Culture, Global, Identity, Israel, Politics

Civilian Casualties as Propaganda Warfare

Re: Qana — I don’t even know what to say anymore.
The EU and the UN both slammed Israel for it’s “wholly unjustified” attack. The Left is screaming, “Israel is guilty of war crimes.”* And Israelis are grieving.
But, but, but… “It’s also a violation of humanitarian law to blend in among the civilian population.” Yet everyone’s ignoring this inconvenient fact except, well, the civilians whose houses Hezbollah is firing from.
The NY Times:

“Hezbollah came to Ain Ebel to shoot its rockets,” said Fayad Hanna Amar, a young Christian man, referring to his village. “They are shooting from between our houses.”
“Please,” he added, “write that in your newspaper.”

The Herald Sun:

Images, obtained exclusively by the Sunday Herald Sun, show Hezbollah using high-density residential areas as launch pads for rockets and heavy-calibre weapons.
Dressed in civilian clothing so they can quickly disappear, the militants carrying automatic assault rifles and ride in on trucks mounted with cannon.
[…] The Melbourne man who smuggled the shots out of Beirut and did not wish to be named said he was less than 400m from the block when it was obliterated.
“Hezbollah came in to launch their rockets, then within minutes the area was blasted by Israeli jets,” he said.
“Until the Hezbollah fighters arrived, it had not been touched by the Israelis. Then it was totally devastated.

Newsbusters:

On Monday’s “Anderson Cooper 360,” CNN’s Anderson Cooper related his visit to a Hezbollah-controlled section of Beirut where he was supposed to photograph certain damaged buildings, part of the terrorist group’s strategy of generating news stories about Lebanese civilian casualities caused by Israeli bombs.
But instead of merely transmitting Hezbollah’s unverified and unverifiable claims to the outside world, Cooper — to his credit — exposed the efforts by Hezbollah to manipulate CNN and other Western reporters.
[…] Cooper was explicit about how Hezbollah’s operatives had set all of the rules: “Young men on motor scooters followed our every movement. They only allowed us to videotape certain streets, certain buildings,” he explained. He countered Hezbollah claims that Israel targets civilians by pointing out that the group based itself in civilian areas and that Israel’s air force drops leaflets warning of attacks.

Salon featured a much-touted article last week called “The ‘hiding among civilians’ myth,” which advances, in no uncertain terms, the argument that “Hezbollah fighters […] avoid civilians like the plague.” However, the article, in fact, proves precisely the opposite, openly stating — repeatedly — that Hezbollah located itself within civilian areas.
But nah — y’all are getting played like a fiddle by a fuckin’ martyrdom cult that places civilians in the crossfire to advance its media strategy. So Israel is portrayed as a nation of terrorist war criminals, while actual terrorists are likened to Che Guevara and Saladin.
Out of curiosity, has anyone even noticed that there are presently 1,000,000 refugees from northern Israel filling hotels and the homes of hospitable Israelis everywhere south of Hezbollah’s rocket range? Has anyone noticed that Israel, too, is burying its dead? That there have been numerous building collapses in Israel as well, trapping and killing innocent civilians? That everywhere from Seattle to Syndney, Jews and Jewish institutions are being attacked? Have you seen a single photo of Jewish suffering anywhere? This double-standard is fucked, my friends.
Instead of laying blame squarely on the shoulders of Israel for Qana (and it is most certainly accountable, in no small part), how about a little more equal distribution, and the assignment of some accountability to Hezbollah, which intentionally endangered the lives of Qana’s residents?
But then that’s the rub of it, eh? Israel and its supporters know full well that every strike Israel makes against Hezbollah within civilian areas is the equivalent of a strike against Israel itself, as it turns international opinion against Israel and breeds more extremism.

“What happened in Kana plays into the hands of Hizbullah and Muslim fundamentalists throughout the Arab world,” said one [Arab] diplomat. “We were praying to Allah that such an incident would not happen.”
Another diplomat said that his government would now find it “extremely difficult” to sit on the side and watch as Lebanese women and children were being pulled out from the rubble.
“My government has been under attack for criticizing Hizbullah, which triggered this war by kidnapping the two Israeli soldiers,” he said. “Now we are being attacked as traitors and many Arabs are accusing us of supporting Israel in its war against Hizbullah. But the incident at Kana has changed everything and we are now forced to take a tough stance against Israel.”

