Israel Is Striking Civilians, Homes, Factories Not Hezbollah!

[leftchick]

Has anyone heard of any Hezbollah deaths in all of this killing? :cry:




Lebanese people despair as Israeli strikes kill residents in the southern market town of Nabatiyeh


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5193662.stm


Dozens die in fresh Lebanon raids

Southern Lebanon is sustaining heavy damage

At least 40 civilians have been killed in Israeli air strikes in Lebanon.

At least 12 people died and about 30 were wounded in the southern village of Srifa, near Tyre, where residents said at least 10 homes were flattened.

There was also heavy fighting between Israeli forces and Hezbollah guerrillas on the Lebanese side of the border, with Israeli casualties reported.

At least 270 Lebanese - mostly civilians - have been killed since then.



<snip>

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

The death toll late Tuesday stood at 235 people killed in Lebanon and 25 in Israeli. About half of the Israeli deaths were military personnel. Only a handful of the Lebanese deaths have been military, and only a fraction of those have been Hizbullah fighters. In fact, have even ten Hizbullah guerrillas been killed by the Israelis since this fight began? They say it is a fight with Hizbullah. But then they bomb Greek Orthodox churches and milk factories far from Shiite areas. Hmmmm.

Israeli air strikes killed 30 more civilians on Tuesday:

The Israeli attacks were mainly concentrated on the Bekaa district, as Israeli warplanes launched missiles at the towns of Zahle, Baalbek, Rachaya al-Fokhar and others. The St. Gregorius Church in Rachaya al-Fokhar suffered a direct hit, as did the Lake Qaraoun Dam and the ambulance donated by the Emirates in Dahr al-Baydar. Dozens of civilians were killed and wounded in the attacks. Over 30 civilians were killed in Israeli air strikes against Lebanon on Tuesday. Ten civilians who had taken refuge inside the Greek Orthodox Church in Rachaya al-Fokhar were wounded in an attack. Lebanese security sources said Israel had used phosphorous missiles in the attack, an internationally banned weapon.



Some people just don't like their neighbors to have nice things. The Israelis hit Lebanese privately owned factories on Tuesday, including a dairy farm! These targets had absolutely nothing to do with Hizbullah, and were not military targets. These strikes are war crimes and part of a continuing Israeli campaign to ensure that Lebanon is economically poor and weak for decades to come:


Israel switched gears in its military campaign against Lebanon Monday and Tuesday, launching a series of debilitating air strikes against privately owned factories throughout the country and dealing a devastating blow to an economy already paralyzed by a week of hits on residential areas and crucial infrastructure. The production facilities of at least five companies in key industrial sectors - including the country's largest dairy farm, Liban Lait; a paper mill; a packaging firm and a pharmaceutical plant - have been disabled or completely destroyed. Industry insiders say the losses will cripple the economy for decades to come.


http://www.juancole.com/

[Warren Stupidity]

1. And Dear Leader has given the Green Light to this shit.

'Kill them for another week' says Bush.

[HereSince1628]

14. US & Israeli Gov'ts both hold to the same notion from Pandora's Box. . .

Nations that harbor "terrorists" are just as guilty as the terrorists. Wow, that has a tremendous righteous sound!

Without need to prove a state's complicity with "terrorists" this policy rationalizes collective punishment (btw,an international war crime) on the nation "hosting terror."

The internationalization of this policy is about to cause very serious problems for the US with Turkey poised to invade Iraq. Iraq isn't capable of preventing Kurd "terrorists" from attacking Turkey from refuges inside Iraq. Turkey reportedly suffered more fatalities from these Iraqi-Kurdish terrorists than Israel did from Hizbollah in the first 2 weeks of July.

[malaise]

18. The dear leader is worse

than fugging Hitler. He is a fugging war criminal on a fugging crusade to hell.
sp.

[bdamomma]

30. yes, the story is on raw story

http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,329532883-103552,00.html


United States to Israel: you have one more week to blast Hizbullah
Bush 'gave green light' for limited attack, say Israeli and UK sources

[Cooley Hurd]

2. CNN's Nic Robertson did a walk-thru of bombed areas yesterday...

...in Beirut, and it all appeared to be residential areas (his words - and this guy's seen enough war zones to be able to tell the difference).

[leftchick]

4. They have hit homes, Apartment buildings & Army bases for God's sakes!

They say they want the Lebanese army to do something about Hezbollah then they bomb the crap out of them! What kills me, in addition to the dead innocents, is the targeting of privately owned businesses! Juan is right, these are war crimes!

:(

[afrosia]

3. Yar. Collective punishment if e'er I did see.

[chimpymustgo]

7. How can anyone condone these crimes against humanity?? War crimes.

This is stunning. Barbaric. And the world sits by...

