Hospital? What hospital? The place was empty? A hospital in a wartorn country full of wounded people and it was empty? Sounds like a hospital to me.
One more time. If Hezbollah moved away from the Lebanese civilians, would they be getting killed? If the Israeli army stopped trying to protect its citizens from rockets would they still be getting killed?
You tell me where the fault lies.
BTW. According to reports, the israelis ran through the "hospital" shouting the names of the captured israeli soldiers. They were intending to break them out, by they were moved. So, you hide the biggest piece of collateral you have near as many civilians as you can. Whose idea was that? Thats right, the all-righteous Hezbollah. Israels fault my ass. If you truly cant see that, you arent looking. Its becoming clearer day by day, that the more innocent ARABS that are killed by Israelis, the happier Hezbollah are.
How can you not see this stuff Killa? Cmon man, you have to admit its a little strange how these militants always seem to be surrounded by women and children.
While we're on the subject, whats your opinion on what Hezbollah is doing re. shooting rockets into Israel, targeting innocent civilians. I believe we are yet to hear your views on that.
Your statement "militants always seem to be surrounded by women and children." is misleading and untrue.
A report released by Human Rights Watch today:
This report documents serious violations of international humanitarian law (the laws of war) by Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in Lebanon between July 12 and July 27, 2006, as well as the July 30 attack in Qana. During this period, the IDF killed an estimated 400 people, the vast majority of them civilians, and that number climbed to over 500 by the time this report went to print. The Israeli government claims it is taking all possible measures to minimize civilian harm, but the cases documented here reveal a systematic failure by the IDF to distinguish between combatants and civilians.
Since the start of the conflict, Israeli forces have consistently launched artillery and air attacks with limited or dubious military gain but excessive civilian cost. In dozens of attacks, Israeli forces struck an area with no apparent military target. In some cases, the timing and intensity of the attack, the absence of a military target, as well as return strikes on rescuers, suggest that Israeli forces deliberately targeted civilians.
The Israeli government claims that it targets only Hezbollah, and that fighters from the group are using civilians as human shields, thereby placing them at risk. Human Rights Watch found no cases in which Hezbollah deliberately used civilians as shields to protect them from retaliatory IDF attack. Hezbollah occasionally did store weapons in or near civilian homes and fighters placed rocket launchers within populated areas or near U.N. observers, which are serious violations of the laws of war because they violate the duty to take all feasible precautions to avoid civilian casualties. However, those cases do not justify the IDF’s extensive use of indiscriminate force which has cost so many civilian lives. In none of the cases of civilian deaths documented in this report is there evidence to suggest that Hezbollah forces or weapons were in or near the area that the IDF targeted during or just prior to the attack.
By consistently failing to distinguish between combatants and civilians, Israel has violated one of the most fundamental tenets of the laws of war: the duty to carry out attacks on only military targets. The pattern of attacks during the Israeli offensive in Lebanon suggests that the failures cannot be explained or dismissed as mere accidents; the extent of the pattern and the seriousness of the consequences indicate the commission of war crimes.
and before you accuse me of being something I'm not, it goes both ways....
While not the focus of this report, Human Rights Watch has separately and simultaneously documented violations of international humanitarian law by Hezbollah, including a pattern of attacks that amount to war crimes. Between July 12, when Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers and killed eight, and July 27, the group launched a reported 1,300 rockets into predominantly civilian areas in Israel, killing 18 civilians and wounding more than 300. Without guidance systems for accurate targeting, the rockets are inherently indiscriminate when directed toward civilian areas, especially cities, and thus are serious violations of the requirement of international humanitarian law that attackers distinguish at all times between combatants and civilians. Some of these rockets, Human Rights Watch found, are packed with thousands of metal ball-bearings, which spray more than 100 meters from the blast and compound the harm to civilians.
[Edited by - efw on 08-03-2006 7:22 PM]
Civilian casualties are not avoidable during a war.
During the NATO Balkans peace keeping opearation, 500 civilians were killed by NATO forces during the "active" part of the campagn, and 12000 during the following incubation period. And that is according to European numbers. Some Balkan sources claim the number of civilians dead as a result of NATO peace keeping opeartion at 30000.
Yet NATO went in there to make the peace and keep it, and they did.
The point I'm trying to make is that you can't have armys or militans blasting away at each other with modern weapons and not kill civilians. This is why war is BAD! This is why Hizbollah should have never attacked in the first place.