If an aggressive military strategy can only backfire, why pursue it? I thought Jews were supposed to be smarter than that. Three full weeks into the fighting, the only solution to this conflict is now obviously, more than ever, a diplomatic one. Sadly, one can never underestimate the monumental stupidity of sureheaded Zionists.
And the war rages on…
*Daniel Taub, legal advisor to Israel’s Foreign Ministry, refuted the charge of war crimes in today’s Jerusalem Post.

14 thoughts on “Civilian Casualties as Propaganda Warfare

  1. Given that they are attacking other people’s land, and the fact that Hezbollah are the only force in that area that have been formed to fight the imperialist agressors, blending in with the civilian population is part of the equation.
    Like the Nazis bombing neighborhoods and claiming that the resistence ‘cowards’ placed civilians as shields, etc.–this illogic hardly needs review, nor should it be given any support.
    Six hundred civilians dead when Hezbollah dares to do what Isreal does almost everyday? Gimmea break.
    Isreal is hurting itself more than it is their ‘enemies’.
    It starts with the bullshit they are doing to the Palestinians and it will end when Isrealis start believing that acting with justice is preferable to acting out of infantile power games because they have the super power on their side.
    REally, the US is your worst enemy. Without US support Isreal would have recognized the reality of the situation long ago.
    When GW Bush claps his hands at the mushroom cloud over Telviv and gathers his fanatical flock to greet the second coming of Christ (dressed in white, of course) then you supporters of this fanaticism might come to realize that the joke has been on you all along.

  2. Well, the one thing I value blog comments sections for is that it proves beyond the shadow of a doubt that semi-literate (yet overly verbose) morons are a plague that scourges both the left and the right.

  3. I think you really said it all, Sydney. I’m glad that you so dutifully reminded us for the 175th time that Israel behaved like Nazi Germany today. I feel like such an idiot for thinking otherwise.

  4. Smoot, when you lie in the pig shit you will tend to become stinky. Take a shower already–but first, a suggestion, get out of that pig shit.

  5. Sidney C.
    You preamble regardng Hezbollah’s ‘right to belnd in with civilians’ would be of vlaue if they were fighting as partisans on behalf of the whole country – or even all of Leabon. As they are an armed political party, and member of government, their support by the Lebanese is not unilateral, nor even necessarily popular. In other words, you are imparting them characteristics they do not have. They are moving ordnance into neighborhoods that do not necessarily support their agenda…
    … and in fact, what IS their agenda?
    Fighting Imperialist aggressors? That would fly… except they STARTED this particular phase of the conflict by throwing the proverbial first punch. Missing soldiers, remember? A move not all Lebanese supported.
    Now that they’ve brought down the fire, they’ve created civilian barricades to shield their ability to launch rockets that would kill thousands of people – rockets which are really just upgrades from the CRAPPY rockets they’ve been launching for YEARS, even AFTER Israel pulled out of the buffer zone.
    So recap.
    Hizbollah prods the nearest angry giant.
    Said giant acts predicatbly and starts stomping nearby villagers.
    Prodders hide AMONGST villagers, and continue to prod, without one thought of the villagers being crushed.
    Ok.
    Yes.
    Noble partisans, they.
    >shrugs, goes back to rest of evening

