Hevenu Shalom Aleichem
Two days ago, United Nations human rights official Jan Egeland criticised Israel for breaching human rights laws in its bombardment of Lebanon. Prior to that, Egeland had described Israel’s month-long military offensive in Gaza as a “disproportionate use of force”, and reported that “Nearly one third of all casualties in the Lebanon-Israel conflict have been children” and that “it appeared neither Hezbollah nor the Israelis seemed to care about civilian suffering”
Now, four United Nations peacekeepers have been killed in an Israeli air strike on a United Nations observation post in south Lebanon. The dead included observers from Austria, Canada, China and Finland. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said he was “shocked” at the “apparently deliberate targeting” of the post. Dan Ayalon, Israel’s Ambassador to Washington, demanded that Annan apologize for the remarks, which he called “baseless.”
Coverage:
Israeli bomb kills UN observers – BBC
Israel bomb kills 4 UN observers in Lebanon – Reuters
Annan: UN base was ‘apparently deliberately targeted’ – Ha’aretz
Four UN observers killed when Israeli bomb hits their post – Israel Insider
This is sad, but in warfare “friendly fire” can result in tragedies (Israelis suspect friendly fire brought down one of the own Apachees, and in the US we have the tragedy of Pat Toomey). Sad, but that’s what Hezbullah caused when they kidnapped two Isaeli soldiers and fired weapons at the Israeli cities.
Mr Oil-For-Food is just throwing shit at the wall and hoping it will stick.
Kofi makes me sick.
Does one say “baruch dayan ha’emet” when we kill people by accident?
Nice and smooth JB – trying to make it look like Israel is roughing the UN up because of Egeland’s criticism. In fact, this is what Egeland said (from the BBC website):
“The Israeli military attacks are all over the country. There are aerial bombardments which are in hundreds of places really. I think it is a disproportionate response, really,” Mr Egeland told the BBC.
“But I also clearly see that Hezbollah is trying to blend into the civilian population in too many places and they bear also a heavy responsibility for this. They do not seem to care that they really inflict a lot of suffering on their own population,” he added.
That last bit has actually been quoted by pro-Israeli blogs and media.
And Israel has already pledged to allow UN humanitarian aid through its blockade of Lebanese ports (not that you’d get that from al-reuter’s slanted headlin).
But it’s not very indicative of anti-UN policy is it?
To Ittay; Yes we do say baruch dayan ha-emet for people we accidentally killed. Hashem is still the true judge, regardless of our competence or lack thereof.
In response to the post, I am very sad that these 4 innocents were killed, however my question would be: what are they still doing there? Or rather, what have they EVER been doing there? It’s do to the ineffectiveness of such ‘peacekeepers,’ who had no power or mandate to actually do ANYTHING effective that such a conflict as this has brewed and finally erupted. Screw ‘peacekeepers,’ if they’re not ‘peace-enforcers,’ then they’re useless. We can just set a satellite over the border and ‘watch’ it ourselves.
Eitan asked:
What are they doing there?
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Building roads for Hezbullah, of course!
Rather than using its Land Rovers to delivery food and medicine, the UN’s Interim Force in Lebanon is busily repairing damaged roads in Hezzie-controlled areas—roads the IAF bombed specifically to impede terrorist movement—right in the middle of the war.
Quote:
Yesterday, a UNIFIL engineering contingent from China managed to do some repairs on a key road artery between Tyre and Naqoura,and the road is now usable for traffic. How ever,
more road destruction was reported in various areas in the south.
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Neutral observers.
Sure.
Of course they are.
Link:
http://www.un.org/Depts/dpko/missions/unifil/pr09.pdf
Didn’t the U.N. endorse the destruction of Israel?
I feel like we are back in fourth grade here.
Ehud pulls Kofi’s ponytail.
Kofi says, “You poopyhead, you did that on purpose”
Ehud says, “Did not”
“Did too”
“Did not”
“Did too”
I’ve said this before…I’m only too glad that their are blogs for some Jews to post on, taking up too much time to serve in the army, in the Israeli govt. Their efforts don’t harm too many lives that way.
Posted email, scroll down to the end of this post:
Retired Canadian General Lew MacKenzie — who is speaking in Toronto tonight at a Stand with Israel rally — was interviewed on CBC Toronto radio this a.m. He told the show’s anchor that he had received an e-mail only days before from the dead Canadian observor who was a member of his former battalion. MacKenzie says that the message indicated in effect that the UN position was being used as cover by Hezbollah, who, MacKenzie explained, can do so quite freely as they are not members of the UN and not subject, therefore, to official condemnation.
MacKenzie further took issue with the misleading reportage (citing CNN in particular) that suggests that Beirut is being bombarded by the IDF and that the city is in ruins. He said that the bombing is nowhere near the saturation levels that constitute a bombardment and the IAF have specifically targetted a twelve-block area that is, more-or-less, Hezbollah City, and only after dropping leaflets warning civilians to vacate well in advance of the planned airstrikes.”
Shades of Jenin . . . .
Also Kofi Annan and he never did.