First off, Im not going to accuse you of being anything, just for posting an article. Noone accused Killa of being anything for posting an article. Killa stated unequivically in his posts that the creation of Israel is racism, and posters have been trying to explain to him the anti-semitism inherent in that position ever since.
Secondly, HRW. Not the most fair-handed organization ever created. Vastly pro-arab in most of their work, they would simply look like a farce if they didnt at least pay lip-service to condemning Hezbollah.
To the article you posted. Notwithstanding the origin of the report, I see nothing in it that would debunk the possibility that Hezbollah are indeed using civilians as human shields. They found no cases of this? Really? Because I was kinda hoping that Hezbollah militants would show up and demonstrate how it is done. If HRW was looking for the classic "human shield" tactic ie standing directly behind a baby while shooting at a soldier, then this was possibly the wrong theatre to be looking for such an instance. The Israelis made a legitimate effort TWO WEEKS in advance of shelling to try and tell civilians to distance themselves from positions and individuals who would be targets for Israeli missiles. I do not know why civilians in Lebanon are still toing-andfroing with Hezbollah militants. If I knew there was a terrorist in my neighborhood and the army were going to bomb the hell out of him, I would make it a top priority to stay away from him. I would say to my family and children "Get away from this guy/place, and be quick about it". Noone is denying the fact that Israeli dropped leaflets, made radio broadcasts and even telephoned people to tell them to clear the area. It is a verified fact. Even Hezbollah cannot deny it.
So why then are there still militants surrounded by a large number of innocent civilians. I can think of 3 suggestions. 1. They dont know they are terrorists, and by the time these hidden militants are firing rockets, its already too late to leave. This would be Hezbollah's fault. 2. They are being held against their will by Hezbollah, as propeganda material, so that when Israel retaliates against rockets innocents are killed and the arab world can run screaming about Israeli "brutality". This would also be Hezbollahs fault. 3. The women and children are happy to be there, thinking they are martyring their lives for the ultimate greatness of killing Jews. This is both Hezbollah's fault for brainwashing women and children and their own, and therefore would not be categorized as "innocent civilians.
So, we come back to the ultimate point, regardless of what HRW feel. Israel has warned people long in advance of their intentions to bomb certain places in order to eliminate Hezbollah militants. They then bomb these places, and women and children are caught in the blast. What were they still doing there?
There also are, I would point out instances of Israeli error, where they have been off-target, or misinformed about the locations of militants. As a result of these errors, innocent civilians have died. This is something which the Israeli do not wish to happen. Personally, I am unhappy that any innocent civilians are being killed, but war is not fun, and unfortunately, these things do happen in war, they always have and always will. The Israelis are blatantly targeting aggressive militants and sometimes missing, while Hezbollah are blatantly targeting innocent civilians and sometimes hitting.
[Edited by - firefly on 08-03-2006 8:00 PM]
Human Rights Watch... another impartial obsever...
April 13, 2004
By Anne Bayefsky
When it comes to anti-Semitism and anti-Israel bias, Human Rights Watch still has a lot of explaining to do notwithstanding Executive Director Ken Roth's umbrage at criticism.
Roth, however, volunteers a test of his organization's reliability when it comes to the Arab-Israeli conflict, namely Human Rights Watch's behavior at the UN's infamous "anti-racism" conference held in Durban, South Africa shortly before 9/11. If the organization's actions were assailable there, he says, it would make "it easy to reject the objectivity of Human Rights Watch reports on Israeli conduct."
It is a test that Human Rights Watch fails hands down. I know because I was there as the representative of the International Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists (IAJLJ). Roth himself did not attend.
Just prior to the conference Roth telegraphed his convictions in an interview on US National Public Radio, August 14, 2001, when he said about the pending controversy and the effort to focus attention on Israel: "Clearly Israeli racist practices are an appropriate topic."
So in the lead-up to Durban, Human Rights Watch fanned the flames of racial intolerance notwithstanding that Israel's citizens are one-quarter Arab and enjoy democratic rights they have nowhere else in the Arab world, while neighboring Arab states are Judenrein.
