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August 02, 2006
Who's really targeting civilians?
Alan Dershowitz has a problem with the condemnation of Israel in the international community: When it comes to Israel, a lot of usually smart people stop thinking with their heads, and start thinking with their guts. Most smart people know that when an armed criminal takes a hostage and fires from behind him, it is the criminal, not the policeman, who is guilty of murder, if the policeman, in a reasonable effort to stop the criminal from firing, accidentally kills the innocent hostage. The same should be true during wartime. But you wouldn’t know it if you listened only to the singular condemnations of Israel by so many in the international community.By deliberately hiding behind and among civilians, Hezbollah is hoping that when Israel defends itself, civilians will be killed, which will make Israel lose the propaganda war and look like an aggressor simply for self defense. Hezbollah's fondest hope, I think, is that Israel might be provoked into savage reprisals against the Lebanese. Then Hezbollah could claim that Israel behaved like the Nazis. Of course, they already claim that, but it would help if the Israelis really did it. Never mind that Israel, by taking care to avoid civilian casualties, is doing precisely the opposite. To illustrate the extreme contrast between self defense and deliberate reprisals against civilians, look at what the Nazis did to the Czech village of Lidice: On May 27, 1942, Reinhard Heydrich, head of the RSHA, the Reichsprotektor of Czechoslovakia, the man who had convened the Wannsee Conference only four months previously, was severely wounded in a grenade attack on his car near Prague by two Czech parachutists sent from London by the Czech government-in-exile. The two Czechs managed to leave the scene and took refuge in the Karl Borromaeus Church in Prague.If Israel applied such methods, there'd be nothing left of Hezbollah, or Lebanon. The only reason that the propagandists who dare to accuse Israel of such tactics get away with their comparisons is that people don't know their history. Israel's restraint has been commendable. If anyone is guilty of the deliberate murder of civilians, it is Hezbollah. But that doesn't make this war any easier for Israel to fight. Rockets fired from the suburbs invite some sort of response, and Hezbollah has been adept positioning themselves so that any response at all will prove "wrong." Perhaps Israel could go into southern Lebanon and as a provocation, build "settlements." As a further provocation, Israel might claim that they were permanent knowing all the while they weren't. As "flypaper" strategy, it might bring Hezbollah out into the open. After all, nothing draws terrorists like Israeli civilians.
...because America provides Israel with the bombs it uses on Lebanon, and we refused to restrain the Israelis, and we opposed every effort for a cease-fire before Sunday, America shares full moral and political responsibility for the massacre at Qana.I disagree. I think the moral and political responsibility ultimately lies with Hezbollah, and with what Gerard Van der Leun rightly calls the "weaponization of children": At the time of this writing, nobody has taken the body parts of children harvested from some grave-site out along some nameless highway, strewn them across Israeli tank tracks, and then run over them a few times before the appointed photo-op. But it really is only a matter of time, isn't it? After all, in the Terror War children are not only the terrorists' main targets, they are their most effective weapons as well. UPDATE: Via Michael Totten, guest blogging at InstaPundit, a report of a Hezbollah rocket hitting the Palestinian town of Jenin: A Fatah activist from Jenin added that the rocket hit was heard clearly around the city, and a spark and a flame were also clearly seen.So, even if Hezbollah kills Palestian children, it's a joyous event! Because, after all, it's Israel's fault! posted by Eric on 08.02.06 at 02:15 PM
Comments
Doing what is right and what is moral is what matters the most. Israel is acting in a fully logical, moral manner to defend itself. Questions about what has come before or what will come next are irrelevant; if Israel failed to defend its citizens, it would be failing in the prime duty of the nation state. Also: It must be a neural net learning computer! Jon Thompson · August 3, 2006 02:24 AM I like it when I don't have to engage in interpretation! But remember, this has only happened once. It could be a pure coincidence. Eric Scheie · August 3, 2006 01:26 PM |
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