[atreides1]

12. Even some here condone these crimes

And cover themselves in the blanket statement that "Israel has the right to defend itself", and no matter what happens, no matter how many innocent Lebanese are killed they will not admit that something isn't right.

Just like this administration they only hold Hezbollah responsible, and give the Israelis a free pass.

[AnOhioan]

5. And invariably the contingent of Du'ers

that think Israel is within their rights to destroy a country will make an appearance.

Never mind that the damage caused in Lebanon will eclipse by a grand scale the damage caused by terrorist strikes on Israel.

Never mind that a new generation of terrorists is being radicalized by the destruction of civilian infrastructure.

It is all good because Lebanon "supports" terror...Gaza "supports terror"...the excuses come ad nauseum.


It is all so tragic, so wasteful.

I guess the US supports the KKK and Aryan Nation solely because they operate on our soil.

[kurth]

8. The amen corner is bipartisan

where any and all negative information about Israel constitutes prima facie evidence of anti-Semitism.

[leftchick]

9. now that

was an excellent analogy.

[Ian David]

13. Israel is not within their rights to destroy Lebanon...

but they're certainly within their rights to defend themselves.

I agree that there has been too much "shock and awe" to be justified.

But if The KKK had a base of operations in America that they were using to attack Canadians, and if America refused to stop them, then Canada would be justified in eliminating the threat themselves.

[JuniperLea]

24. But who started the bombing and killing?

Who first used weapons?

[Ian David]

25. If I say The PLO, are you going to start moving the goalposts...

all the way back to Joseph and Ishmael?

The FACT of the matter is that Israel's policy is a two-state solution.

The Palestinian government is officially dedicated to wiping Israel off the map-- in writing.

[AnOhioan]

40. Bull

No other comment necessary

[kurth]

6. The goal is to instill fear and terror

aka terrorism.

[DemonFighterLives]

10. What better way to clear land for developement

and keep the bomb builders busy? :sarcasm:
dubby is smiling more lately and I'm sure his daddy is proud. Carlyle will be able to build a Dunkin Donuts soon.
:argh:

[Ian David]

11. Sure Hezbollah is jumping all over the chance to trumpet their casualties

That's just silly.

[papau]

16. Hez says 2 dozen "fighters" killed - as Hez uses folks/areas -even Xtian

areas, to launch from.

The fact that "citizens" are hiding the 6000 to 12000 fighters and allowing them to launch from their area, after have voted 24 Hez into office as MP's in Parliament, makes the complaints about non-Hez fighter deaths a bit suspect.

Citizen war deaths suck - indeed any war deaths suck - but I suspect we lack info at this point on the number and location of "innocent" and "not-innocent" deaths.

[Solon]

36. OK, so there are no innocent Lebenese?

Just wanted to check.

[papau]

42. Were Germans not in the military in WW2 innocent as a group - or

were only some of the non-military individuals "innocent Germans" in WW2?

I think the latter - and I think that is also the case in Lebanon.

So, when a population choses war, explicitly or implicitly, due innocent members of the population get dragged along? I think yes.

Do innocent members of the population get hurt/killed in "collateral damage" of attacks on military and indeed of attacks on cities that try to convince a population and its political leaders to call off those that are attacking - be they military or "patriots" - indeed did the actions of the Allies in WW2 hurt innocent members of the population of the nations that they were at war with as they tried to convince the enemy population and its leaders to surrender?

Do you have a way to respond to war causing acts, responding with the expected war and its violence, that does not involve collateral damage?

Do you have a way to determine the innocent portion of the non-military population from the folks that gave power to the "patriots/fighters" that attacked, killed, and kidnapped in a raid across borders, and thereby started this round of violence in their attempt to kill all Jews and to end Israel as a jewish state.

Or is it just a case of Hez/Lebanon population that refuses to control Hez being "correct" while Israeli/Jew response is always seen as done in an evil manner?

Even the second atomic bomb is seen by most as a not evil decision that saved the lives that would have been lost in an invasion of the home Islands - although that was "disproportionate" enough to be still a debate for many. Do you see the 500,000 dead immediately or later from radiation poisoning in Japan as being the equivalent of the Israel's hitting an apartment building housing much of the command of Hez - killing Hez families - and a few non-Hez families -in the process of killing and trying to kill Hez leaders?

[leftchick]

15. BBC TV now Showing bombing in a Christian area of Beirut

Hear that fundies??? :(

[malaise]

21. BBC is way ahead of MSM

Fuck Bush and the Zionists. 10,000 plagues on their houses.

[bdamomma]

29. BBC is totally reporting the news

not our news, they just to keep the masses dumb down.