At Durban one role of Human Rights Watch was to exclude the representative of Jewish lawyers and jurists from over 40 countries. Here's what happened:
As a representative of the IAJLJ, I was a member of the caucus of international human rights nongovernmental organizations. Human Rights Watch, along with others such as Amnesty International and the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights (renamed Human Rights First), was also a member of this caucus. Together we had a right to vote on the final NGO document, and hours before the last session gathered together to discuss our position.
The draft included egregious statements equating Zionism with racism, and alleging that Israel is an "apartheid" state guilty of "genocide and ethnic cleansing designed to ensure a Jewish state."
As we arrived at our meeting the chief Durban representative of Human Rights Watch, advocacy director Reed Brody, publicly announced that as a representative of a Jewish group I was unwelcome and could not attend. The views of a Jewish organization, he explained, would not be objective and the decision on how to vote had to be taken in our absence. Not a single one of the other international NGOs objected.
THE HUMAN Rights Watch role at Durban? To inhibit Jewish lawyers and jurists from being fairly represented or defended.
Later that afternoon, my colleague Daniel Lack and I insisted on entering the meeting, but their minds were made up. In the face of the flagrant anti-Semitism all around them the group, including HRW had decided neither to approve nor disapprove of the final declaration, and not to vote.
Instead the international NGOs, including HRW planned to introduce an introductory paragraph that would cast the document as a legitimate collection of the "voices of the victims."
In the evening, as the declaration was considered, a motion was made to delete draft language that had come from the Jewish NGO caucus. The Jewish caucus had proposed including a statement that the demonization of Israel and the targeting of Jews for destruction because of their support for Israel was a form of anti-Semitism.
The vote to delete the Jewish caucus's proposal succeeded and all Jewish organizations from around the world walked out.
What did Human Rights Watch do? The organization said nothing. It made no move to vote. It stayed. Notwithstanding that the Jewish voices had been silenced, two days later at a press conference, HRW (along with Amnesty International, and the Lawyers Committee/Human Rights First) repeated the claim that the "voices of the victims" had legitimately prevailed at the NGO conference. HRW spokesperson Smita Narula said: "The document gives expression to all voices."
What else did Human Rights Watch do in Durban? It misrepresented the final outcome to the world press.
AFTER THE fact, Human Rights Watch got nervous about the possible reaction of its many Jewish funders. So the cover-up began.
On September 6, 2001 Human Rights Watch spokespersons Reed Brody and Joel Motley wrote in the Conference News Daily that the NGO declaration "marks a major success... and recognizes the scourge of anti-Semitism."
They neglected to mention that the declaration had redefined anti-Semitism, changing its meaning from the hatred of Jews to something which included "anti-Arab racism."
Six months later, in February 2002, Human Rights Watch published an update stating: "What really happened at the World Conference Against Racism in Durban? The conference we participated in was completely different from the one covered in American newspapers."
What else did Human Rights Watch do after Durban? It denied what happened there.
As for Roth's claim of the organization's objectivity in reporting on governments throughout the region, one need look no further than its inability despite an annual budget of $22 million to produce a specific report on human rights abuses in a country like Libya, or the relative paucity of attention over the years given to states with appalling human rights records like Saudi Arabia and Syria, as compared to Israel.
So there should be no surprise when HRW wrongly describes Israel as violating international legal norms, for example, by labeling the killing of someone like Sheikh Ahmed Yassin or Ismail Abu Shanab an "assassination" or "liquidation."
International law does not protect all combatants from being targeted before judicial process, or grant them immunity from military operations when they use civilians as human shields.
Having the courage to speak out against the tide of hate directed at Israel and the Jewish people is not one of the strengths of Human Rights Watch.
When will this leading international human rights NGO stop believing it has to earn its stripes by demonizing Israel, or that to stay in business it must avoid criticizing Israel's enemies?
The writer, a professor at York University in Canada, is an international lawyer and a member of the Governing Board of UN Watch, based in Geneva
Please excuse me for jumping to conclusions.
As to HRWs methods of discovery, I didn't post for fear of too long an article. Their methods are documented and can be found on their website. It includes interviews, groundwork, and eyewitness reports. In other words, it's just as balanced an approach as any other media outlet or informational source. Furthermore, if you look at their website, it does more than just pay lip service in condemning Hezbollah. It just happens that, as an organization that tallies deaths, there is a disproportionate amount of Arab deaths to report on.
You ask, "So why then are there still militants surrounded by a large number of innocent civilians?"
