When evaluating what truly happens in cases like this, it
is important to examine what has happened in the past. In
Jenin, in the Gaza
beach incident, and the Mohammad Dura
death, what is initially reported about the results of Israel's
actions often doesn't turn out to be the truth. And when
the truth finally comes out, it doesn't seem to matter to
those who were most critical in the first place.
The Qana incident in Lebanon, in which Israel was accused
of bombing a building where innocent civilians lived, including
many women and children, occurred in the early morning hours
of July 30. It was between midnight and 1 a.m. that Israel
acknowledged hitting the building in question. There had
been about 150 Katyusha rockets fired into Northern Israel
during the previous week from the area that included the
building in question. It wasn't until the morning, about
seven hours later, that the building collapsed. Journalists
were called to the scene, and quickly arrived from Tyre.
The initial reports were that 54 or 57 people died, nearly
all women and children. This was the incident that led the
Lebanese prime minister to tell Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice not to come to Beirut from Israel.
In an article by Reuven Koret for Israel Insider, he said that the claim
that Israel killed the people was suspicious
from the beginning. He noted, "Brett Sadler of CNN reports
that the Israeli ordnance did not even hit the building but
landed '20 or 30 meters' from the structure." Other
strikes followed by the Israeli Defense Force (IDF), but
they were four to five hundred yards away. The IDF could
only guess that if they hit the building and it was seven
hours before it collapsed, it might have contained some unexploded
Hezbollah ordnance. Israeli intelligence suspected the building
was a storage facility for weapons.
So who were the people in the building? Clearly, women and
children were carried out of the building. But it's also
true that Israel had been dropping flyers warning the civilians
in the area to leave. The rescue operation didn't start until
the cameras got there. And it appeared that most of the people
had been dead for days, not hours. Plus, there was little
blood, except on one person.
An article by David Warren for RealClearPolitics walked
through the events and pointed out that the Lebanese Red
Cross said it was 28 bodies found there, not the 54 or 57
that most of the reporters had repeated from the Hezbollah
sources.
Skepticism also came from the blogosphere. One blogger compared
photos from numerous news agencies, creating a timeline and
series of images that strongly suggests that this whole event
was staged. According to a French Lebanese magazine, Hezbollah
actually put children into the building at Qana so they could
be portrayed as victims.
The truth is not yet in, but the circumstances and analysis
suggest that Hezbollah may have perpetrated a ghastly fraud
for the purpose of turning public opinion against Israel.
The other controversial
incident was the attack by Israel on July 25 in which a
U.N. outpost was hit, killing four.
Almost immediately, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan announced
that the attack was the result of "apparently deliberate
targeting," and that an investigation would follow.
But it has since been revealed that Hezbollah was using
the area and the terrorist group had put the U.N. troops
at risk.
In a report in the Ottawa (Canada) Citizen, Joel Kom wrotes
that one of the four who was killed when Israel hit a UN
observation post in the village of El Khiam in southern Lebanon
was Canadian Maj. Paeta Hess-von Kruedener. The four were
serving as unarmed UN military observers. The week before
he died, the Canadian major wrote an email describing what
was said to be an obvious reference to Hezbollah tactics.
"What I can tell you is this," he wrote in an
e-mail to CTV dated July 18. "We have on a daily basis
had numerous occasions where our position has come under
direct or indirect fire from both (Israeli) artillery and
aerial bombing. The closest artillery has landed within 2
meters (sic) of our position and the closest 1000 lb aerial
bomb has landed 100 meters (sic) from our patrol base. This
has not been deliberate targeting, but rather due to tactical
necessity."
This meant that the Israelis were aiming at Hezbollah targets
near the post. And that means that Hezbollah was operating
around the U.N. facility because it thought that would offer
the terrorist group protection from Israeli strikes.
In both cases, therefore, Israel has been blamed for actions
that can ultimately be linked to the activities of Hezbollah.
Israel, which has gone out of its way to avoid civilian casualties,
is being blamed in the media for killing civilians that were
put in a position to die by the terrorist group that reaps
the propaganda benefits.CRO
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