[Palladin]

26. The Catholic Church has condemned the Israeli aggression

VATICAN CITY - 17 July 2006 http://www.indcatholicnews.com/vatlean2146.html

Vatican condemns Israeli attacks on Lebanon

The Holy See has protested Israel's air raids on Lebanon, condemning both terrorist acts and reprisals that violate national sovereignty and strike at innocent civilians.

On Friday, Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, on Friday read a public statement which was broadcast on Vatican Radio. (Pope Benedict is currently on vacation in the Italian Alps.)

It said: "As in the past, the Holy See condemns both the terrorist attacks on the one side and the military reprisals on the other." It stated that Israel's right to self-defence "does not exempt it from respecting the norms of international law, especially as regards the protection of civilian populations."

"In particular, the Holy See deplores the attack on Lebanon, a free and sovereign nation."

Cardinal Sodano concluded with a renewed appeal for an end to armed struggle and a renewal of negotiations.
----------------------------------
ADL criticizes the Vatican and the Pope: http://www.adl.org/PresRele/VaticanJewish_96/4855_96.htm

Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director, issued the following statement:

The Vatican continues to be mired in a false paradigm that equates, on the one side, terrorist actions by Islamist extremists who view both Jews and Christians as infidels and seek Israel's destruction with, on the other side, Israel's right to defend itself and eliminate the ongoing and growing threats to its citizens.

Given Pope Benedict's recognition of the growing global threat posed by Islamist terrorists, we are saddened that the Vatican would issue such counterproductive statements that seek to lend moral equivalency to the unprovoked terrorist actions of Hezbollah and Hamas with Israel's defensive actions to protect its civilian population. The Vatican's positions are terribly one-sided and short-sighted, given that the goal of Islamist terrorists is to wage war against all non-believers, including Christians.
Surprise.
------------------------------------
------------------------------------
Lebanon and Palestine are the homeland of Christianity. The Israeli and neocon goal is to dominate them as well as the Muslims. Hell, they want to dominate them right here in the former USA. Fundies like this heretic Hagee coming to Washington D.C. next week to demand unconditional "support for Israel" are being told not to mention Jesus by their neocon/Lobby "advisors". This Pope will not back off on them, any more than JPII did against the Iraq aggression. How many divisions has the Pope? More than they can ever imagine. We will see the demise of the neocons, the Zionists, and the fundie/crazy/Rapturites in our own time.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

17. Looks like the Israelis consulted Rummy about "Shock & Awe".

It certainly pacified Iraq and rooted out all the "terrorists".

[leftchick]

19. Fallujah on a grand scale

with the White Phosphorous too. :(

[bdamomma]

28. apparently last night the Isrealis hit the Beirut airport again

and I wouldn't put it pass them that they are using Depleted Uranium, while Richard Engel was giving the report you saw a giant explosion and a mushroom cloud form.

This is just sick, and we all know our criminal government is totally behind all of this. I just don't know but all this destruction and death is being done in our name.

[leftchick]

31. Richard looked scared shitless!

I saw that and Richard said clearly that was a different weapon. He said he had never heard one like that before. And Hell yes they are using DU just like the US does. Why not? No one ever calls either country to account for their war crimes! :(

[leftchick]

20. Israeli war planes struck Lebanese army targets. Why?

http://www.juancole.com/

<snip>

Bush to Siniora: Drop Dead

Israeli war planes struck Lebanese army targets on Tuesday: "Israeli warplanes pounded an army barracks east of Beirut in an overnight raid in which 11 troops, including four officers, were killed and 40 injured, an army statement said Tuesday."

That wasn't a Hizbullah barracks. That was the regular Lebanese army, the one the Israelis say they would trust to patrol the Lebanese border with Israel, and which they wish would take on Hizbullah. So why are they bombing the Lebanese Army?

As for the government in charge of the army, it was pleading pretty pitiably. Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora (a Sunni Muslim businessman) pleaded for an immediate internationally-sanctioned cease-fire on Tuesday. Xinhua reports:


' Siniora vehemently condemned Israel's continued aggression against the battered country, saying the international community must have been aware that Israel was committing massacres against Lebanese civilians, including children, women and elders. He said that Israel was acting to destroy "everything that allows Lebanon to stay alive". He added that the Israeli troops continued its bombing attacks on Tuesday, targeting Lebanon's gas stations, civilian residences, roads, army barracks and posts, food processing mills and vehicles carrying foodstuff. '

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

41. I heard on the radio that it was an engineering unit of the Lebanese army

Maybe it was a mistake. But maybe it was an effort to keep the roads and bridges from being rebuilt.

[DoYouEverWonder]

22. Apparently, Bush gave Israel the go ahead

for this 'operation'.

Nice to see Israel is now officially the 51st State.