The reason is because Hezbollah is an integral part of Lebanon life. From social structures, to schools, to hospitals, to government positions, Hezbollah members are everywhere. Their families - mothers, fathers, sons, daughers, uncles, cousins, and so on - live in Lebanon. The fighters go home at night to eat. They sleep and relax in these homes. And yes, they probably store their guns and bombs in these places too. The military members of Hezbollah are friends with non-Hezbollah Lebanese- they interact on a daily basis. Just like you see Israeli soldiers sitting at a bus stop, or going to a movie. Who, then qualifies as a Hezbollah militant? The whole family? Just the fighter? Who is a civilian? Only non-Muslims? How can you tell who is who from 1000 feet up going 600 miles per hour? Where do you draw the lines? You see, it's not so easy for a person to tell their child to stay away from that guy.
Jews actually bother to show up to such events? Why? Why are we even funding them still. These organizations are useless and controlled by many private interests. What a waste of money. I gotta say the idealism of our people never does us any good.
Good article about how Israel will never defeat hezbollah by military might. Roots are deep and new hezbollah are growing every day. The cycle will continue.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/03/opinion/03pape.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
Posted by efw:
The reason is because Hezbollah is an integral part of Lebanon life. From social structures, to schools, to hospitals, to government positions, Hezbollah members are everywhere. Their families - mothers, fathers, sons, daughers, uncles, cousins, and so on - live in Lebanon. The fighters go home at night to eat. They sleep and relax in these homes. And yes, they probably store their guns and bombs in these places too. The military members of Hezbollah are friends with non-Hezbollah Lebanese- they interact on a daily basis. Just like you see Israeli soldiers sitting at a bus stop, or going to a movie. Who, then qualifies as a Hezbollah militant? The whole family? Just the fighter? Who is a civilian? Only non-Muslims? How can you tell who is who from 1000 feet up going 600 miles per hour? Where do you draw the lines? You see, it's not so easy for a person to tell their child to stay away from that guy.
What you are saying is that much Lebonon is integrated with a known terrorist entity and therfore is not merely a nation under hostage by Syria, but a nation that supports an organization that stands for the complete annihilation of Israel. Either way, this terrorist opperation shares seats in parlement and is active in eliminating any opposition that theatens it...
This terrorist organization is stockpiling munitions creating a growing threat to Israel's existence... Israel has every right to destroy the threat... if the militants dress as civilian's, stockpile weapons with civilian's and take cover offered by civilians; than these individuals are no longer qualified as mere civilians in standard military practice; they are considered hostile and therefore subject to engagement...
If you believe that the US did not target the Talaban in their homes... you are misinformed.. if you believe the US spared the children of Libia's leader you are again misinformed... if you believe the US spared the family or hosts of Bin Laden's 2nd in command,,, you are again misinformed.
They are not party to the Geneva conventions, they do not follow any semblance of accepted military practices for engagement and as such are not bound by mainstream laws regarding military engagement... they are terrorists and they don't phone you up warning you before they come at night and cut your throat...
These terrorists cannot have it both ways... they cannot call for your destruction and maintain a policy of wiping you off the map.. and then call a cease-fire because they are running out of ammo.
Lets not be dellusional here; Iran set this in motion to divert the world's attention, get the sympathy for their ambitions within the Muslim world - placing them in a more favourable position against demands to stop development of a nuclear arsenal.
Hezbollah is Iran; Iran declares publicly its right to wipe Israel off the map...
This is war, war is ugly and cruel and catches innocence in its path; no one has the right to demand that Israel restrain itself if they are not prepared to go and weaken this Iranian proxy themselves.('
');
Posted by Killa4luv:
Posted by Rich:
You have to wonder about the motives of anyone that can't see through Hezbollah's mendaciousness.
Let suppose he is A Hezbolla member. Or maybe he works for the UN or some humanitarian aid team. But lets suppose that he is a Hezbollah member, correct me if I am wrong but those are still real dead bodies he's holding, no?
What does it matter, the real point is that innocent children are being killed by bombs and missles that my tax dollars helped to create, and I have a problem with that. Should I not?
Has Israel dimished Hezbollas weapons as they boasted a few days ago?
Are Israeli's any safer?
Is Hezbollah any weaker as a result?
Anyone who honestly views the facts has to acknowledge that Hezbollah insinuates itself among the citizens. They shoot their rockets and missiles from populated areas. Consequently they are responsible for every dead citizen.
