy to be swept away by grisly television footage of Qana and syrupy stories of human suffering that make out as if nothing is happening in Haifa and other northern Israel's towns and villages where people continue to be killed and maimed by Hizbullah rockets. But it takes a certain amount of intellectual honesty and moral courage to accept that there is little that sets apart Hizbullah from Lashkar-e-Tayyeba or Jaish-e-Mohammed. Sadly, we, as a nation, have been shown as lacking in both.





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[Matchett-PI]

bttt

[Enterprise]

Yes! There is most certainly a war crime at Qana. And Hezbollah is responsible!

[JasonC]

It really does not matter who gets what, the bystanders are not the point. If Israel expects to win a war for popularity among the bystanders, it might as well give up now. The bystanders want Israel destroyed. All that matters are the facts created on the ground. If Hezbollah is destroyed, people who want Israel destroyed will understand they can fail and die, and that spin cannot save them.

[OldFriend]

Reuters fake but accurate photos are proving the point that they have an agenda.

Now an employee of Reuters has been suspended for sending a vile email to LGF.

They hatemongers can sneak around but our blessed bloggers are exposing them to the light.

Jayson Blair, Dan Rather, and now Reuters proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that the MSM is lying thru it's teeth.

[DustyMoment]

Considering that Lebanon has rejected a cease-fire and Syria is preparing its military for war, the entire region is extremely volatile and about to ignite. Muslim terrorists like Hezbollah and AQ, to name but a few, are very effective at faking attacks that make them appear to be victims.

The appalling evidence of the faked Qana attack is disturbing, but its intended audience was the gullible, anti-Semitic western press and gullible Arabs who want to believe that they are the victims of everything that happens in the world.

Until Arabs realize that they aren't entitled to any special treatment in the world and that not on;y do they reap what they sow, but actions speak louder than words; and, until the gullible and complicit western press stops covering for them and being their very own manchurian candidate, this situation is not going to change in the foreseeable future.

[MichiganConservative]

Did you know Hezbollah hired a PR firm?

I didn't know they had to pay for it. Isn't the press, especially Al Reuters, the PR firm(s) for Hezbollah? The same photographer who took the Qana photo(s) has just had another of his photos exposed as doctored.

[Publius6961]

That third paragraph is one only a lawyer could love.

International law is a myth.
Protocols are meaningless.
Starting at the beginning...

What is a "law"? Who is authorized to enforce it?
What means is there to enforce it?
If universal violation of it is the rule, rather than the exception, can the "law" be revived and applied by the various violators? If the violators are the losers in a war that they began, can they use "international law" to turn defeat into victory?

This whole subject sounds like an exercise in rhetoric in an insane asylum.

There is no such thing as intenational law!

[Publius6961]

Resistance rockets?
Muslim Mass Murderer Science?

This is hilarious. Here we have the Keystone Kops of the warrior world firing a thousand rockets and scoring one significant mass murder of civilians. By accident.
And they're celebrating?

[FixitGuy]

Really can't understand why the media and other worldwide jackasses are piling on the Israelis when every sane person knows that Iran & Syria (leaders, that is) are intent on wiping them off the map and trying to suck in the rest of the world.!Devilish insanity!

[Publius6961]

Last night, on the International History Channel, there were two programs aired that everyone should see at least once:

Caesar's campaign against Vicengitorix in Gaul, and
The German assault on Leningrad and the Russian response.

The world has gone mad, and forgotten what war means. What it is, and how silly "rules" and "international law" are. The historical result of assuming that pollyanna-ish approaches to war solve anything is worse than the results of war itself --- in the long run.

All it does is create huge wars out of small ones. It postpones the inevitable. And the total casualties end up being ten times higher than if a real and total war were waged against aggressors at first blush: complete, relentless, brutal and final. No rules.

Can anyone present a single war that was prevented (not merely postponed with monstrous results) by negotiations and reasoning with the aggressor?
Anyone?
Just a single example...

[xkaydet65]

The IDF has massed artillery and armor near the Israeli Lebanese border. A barrage of Katyushas could do the IDF damage. I am quite sure the Viet Cong would not have passed up an opportunity to do serious harm to American military forces. Why has Hezbollah ignored an obvious military target, one that if hit properly could inflict large miitary casualties? Could it be that terror is their only game? Dead IDF troops do not have the same impact as dead Haifa residents.

The MSM excuses Hez's attacks as their only means of retaliation, yet they refuse to see that IDF positions are closer to Hez's launchers than Haifa and the IDF is certainly more dangerous to Hez than a beach goer in Haifa. If their excuse is that the Katyusha is not suited to attacking military targets they could find an 80 something Wehrmacht vet and ask him about the effect of Stalin's Organ. And this is not about being held to a higher standard because of who you are. This is about a hatred of those who defend Western values against the barbarians. It took almost 18 years but the anti western west has found a champion to replace Communism as their heroic god. I wonder if the godless left truly understands the nature of their new ally.