[leftchick]

23. Israel ran 110 "missions" in Lebanon yesterday

that is a lot of bombing. :(

[leesa]

27. Hezbollah was BORN because Israel was striking Lebanese civilians,

homes and factories in one of their land grabs. Israel never likes its creations.

[MoseyWalker]

32. a question

If Israel had ever truly wanted to get two soldiers back, do they honestly think that bombing the crap out of the country they are in is the way to get that accomplished? Seems to me the soldiers stand a very good chance of having been bombed and killed by their own country. Wouldn't that be ironic?

Note: I am not anti-semetic, anti-israeli or anti-arab/iranian. Just wanted to throw this thought out there.

[leftchick]

37. it isn't about the soldiers

read Juan Cole's column linked in the OP. It seems Israel wants to destroy Lebanon under the guise of "destroying Hezbollah." Their mission statement seems to have evolved.

[nadinbrzezinski]

33. Why are the Isreelis going after thigns like this?

Because Hisbollah is using human shields.

Now are they the first group to use this practice? Hardly, it has been used since time immemorial, and by the way another group that hid among civilians in soemwhat recent ME history was the Irgun who were ALSO a terrorist organization. Funny how that works huh?

Were the british justified to go on a rampage in nearby kibutzin (to jerusalem) after the Irgun bombed a hotel full of its officers in 1947? Yes,

Is Hisbollah using the same tactics and hiding among civilians? Absolutely.

So how do you fight those who hide among civilians? And we must the other uncomfortable question... is Hizbollah FORCING this practice upon civilians?

By the way, the photos will not show you if they were building I don't know bombs... because when one bomb hit the bomb making material it made the explosion go into a bigger boom... so the only way to tell would be to bring a full forensics team to take a lot of this to the lab and look for I don't know CEMTEX? By the way, yesterday's little PR stunt at Tyre, yes the Hisbollah guy took Nic Roberts across bombed out areas. It did not escape my attention that all he was shown was what they wanted HIM to see... another common practice by the way... in any good PR war. Incidentally the IDF showing artillery batteries doing counter battery fire, essentially, is also part of the PR camapaign.

Oh and by the way, this is the same group that killed 261 US Marines, and clsoe to 100 French troops in the 1980s, but I am sure you remember this. Those troops, as I remember, where there as Peacekeepers. Now the part you may not remember is, we pulled out... the French levelled a hill before pulling out... they knew you fight terror by overwhelming military force at times, though most of the time it should be dealt with as a police matter.

[MadHound]

38. Yeah, that's the ticket

Just ignore the reports stating that the rockets being fired by Hezbollah are being fired OUTSIDE of Beirut, up in the mountains, out in the desert. Ignore the evidence that no Hezbollah fighters, weapons or command posts have been found amid the wreckage of South Lebanon and Beirut. Ignore the fact that Israel is using bunker busters on high rise apartment buildings.

Just keep repeating to yourself that somehow, someway Hezbollah is stashing away their rocket launchers and artillery in civilian neighborhoods, neighborhood whose streets are so densely packed that not even a car can pass.

Yeah, that's the ticket:eyes:

[leftchick]

39. thanks

for the facts.

[everythingsxen]

34. Israel bombs cookie factory!!!

Then IDF forces went to a mosque, caved in a 4 year old boys skull and rapes mother; then burns down mosque!

The Israelis will tell you that Hizbollah is hiding weapons and soldiers among the civilians so that no matter what Israel does, they will have to kill civilians... but don't you believe them!!

Fortunately there are plenty of people here on DU who know the "truth" about Israel. That they are the most evil nation on Earth and that for holidays they like murder Palestinian children and firebomb mosques.

Whatever you do, NEVER, EVER, give in to the fascist point of view of Israel that it has some sort of right to protect itself from years of rocket attacks or that the Lebanese Government should have complied with UN resolution blah-blah-blah which ordered Lebanon to dismantle Hezbollah. (I mean that resolution is only a few years old... surely Lebanon needs more time to control it's citizens!)

[Lone_Star_Dem]

35. Terrorist groups exploit the despondent, poor and angry

I fail to see how the proper way to eradicate terrorist is by creating the proper breeding grounds for more terrorist. It sure hasn't worked so far for the US in Iraq.

[tabasco]

43. 15 to 1 civilian to combatant casulty ratio

makes it an invalid and illegal operation per se.

[Wisconsin Larry]

44. Maybe Israel's Green Light has expired, France is now pushing for

a ceasefire in the UN Security Council. It's about damned time the neocons (here and in Israel) were called to account on this dispassionate response -- 2 men kidnapped? Invade and bomb the civilian infrastructure into rumble. And announce that "they" started this "war". Of course the US corporate media go along. But maybe tomorrow, things will be different? Nah.

"France pushes UN for action on conflict
Security council move challenges US and British approach"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,1824599,00.html