Israel will be safer when Hezbollah, Hamas, and Iran recongnize that a) Israel has a right to exist withing secure borders; or b) they are soundly defeated.
Posted by colorfl1:
no one has the right to demand that Israel restrain itself if they are not prepared to go and weaken this Iranian proxy themselves.('');
People have every right to demand Israel restrain itself. In fact, people who believe that Israel is making a huge mistake, both for herself and for innocent civilians of any stripe, have a duty to speak up.
To say that one is not allowed an opinion unless they go and fight Hezbelloh themselves is asinine.
You have no right to comment further on the Knicks unless you go out and play with them...
Posted by efw:
Posted by colorfl1:
no one has the right to demand that Israel restrain itself if they are not prepared to go and weaken this Iranian proxy themselves.('');
People have every right to demand Israel restrain itself. In fact, people who believe that Israel is making a huge mistake, both for herself and for innocent civilians of any stripe, have a duty to speak up.
To say that one is not allowed an opinion unless they go and fight Hezbelloh themselves is asinine.
You have no right to comment further on the Knicks unless you go out and play with them...
Until now you have come across quite reasonable and intelligent. But your analogy is a straw-man and absurd.
If people are trying to destroy you, you have have every right to defend yourself by destroying them first...
You can be the guy who sticks up for the murderer's right to sue you after he fails to cut your throat and proceeds to trip on your stairs... but I think these analogies are a fultile exercise.
There is no honest debate here. It is plain that Israel has the right to go to war against organizations and nations actively trying to destroy them... There is no such thing as proportionality in war, this is only a recent PR devise to curb Israel's right to defend itself.
This is not a tit-for-tat struggle... this is an existential war and you have no legitamacy to call for a curb of their ability to defend themselves while you reside in the comfortable security of the west; with Canada and Mexico as your neighbours. You can critique all you want, but the legitimacy of your critique will fail if you hold this country to a different standard than other countries of the world...
As my previous post makes abundantly clear; you are holding Israel to a different standard than other nations of the world who have combated a terrorist threat to their existance...
I found it interesting that some people try to convince others on this thread that Israel is deliberately killing civilians in Lebanon just because they are rasists and Zionists.
Well... If this will be true it will be tens if not hundred of thousands Arabs already dead.
Can you imagine how many people the Israeli Jets, tanks, artillery, warships, rockets can kill if this will be the objection of Israeli army? The Lebanon will be a desert.
When Russian army was instructed indeed to give the terrorists a lesson - 15000 civilians in Groznyy died in 2 days and 100 thousand was dispraised. When the Russia was fighting in Afghanistan - almost a million of Afghan people was killed. Most of them civilians. How many civilians were killed by American army in Vietnam, Korea, Serbia, Iraq, and Afghanistan?
It's sad but Israel will never be able to win the war with Hezbollah and alike as they are too civilized. The nation of people who was killed and displaced for generations just cannot do it with others. So they doomed to lose unless America or Russia, or other superpower will decide to "help out". Then nobody will count the civilian casualties - it will be no people to do counting…
Many of these so-called innocent civilians may be family members of Hezbollah who refuse to leave the areas that Israel has warned would be bombed.
Just to keep the thread going...
Posted by colorfl1:
If people are trying to destroy you, you have have every right to defend yourself by destroying them first...
That doesn't sound like defense to me. That sounds like Bush pre-emption, which, as an American, I guess I'm free to critique as much as I want. Israel won't destroy terrorism with their military. It simply will not happen. Like I've said, it will only exacerbate the situation.
As my previous post makes abundantly clear; you are holding Israel to a different standard than other nations of the world who have combated a terrorist threat to their existance...
You are quite right that I hold Israel to a different standard than other nations, just as I do the US. Indeed, Israel should conduct itself in a manner befitting a powerful, first-world country. I understand where you're coming from, insisting that Israel should do whatever is in it's power to end Hezbollah's existence. After all, Israel has the power, why not use it all? But countries have to realize that violent, overwhelming military attacks will not end the terrorist problem.
And as much as you harp on it, terrorists do not threaten Israel's existence. Israel is here to stay - thanfully. Hezbollah and Iran can move their mouths all they want about wiping Israel off the map, but it won't happen. Terrorism is a tactic used to call attention to a cause and inspire fear into an enemy, not to invade and take over a country.
