60 killed in IAF strike on Qana in southern Lebanon
Rice says time for cease-fire, cancels Beirut trip after IAF strike kills at least 50 people in Qana
The news out of Lebanon this morning is even more depressing than usual, with the reports that an IAF air strike levelled a four-story building in Qana, killing or wounding somewhere in the neighborhood of 60 people. The video footage is graphic proof that the victims of war are too often the young and the innocent. What’s being lost in the gruesome reality of this attack is that the graphic footage of dead women and children is that the Arab media is already furiously at work using these pictures to thoroughly propagandize the Arab street.. Before you know it, angry hordes will be taking to the streets, chanting “Death to Israel! Death to America!” Yes, Israelis are careless, brutal butchers who live to kill Arab women and children, and America is their chief sponsor.
There can be no justification for the slaughter of innocent women and children, but to call this slaughter “indiscriminate” would be to succumb to the sheer volume of pro-Arab propaganda. What about the reality that Hezbollah has made a practice of staging attacks on Israel from heavily civilian areas? What of the reports that rockets were launched against Israel from a site 20-30 yards from the building that was hit by IAF bombs? What of the fact that the Lebanese government has allowed Hezbollah to essentially occupy the southern 1/3 of Lebanon, which Hezbollah has used to stage attacks against Israeli civilians?
Could the IAF have done a better job of taking out their desired target? Certainly. But when it’s a practice of Hezbollah to use Lebanese civilians as shields, it stands to reason that civilians are going to be in harm’s way. Israel is not solely to blame. Yes, the Israeli military is confirming that their planes missed their intended target, that the actual target was some 20-30 yards from the building that was hit. However, if Hezbollah hadn’t used a civilian area as a base of operation (and if the Lebanese government had actually shown some cojones), some 60 Lebanese civilians would still be alive.
TYRE, Lebanon (CNN) — An Israeli airstrike leveled a four-story building in Qana, Lebanon, on Sunday that was used as a refugee shelter, killing or wounding up to 60 people, many of them women and children, Lebanese officials said.
Outrage over the attack sparked protests in Beirut, and in Jerusalem, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice postponed talks in the Lebanese capital regarding a cease-fire proposal.
Israeli aircraft hit the four-story residential building in Qana early Sunday, Lebanese army sources said.
The bodies of at least 27 children were among 35 corpses found in the rubble, said Abu Shadi Jradi, a civil defense official at the scene, told The Associated Press.
Certainly the sight of bodies of women and children being pulled from the rubble is a horrific thing. Too often, civilians seem to be taking the brunt of the casualties in this war. Before we rush to judgement, though, we should try to maintain some perspective here. First, Hezbollah has over time deliberately installed parts its military infrastructure among the civilian population of south Lebanon. Second, the government of Lebanon has been complicit in allowing Hezbollah to become the de facto authority on the ground in the southern 1/3 of the country. Third, Israel, if their contention is to be believed, has made a concernerted effort to warn civilians to leave the war zone.
The IDF said the Qana neighborhood bombed was a launching ground for Hezbollah rockets aimed at Israel and that residents had been warned to leave by radio announcements and by air-leaflets because it was a combat area.
What happened this morning in Qana is truly a horrible thing. To place the blame solely on Israel, though, is to only admit to part of the reality on the ground in south Lebanon. If the Lebanese government is guilty of allowing Hezbollah to set up shop among Lebanese civilians, then both Hezbollah AND the Lebanese government are to blame as well as Israel.
Yes, from a public relations standpoint, this is a disaster for Israel. You can bet the Arab TV networks and other anti-Israel media will be using the footage from Qana to paint the Jewish state as little more than a collection of bloodthirsty baby-killers. Thus will those killed become little more than fuel for yet more anti-Israel propaganda.
Much will be said, and is already being said, about how there appears to be “little evidence” that the building in Qana was used by Hezbollah for launching rockets against Israel…as if Hezbollah fighters are going to leave behind “Hezbollah was here” stickers on the walls.
It’s often been said, and truthfully so, that the first casualty of war is truth. The truth, of course, is that somewhere in the neighborhood of 60 innocent civilians were killed in the IAF air strike. What will be lost in the rush to propagandize this attack is the role of Hezbollah and the Lebanese government in creating the environment that bred what Israel saw as the necessity for this attack. Must Israel be forced to avoid attacking targets in civilian areas when they know full well that the area was being used to launch attacks against Israeli civilians?
If you feel the need to condemn Israel’s attack, then you should at least be fair and condemn Hezbollah and the Lebanese government for their complicity in creating the circumstances. Of course, fairness in this war has long since fallen victim to propaganda and religious hatred.