  6. No, Monk, I don’t buy the ‘they started it’ excuse when there are hundreds of dead children because Isreal has invaded, bombed, kidnapped, etc. people in other countries and lands almost everyday. Indeed, Isreal has thousands of kidnapped Arab prisioners that are tortured and held without trial.
    Whatever–your rationalization of Isreal’s barbaric terror doesn’t fly with anyone save for the fanatics of the world.
    When Isreal and the white supremicisst superpower can obliterate a country, any country, then it is entirely legit and logical that extra-national guerrilla forces will develop to fight the criminal agression that Isreal engages on an almost daily basis.
    Don’t like terror–that stop participating in it. Your feeble agression is simply making your beloved Jewish state look stupid and fanatical–and increasing the likihood of more terror.
    Same goes for the US–ruled by religous fanatics whose terrorism will come back to bite its citizens. Pretty predictable and I did not need a course of university indoctrination to pontificate on these salient points.
    As long as Isreali military forces ‘hide’ among the people of Isreal than done wail and whine when they put a nuke in Televiv. See how stupid your logic is–as stupid as the blood-thirsty anscestors that you are willing to follow like lemmings off a cliff. Jesus sometimes I think that zionists admire Hitler.
    Isreal is not the ‘giant’ that you think it is–really, get that stupid shit out of your ever loving propagandized mind. Too much Fox news for you.
    The giant in the region are your Arab neighbors–and you havent’ done enough in your ‘ant’ics yet to awaken it. You only cheerlead the terror from the comfort of your air conditioned apartments. LOL

  7. First, I am a WASP, and I like to read your website.
    Now…
    You wrote…”Israel and its supporters know full well that every strike Israel makes against Hezbollah within civilian areas is the equivalent of a strike against Israel itself…”
    Ah, but this is where you are wrong. There is no equating the two sides in terms of force, or damage, or suffering, or anything else other than being equally insane.
    For example: why does the fact that the death toll in the current conflict go 10:1 in favor of Israel? Israel loses one person (usually counted in the US media as civilians or soldiers together, see NYTs online), they kill 10 (these are civilians only, not fighters) in return? Is this equivalency? No. We can’t even get an equivalent body count!
    Do you know the difference between a hand-held, homemade “Katyusha rocket” (even the “10,000 strong arsenel” we are constantly reminded about in the western media) and an IDF tank, or jet, or helicopter gunship? Is there any equivalency between the amount of force used by either side daily, or its range and accuracy? Not even close.
    Can there be equivalency in the situation where one side decides when and how much first-aid and relief supplies can be given to the civilians on the other side, and that relief purposely kept to an inhumane (and politically motivated) trickle? Never.
    And is there an equivalency between the number of “hostages” (soldiers) currently being held by Islamic insurgent groups in Gaza and/or Southern Lebanon and the number of “detainees” or “prisoners” (of any kind) being held in Israeli jails? Are you kidding me?!?
    Any attempts to “equate” one side to the other in this conflict misses the point entirely and smacks of revisionism in the present tense.
    It’s not enough to snidely say “’nuff said” or “they’re both wrong.” Just like the west daily demands all Muslims get up and reject extremist Islam, why don’t you REALLY get off your computer-typin asses and demand the same from your co-religionists? I’m not really hearing it here; it’s like you’re all walking on eggshells or something. Isn’t Judiasm supposed to be all about peace (sound familiar?), and if so, what the hell is wrong with the 90-plus % of Israelis who “support” the current death and destruction going on, to say nothing of Jews in America so busy currently walking around the subject, even making light of it.
    We’re counting on you, dammit!! Don’t justify the unjustifiable or equate the unequatable, no matter who’s on the line.
    Thank you for taking my steam.

  8. Hooray for Hezzie-wood!
    New evidence emerges that the casualties at Qana were staged – unless someone can explain:
    – why the building collapsed 7 hours after the bombing
    – why there were still people inside it by then
    – why the bodies have rigor mortis just an hour or two after their supposed death
    And it’s not as if this hasn’t happened before – like the “Jenin Massacre” that never happened – and more recent evidence from CNN that the Hezzies are staging ambulance runs for the cameras in Beirut, and tightly controlling press coverage.
    Could the handwringers and breast-beaters please restrain themselves, and look at the facts?
    Links with rational discussion:
    http://strata-sphere.com/blog/index.php/archives/2200
    http://web.israelinsider.com/Articles/Diplomacy/8997.htm
    (warning – next two links have graphic photos – showing how the same bodies are repeatedly ‘discovered’ in the rubble for successive rounds of press photographers)
    And the mysterious Man in the Green Helmet, obviously not the rescue worker he is made out to be:
    http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/2006/07/milking-it.html
    http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/2006/07/who-is-this-man.html

  9. Sydney C. wrote: “I did not need a course of university indoctrination to pontificate on these salient points”
    Clearly, Pope Sydney. But just for the record, it’s ISRAEL, not “Isreal” and your understanding of middle eastern politics is as good as your spelling. Rarely have I ever read anything as outright ignorant and mendacious as your last comment.
    But hey! It may be characterized as a progressive perspective so Cole K must be happy as punch!

