Israel murders unarmed UN. Peacekeepers, and says sorry?

Question

"I am shocked and deeply distressed by the apparently deliberate targeting by Israeli Defence Forces of a UN observer post in southern Lebanon"
"The co-ordinated artillery and aerial attack on a long established and clearly marked UN post ... occurred despite personal assurances given to me by (Israeli) Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that UN positions would be spared Israeli fire."

United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan 7/25/06

"But you need to look at the events of yesterday,” he urged. “The shelling of the UN position, which is long-established and clearly marked, started in the morning and went on till after 7:00 p.m., when we lost contact.”

“You can imagine the anguish of the soldiers and the men and women – unarmed military observers – who were down there in the service of peace,” he said, stressing that the peacekeepers were in frequent touch with the Israeli army, pleading with them to avoid striking their location"
Kofi Annan, 7/26/06, Rome
http://video.canada.com/VideoContent.aspx?&fl=&popup=1

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5217176.stm

hateful/insulting answers merely illustrate how extreme you have become ;)

Answer 1

THANK YOU!!!!!! thank you for telling the truth how it is over there....most people lie because they see what the united states jewish media wants them to see...thats how perfect isreal is...well their not they are the root of 90% of evil going on in this world today...i hope your ready for idiots to call you a racist and anti-semetic....tell them to rot in hell.

Answer 2

You can be sure the Israelis deliberately struck that UN observation post. The have denied it was deliberate, which was to be expected, and now no one will dare say much more about it. Israel needs to be cut down to size and if that means a multinational force to bomb Israeli cities then it should be done. Israel is a real threat to anyone in the region, whether it be the US, the UN, or anybody. The Israelis would just as soon bomb you as look at you.

The UN post was an observation post, and this is they key: they were observing. Israel did not want the UN observing what they were doing. To prevent this, Israel targeted the UN outpost to silence the witnesses. It would have been impossible for the Israelis to make a mistake, they are much to accurate and deliberate in what they do. These outposts are flying a big UN flag right on top and it would be impossible to mistake it for anything else.

This is not the first time that Israel has done something like this. In 1967, during the Six Day War, just before the Israelis stormed into the Golan Heights, the USS Liberty, an American reconnaisance ship, was sitting in international waters off the Gaza coast when it was attacked by Israeli fighter jets and torpedo boats. The Israelis did not want any observers to wintness their attack on Golan. The Israeli jets even came back to strafe survivors in lifeboats. The Israelis denied that this attack was deliberate, just as they will now deny that they deliberately targeted the UN outpost. You can safely bet that the attack on the UN post was deliberate and premeditated. They want no witnesses when they bomb civilians.

Answer 3

If I had to guess, I'd say it was a pretty stupid error for the so called, best trained military in the world. Heh...

Or, crooked soldiers out of control.

Basically, while I can conceive of it being deliberate, I don't really think that that is the most likely reason. They've hit all kinds of crap, civilians, and CRS. Someone just royally screwed up this time, and will probably have something bad happen...

Isn't that the most likely reason?

If you're not convinced:

Ok, so you're assuming that the secretary or Israeli official contacted actually knew how to respond and understood everything. The gears moved and then a decision followed through on to destroy the UN forces.

But why?

International Humiliation
A need to discharge ammunition
To weaken the world veiw of Israels plight
Because they actually precieved a threat
Desire to court marshal someone and possibly fire and official

Um, I don't think so. Really.

Answer 4

Answered this one already today but here goes....All the muslim terrorist propaganda in the world can't change the facts of that conflict. Israel has been repeatedly attacked for years. They have demonstrated no tendency to want to conquer anyone else...they want to live in peace. I will not believe that they intentionally targeted "innocent" people. What I do question is the proximity between the UN site and Hezbollah, and exactly what role these "observers" were playing. As far as I can see they had no business there in the first place. There is no room for referrees in war. No one here knows what activity was going on there. If you've never been in combat you could never realize how common friendly fire accidents are. Combat is a chaotic and confusing. It's damned tough to be fighting for your life and having to worry about innocent people in the way. Where is the outrage at the rockets flying into Israel intentionally targetting civilian areas. Israels attacks have been against Hezbollah. If the Lebanese government cared about it's people at the very least they would not allow hezbollah to occupy civilian districts. If they( Lebanon) can't control this then they need to join with Israel in trying to route them(hezbollah) out and kill them.

Answer 5

Koffi Annan's whinning fails to impress me at all. He should have spent more time teaching his son basic integrity than making foolish accusations to the BBC.

UN PeaceKeepers take risks of their own choice. No one forced them to take those jobs, and no one can guarantee their safety in a war zone. Use your common sense, Israel would have nothing to gain by deliberately killing UN observers. The charge is witlessly ignorant.

Answer 6

Mistakes happen in war - though it doesn't help that Hezbollah has a history of hiding in civilian areas and in civilian dress. They also have a habit of stationing themselves close to UN peacekeepers. It's shameful and disgraceful the likes of Hezbollah have no concern for the people of Lebanon with their tactics.

Answer 7

So! These innocent peace keepers are stopping Hezbollah from hitting Isreal? NOT!

Just how close to the UN position was Hezbollah?

There are 10,000 variables to consider before laying blame!

Was Hezbollah firing from the neighboring buildings? Hiding in them?

Answer 8

And your feelings about Hezbollah deliberately positioning their artillery close to UN peacekeepers in the hopes of just this sort of thing happening?

Answer 9

Israel, like the U.S., has a long record of killing civilians. They see a death of one of their own as a tragedy the death of the other side as "collateral damage." There is no value on life despite all the rhetoric. The prejudice against Arabs in Israel is very great. Israel's horrible human rights abuses must be stopped.

Answer 10

London Police shot a guy on the way to work on the tube! they shot him 7 times in the head... said it was a mistake and got away with it... So will Israel!

I'm supporting 'A Global Party for Peace!'

Us 'Ordinary Folk' should now get into the streets and PROTEST our right to GLOBAL PEACE!

After all it could be You, Me your Nieghbour who gets it next... No matter where you are in the World!

We ALL have A RIGHT to Live in Peace!

Lets Protest NOW!

Answer 11

What is the question?....Anyway, Israel does not care anyway. It is not the first time Israel did such thing and it got away with a murder. 10 years ago, Israel fought Hezbollah and could not drive them out anyway. In result, they killed at least 2000 Lebanese at that time also. What is new? History repeat itself anyway.