Look, if you really think that there's no debate, that Israel has every right to bomb the crap out of all of Lebanon in order to make sure that Hezbelloh is eradicated, then I won't debate with you anymore. I think it's a pity though, because dialogue is good for people (regardless of where they live) and ultimately is what will bring stability to the region.
peace
No, it's not like Bush's pre-emption doctrine because Hezbollah attacked Israel. Iraq didn't attack the U.S. If it was like pre-emption, Israel would have invaded before they were attacked, and they didn't.
Posted by efw:
And as much as you harp on it, terrorists do not threaten Israel's existence. Israel is here to stay - thanfully. Hezbollah and Iran can move their mouths all they want about wiping Israel off the map, but it won't happen.
This is BS. Terrorism, if not combated will ruin the people’s faith in the leadership causing civil unrest. Such unrest or disturbance will result in crumbling of the political structure of most countries. It’s happened once before in India before in the late 70's, early 80's.
[Edited by - Silverfuel on 08-04-2006 06:26 AM]
I like your last post efw. I am more then happy to debate the issue of Israels best way forward in this war. But in order to debate it, one must agree the facts. The fact is that if not for Hezbollahs continued practice of surrounding themselves with civilians, civilians would not getting hurt.
You mention above that Hezbollah is entrenched in all Lebanese life, and therefore they are surrounded by civilians and cannot help it. You also ask who is the militant, and how do you define the civilians.
In response I would say as follows. This is not a war where one army is fighting another army. The Israeli army's goal is to eliminate the threat of Hezbollah. Hezbollahs charter is to create a Shiite islamic area, cleansing the Middle-East of Jews. So, the Israelis are therefore fighting anyone who wishes to use force to destroy Israel. There are women in the Israeli army, so I see no reason why there should not be women in Hezbollahs ranks. You say Hezbollah is a part of Lebanese life. I will not believe that all Lebanese people are intent on using violence to destroy Israel. But if they are, then by definition, they have joined the ranks of Hezbollah. Your post identifies one of the greatest gains Lebanon would get from the elimination of Hezbollah. They are surrounded by vicious killers on all sides to the extent that they have become part of their lives. Eliminate Hezbollah and perhaps the Lebanese people can begin a life free of militant violence and terrorism. Since the Israelis are fighting a group of men with a stated goal of Israeli destruction, I would define a militant as anyone who shares that goal. Remove Hezbollah from Lebanon, and the Lebanese will not be those people.
Now that we have identified Hezbollah as not only a threat to Israel, but to the Lebanese way of life as well, perhaps we can ask what is the best way to remove them. It can be argued that what the Israeli army is doing is not the best way to achieve their goals. Im not a military general, so I will leave it to you to suggest alternatives.
Ehud Olmert's speech, 31st July 2006
Ladies and gentlemen, leaders of the world.
I, the Prime Minister of Israel, am speaking to you from Jerusalem in the face of the terrible pictures from Kfar Kana. Any human heart, wherever it is, must sicken and recoil at the sight of such pictures. There are no words of comfort that can mitigate the enormity of this tragedy. Still, I am looking you straight in the eye and telling you that the State of Israel will continue its military campaign in Lebanon. The Israel Defence Forces will continue to attack targets from which missiles and Katyusha rockets are fired at hospitals, old age homes and kindergartens in Israel. I have instructed the security forces and the IDF to continue to hunt for the Katyusha stockpiles and launch sites from which these savages are bombarding the State of Israel. We will not hesitate, we will not apologize and we will not back off. If they continue to launch missiles into Israel from Kfar Kana, we will continue to bomb Kfar Kana. Today, tomorrow and the day after tomorrow. Here, there and everywhere. The children of Kfar Kana could now be sleeping peacefully in their homes, unmolested, had the agents of the devil not taken over their land and turned the lives of our children into hell.
Ladies and gentlemen, it’s time you understood: the Jewish state will no longer be trampled upon. We will no longer allow anyone to exploit population centres in order to bomb our citizens. No one will be able to hide anymore behind women and children in order to kill our women and children. This anarchy is over. You can condemn us, you can boycott us, you can stop visiting us and, if necessary, we will stop visiting you.
