Once again, I meandered over to Arab News, and found this rather enlightened editorial. It decries the civilian deaths in the recent fighting in the Middle East, in very unrestrained language. In fact, it's hard to quibble with the outrage of the author.
But reading it over, I can't help but note a pronounced absence of certain pertinent facts.
If one only read this editorial, one might readily come to the conclusion that Israel suddenly started wholesale bombing of Lebanon, killing civilians willy-nilly.
"Hey, Avi, got any plans for the weekend?"
"Nothing much, Yitzhak. The wife wants us to take the kids up to see the in-laws."
"Oh, you can do that any time. Why not come with me? A bunch of buddies and I are gonna go bomb Lebanon."
"Sounds like a plan!"
The author (it's unsigned) doesn't feel it worthy to mention just what triggered the violence -- years of Hezbollah firing rockets and missiles into Israel and numerous invasions, culminating with one assault that killed three Israeli soldiers and kidnapped two others.
Nor does the author waste any tears on the Israeli civilians killed in the fighting -- or in the years of bombardment.
No, that's not right. They weren't killed IN the fighting, but DURING the fighting. Hezbollah has been firing off their rockets and missiles for years with relative impunity; the Israeli counteroffensive merely ratcheted up the speed with which they struck.
I guess the old rule that "there are no civilians in Israel" applies here. It seems that since Israel has pretty much universal military conscription for its Jewish citizens, they're considered combatants.
But Israeli Arabs and Muslims don't have to serve. (Many do, with distinction, but that's irrelevant.) Several of them were killed by Hezbollah's random rockets and missiles, so why aren't they mentioned?
I hate to be a cynic, but I think it's an application of the principle Meryl Yourish dubbed "Israeli Double Standard Time."
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Comments (3)
Your's (and George W. Bush'... (Below threshold)1. Posted by Steve Crickmore | August 23, 2006 4:42 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Your's (and George W. Bush's) root cause of the recent Israel/Lebanon conflict always paint the Hezbollah as the sole instigators and offenders.
Hezbollah has been firing off their rockets and missiles for years with relative impunity. However there have been numerous border air incursions by Israelis since 2000 when their ground troops withdrew from Lebanon and on May 26 this year, two officials of Islamic Jihad - Nidal and Mahmoud Majzoub - were killed by a car bomb in the Lebanese city of Sidon. This was widely assumed in Lebanon and Israel to be the work of Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency. In June, a man named Mahmoud Rafeh confessed to the killings and admitted that he had been working for Mossad since 1994...In reprisal for this incident, the Hezbollah launched 8 rockets over the Israeli border, and so the tit for tat continues. Both sides can be accused of not playing or fighting fair. ...It also seems that concerning the two soldiers Hezbollah took near the border in July; the Hezbollah were seeking to exchange them for 15 prisoners of war taken by the Israelis during the occupation of Lebanon and still held by them, in breach of article 118, of the third Geneva convention.
1. Posted by Steve Crickmore | August 23, 2006 4:42 PM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on August 23, 2006 16:42
2. Posted by Socratease | August 23, 2006 5:32 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Seems to me that, with all the stories of female suicide bombers, pictures of babies with ammo belts, or of teenagers with guns, that there are damn few civilians among the Palestinians. In fact, since Hezbolah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, etc. don't wear uniforms (in violation of the Geneva Conventions), how could you accurately know which was which when surveying the casualties?
2. Posted by Socratease | August 23, 2006 5:32 PM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on August 23, 2006 17:32
3. Posted by Faith+1 | August 23, 2006 7:54 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Jay,
OT to this post but don't know how else to reach you.
Here is an almost true to life Blood for Odin story.
http://tinyurl.com/mz8r8
Least it would have been perfect had the big, burly, blond headed ex-Marine screamed Blood For Odin! as he bore down on the guy...
3. Posted by Faith+1 | August 23, 2006 7:54 PM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on August 23, 2006 19:54