  10. “If an aggressive military strategy can only backfire, why pursue it?”
    -This depends what your alternatives are. If the only alternative is to sit and be slaughtered, then you take your chances with ‘aggressive military strategy.’ There is no negotiating with Hizbullah, only putting off the inevitable confrontation. In other words, you stand up like a man, or get slaughtered like an ostrich with it’s head in the sand. The ‘diplomatic option’ will only ‘assure’ peace when the enemy has been mostly destroyed and even a toothless, useless UN force (the only kind of UN force, as far as I am aware) will be able to help the Lebanese army control what’s left of them. A cease-fire now would be nothing more than another ‘hudna’ which holds off the fight while Hizbullah re-arms and prepares to spark the next round of violence.

  11. Sydney C.
    The whole “…ruled by religous fanatics whose terrorism will come back to bite its citizens” statement certainly resonates in Middle East politics, but I’m not so sure you’ve got the right country.
    If Israel’s NOT the ‘giant’… and is in fact, a tiny, militarized country SURROUNDED by giants… then what’s your argument? That it shouldn’t be paranoid or aggressive in its self-defense? That the constant threat of being attacked by hostile neighbors hasn’t fostered an atmosphere of racism and paranoia?
    “See how stupid your logic is–as stupid as the blood-thirsty anscestors that you are willing to follow like lemmings off a cliff. Jesus sometimes I think that zionists admire Hitler.” Uhm. My blood-thirsty ‘anscestors’ are from the Russian Pale, Trieste, Germany and Poland. So if by ‘blood-thirsty’, you mean thirsty for having our OWN blood spilled in pogroms, then yeah – you’re right on point. Not a ‘university indoctrinated’ history buff, but reasonably certain there weren’t roving hordes of sword-swinging Litvaks at any time in modern history. I mean, after that, your argument starts to degenerate a little bit into standard rhetoric I could get from just about anywhere… say, even, stormfront.org.
    And btw, don’t let the whole ‘Zionazism’ thing stop you from researching the whole nascent Arab/Nazi movement, or any of the other genuine Neo-Nazi movements int he word today! I wouldn’t want you to break your line of comparison or have to actually, y’know, think those through…

  12. sydney — i’m going to ask you to tone down your rhetoric and speak in a respectful and responsible tone. one more jews-are-nazis allusion and you will be prohibited from further comment.

  13. check this out:
    http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/745185.html
    As the Israel Air Force continues to investigate the air strike, questions have been raised over military accounts of the incident.
    It now appears that the military had no information on rockets launched from the site of the building, or the presence of Hezbollah men at the time.
    The Israel Defense Forces had said after the deadly air-strike that many rockets had been launched from Qana. However, it changed its version on Monday.
    The site was included in an IAF plan to strike at several buildings in proximity to a previous launching site. Similar strikes were carried out in the past. However, there were no rocket launches from Qana on the day of the strike.

  14. Xisnotox, don’t try to confuse these bewildered minds any more than they are capable of–you’ll spoil a good blood-fest party.
    These pussies thump their chests from the comfort of their air-conditioned homes and cheer for more blood.
    Mobius—it’s the master/slave thing. Isreal has become the oppressor in modern times. Identities become intertwinned. Of course Isreal has not yet killed millions, but the ingredients are there.
    Hey, I am ashamed of what my WASP nationalists have done around the globe–killing millions of people. Just because the US came out on top as the victor doesn’t, in my mind, give US a pass when it comes to correct, ethical action.
    I expect more from Isreal and the people of the nation because they (WE) should have learned better by now.
    My people are those fighting imperialist agression, for justice in the most rudimentary sense.
    No, I am with the minority of the despised Isrealis in the peace camp. Don’t like it–then shoot me.

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