A voice for six million citizens
Today I am serving as the voice of six million bombarded Israeli citizens who serve as the voice of six million murdered Jews who were melted down to dust and ashes by savages in Europe. In both cases, those responsible for these evil acts were, and are, barbarians devoid of all humanity, who set themselves one simple goal: to wipe the Jewish race off the face of the earth, as Adolph Hitler said, or to wipe the State of Israel off the map, as Mahmoud Ahmedinjad proclaims. And you – just as you did not take those words seriously then, you are ignoring them again now.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, leaders of the world, will not happen again. Never again will we wait for bombs that never came to hit the gas chambers. Never again will we wait for salvation that never arrives. Now we have our own air force. The Jewish people are now capable of standing up to those who seek their destruction – those people will no longer be able to hide behind women and children. They will no longer be able to evade their responsibility. Every place from which a Katyusha is fired into the State of Israel will be a legitimate target for us to attack. This must be stated clearly and publicly, once and for all. You are welcome to judge us, to ostracize us, to boycott us and to vilify us. But to kill us? Absolutely not. Four months ago I was elected by hundreds of thousands of citizens to the office of Prime Minister of the government of Israel, on the basis of my plan for unilaterally withdrawing from 90 percent of the areas of Judea and Samaria, the birth place and cradle of the Jewish people; to end most of the occupation and to enable the Palestinian people to turn over a new leaf and to calm things down until conditions are ripe for attaining a permanent settlement between us.
The Prime Minister who preceded me, Ariel Sharon, made a full withdrawal from the Gaza Strip back to the international border, and gave the Palestinians there a chance to build a new reality for themselves. The Prime Minister who preceded him, Ehud Barak, ended the lengthy Israeli presence in Lebanon and pulled the IDF back to the international border, leaving the land of the cedars to flourish, develop and establish its democracy and its economy. What did the State of Israel get in exchange for all of this? Did we win even one minute of quiet? Was our hand, outstretched in peace, met with a handshake of encouragement? Ehud Barak’s peace initiative at Camp David let loose on us a wave of suicide bombers who smashed and blew to pieces over 1,000 citizens, men, women and children. I don’t remember you being so enraged then. Maybe that happened because we did not allow TV close-ups of the dismembered body parts of the Israeli youngsters at the Dolphinarium? Or of the shattered lives of the people butchered while celebrating the Passover Seder at the Park Hotel in Netanya? What can you do – that’s the way we are. We don’t wave body parts at the camera. We grieve quietly. We do not dance on the roofs at the sight of the bodies of our enemy’s children – we express genuine sorrow and regret. That is the monstrous behaviour of our enemies. Now they have risen up against us. Tomorrow they will rise up against you. You are already familiar with the murderous taste of this terror. And you will taste more.
In a loud and clear voice
Ariel Sharon’s withdrawal from Gaza. What did it get us? A barrage of Kassem missiles fired at peaceful settlements and the kidnapping of soldiers. Then too, I don’t recall you reacting with such alarm. And for six years, the withdrawal from Lebanon has drawn the vituperation and crimes of a dangerous, extremist Iranian agent, who took over an entire country in the name of religious fanaticism and is trying to take Israel hostage on his way to Jerusalem – and from there to Paris and London. An enormous terrorist infrastructure has been established by Iran on our border, threatening our citizens, growing stronger before our very eyes, awaiting the moment when the land of the Ayatollahs becomes a nuclear power in order to bring us to our knees. And make no mistake – we won’t go down alone. You, the leaders of the free and enlightened world, will go down along with us. So today, here and now, I am putting an end to this parade of hypocrisy. I don’t recall such a wave of reaction in the face of the 100 citizens killed every single day in Iraq. Sunnis kill Shiites who kill Sunnis, and all of them kill Americans – and the world remains silent. And I am hard pressed to recall a similar reaction when the Russians destroyed entire villages and burned down large cities in order to repress the revolt in Chechnya. And when NATO bombed Kosovo for almost three months and crushed the civilian population – then you also kept silent. What is it about us, the Jews, the minority, the persecuted, that arouses this cosmic sense of justice in you? What do we have that all the others don’t? In a loud clear voice, looking you straight in the eye, I stand before you openly and I will not apologize. I will not capitulate. I will not whine. This is a battle for our freedom. For our humanity. For the right to lead normal lives within our recognized, legitimate borders. It is also your battle. I pray and I believe that now you will understand that. Because if you don’t, you may regret it later, when it’s too late.
[Edited by - firefly on 08-04-2006 08:47 AM]