Last line should be “Kofi Annan was supposed to tell the UNIFIL guys to leave and he never did.“
UN peacekeepers in south Lebanon contacted Israeli troops 10 times before an Israeli bomb killed four of them, an initial UN report says. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5217176.stm
Yehudit, if the IAF dropped leaflets on the so-called “Hezbollah city” saying they would bomb it, wouldn’t that allow the Hezbollah fighters to escape as well as civilians?
Questions regarding the UN forces, four of whom were accidentally killed: Why are they there at all, why didn’t Kofi withdraw them when the fighting started?
Why have they allowed Hebullah to launch rockets against Israel from their location (as reported on the Canadian Broadcasting System)?
Why if Israel was attacking nearby Hezbullah launch sites and they were worried did they not leave immediately?
Why did Kofi, without a shred of evidence, say that Israel had purposefully targeted the UN?
Is Kofe an anti semite? Is Kofe in the pocket of radical muslims? Is the BBC one of the most anti Israeli broadcasters in the world, challenging El Jizera for the title?
Retired Canadian General Lew MacKenzie was interviewed on CBC Toronto radio this a.m. He told the show’s anchor that he had received an e-mail only days before from the dead Canadian observor who was a member of his former battalion. MacKenzie says that the message indicated in effect that the UN position was being used as cover by Hezbollah, who, MacKenzie explained, can do so quite freely as they are not members of the UN and not subject, therefore, to official condemnation.
MacKenzie further took issue with the misleading reportage (citing CNN in particular) that suggests that Beirut is being bombarded by the IDF and that the city is in ruins. He said that the bombing is no where near the saturation levels that constitute a bombardment and the IAF have specifically targetted a twelve-block area that is, more-or-less, Hezbollah City, and only after dropping leaflets warning civilians to vacate well in advance of the planned airstrikes.
Here’s the link to the interview with General MacKenzie:
http://www.cbc.ca/metromorning/
Further evidence that the UN positions are being used by Hezbollah as “human shields” – and also getting shot at by Hezbollah – again, from the UN’s own reports of its activities.
Quote:
Another UN position of the Ghanaian battalion in the area of Marwahin in the western sector was also directly hit by one mortar round from the Hezbollah side last night. The round did not explode, and there were no casualties or material damage. Another 5 incidents of firing close to UN positions from the Israeli side were reported yesterday. It was also reported that Hezbollah fired from the vicinity of four UN positions at Alma ash Shab, Tibnin, Brashit, and At Tiri. All UNIFIL positions remain occupied and maintained by the troops.
Link:
http://www.un.org/Depts/dpko/missions/unifil/pr010.pdf
“Over here, everybody is the army,” one soldier said. “Everybody is Hezbollah. There’s no kids, women, nothing.”
Another soldier put it plainly: “We’re going to shoot anything we see.”
http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=2235354&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312
And here’s the sentence preceding the ones so honestly quoted by our Mr. Brown:
“They [the Israeli soldiers] have been told civilians have left the region where they will fight.
“Over here, everybody is the army,” one soldier said. “Everybody is Hezbollah. There’s no kids, women, nothing.”
Another soldier put it plainly: “We’re going to shoot anything we see.”
Looks different now, doesn’t it?
The email from the Canadian UN “peacekeeper” has now been revealed. This was a summary of his team’s operations, sent to Canadian TV a few days before they died.
Quotes:
Team Sierra is currently observing both IDF/IAF and Hezbollah military clashes from our vantage point which has a commanding view of the IDF positions on the Golan mountains to our east and the IDF positions along the Blue Line to our south, as well as, most of the Hezbollah static positions in and around our patrol Base. It appears that the lion’s share of fighting between the IDF and Hezbollah has taken place in our area.
Based on the intensity and volatility of this current situation and the unpredictability of both sides (Hezbollah and Israel), and given the operational tempo of the Hezbollah and the IDF, we are not safe to venture out to conduct our normal patrol activities. We have now switched to Observation Post Duties and are observing any and all violations as they occur.
. . . .
What I can tell you is this: we have on a daily basis had numerous occasions where our position has come under direct or indirect fire from both artillery and aerial bombing. The closest artillery has landed within 2 meters of our position and the closest 1000 lb aerial bomb has landed 100 meters from our patrol base. This has not been deliberate targeting, but has rather been due to tactical necessity.
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In other words, Hezbollah had encamped around them, and basically controlled the area – to the point that UNIFIL could no longer leave their own base.
I believe the phrase is “human shields”,
The guy admitted that the “close calls” around his were valid tactical maneuvers.
The only question now is why Koffi didn’t order them out of a war zone, since they were not equipped or authorized to defend themselves.
Full text here:
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20060718/mideast_lebanon_UN_060716/20060718/
“At the time, there had been no Hezbollah activity reported in the area,” [A senior UN official] said. “So it was quite clear they were not going after other targets; that, for whatever reason, our position was being fired upon.”
http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=37278180-a261-421d-84a9-7f94d5fc6d50
J wrote: “And here’s the sentence preceding the ones so honestly quoted by our Mr. Brown:
“They [the Israeli soldiers] have been told civilians have left the region where they will fight.”
No, J it really doesn’t make a difference – because if the soldiers were told that they were lied to – the civilians have not left, as evidenced by the incident at Qana and other incidents