Did you know that most of those killed in Lebanon were Hisb'Allah terrorists? Weapons in mosques?

Question

The New York Times, along with much of the mainstream media, played a key role in propagating the view that Israel had indiscriminately and "disproportionately" targeted civilian areas in response to Hisb'Allah attacks from Lebanon. Now, the Times reports on a new study that says Hisb'Allah stored weapons in mosques, battled Israelis from inside empty schools, flew white flags while transporting missiles and launched rockets near UN monitoring posts.

The study also says that 650 out of the 1,084 people the Lebanese government has said were civilians killed in the conflict were in fact Hisb'Allah terrorists.

The NY Times coverage includes declassified IDF video and photos that explain how "The construction of a broad military infrastructure, positioned and hidden in populated areas, was intended to minimize Hisb'Allah's vulnerability. Hisb'Allah would also gain a propaganda advantage if it could represent Israel as attacking innocent civilians."

Having conspicuously failed to present this side of the conflict at the time, will the mainstream media give as much focus on this study's conclusions as it did to the initial allegations leveled at Israel? This report certainly has important implications, not only on opinion of Israel and Hisb'Allah's conduct during the war, but also on how the conflict was reported.

See the report at http://tinyurl.com/yf7yp7

See the report at http://video.on.nytimes.com/ifr_main.jsp?nsid=a718aabc2:10f58c2f499:-60ea&st=1165425648484&mp=FLV&cpf=false&fvn=9&fr=120606_121510_718aabc2x10f58c2f499xw7fd7&rdm=888133.2450112771

See the pictures at http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=116953

Answer 1

Johnslat, you are correct that the IDF made mistakes, and Qana was probably one of them. However, I have trouble blaming them too much because they made a sincere effort to avoid casualties; whereas Hezbollah tried very hard to increase civilian casualties by using civilian buildings and personnel as shields/media fodder.

Being exact when your enemy does not wear a uniform, against the Geneva convention, and wants to inflict civilian damages (Hezbollah primarily targeted cities with their rockets) is very difficult.

Some Israeli soldiers do bad things, including humiliate Palestinians, and they should be severely punished, but the Israeli Army did not start the war and has a policy of avoiding civilian casualties which they try to adhere to.

I only wish the Arab population would stop supporting the violent factions, so the international community can help them improve their areas. Helping early is useless. Lebanon was doing well, until Hezbollah crossed the line, they have been poking Israel for awhile and this was the final "straw that broke the camels back." It is the Lebanese population that allows Hezbollah to function by letting them use their homes and bodies, and they paid the price for it. No one, Israeli, Palestinian, or Lebanese should be eradicated, and that is what Hezbollah wants..

Answer 2

Interesting - but would it be possible for you to provide a link to this "new study?"
I'd prefer to read the original source.
Thank you.

Thanks for the links. I suppose there could be a least some truth in what the report says, but I have to admit I'm a little skeptical as regards the source:

"The detailed report on the war was produced by the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center at the Center for Special Studies, a private research group headed by Reuven Erlich, a retired colonel in military intelligence, who worked closely with the Israeli military."

And here's some more from the NY Times link that you provided,

"In one highly publicized Israeli strike on July 30, at least 28 Lebanese civilians, including many women and children, were killed when Israel bombed a residential building in the village of Qana. Israel said it struck a Hezbollah rocket cell that had recently fired from near the building.

In several other instances, Israel bombed vehicle convoys that were trying to leave the combat zone in southern Lebanon, killing many civilians. Human Rights Watch, a New York-based advocacy group, said shortly before the war ended that it had documented the deaths of 27 Lebanese civilians killed while trying to flee.

Kenneth Roth, the executive director of Human Rights Watch, wrote shortly after the war that the Israeli military “seemed to assume that because it gave warnings to civilians to evacuate southern Lebanon, anyone who remained was a Hezbollah fighter.”

He wrote, “But giving warnings, as required by international humanitarian law, does not relieve the attacker of the duty to distinguish between civilians and combatants and to target only combatants.”

Amnesty International said that Israel “consistently failed to adopt necessary precautionary measures,” and that its forces “carried out indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks on a large scale.”

Answer 3

Apparently the lives of the other 434 people has no value?

Or the fact that Israel attacked power plants and hospitals.

Answer 4

Much like Boston, the day prior to this used to be a social gathering of range and smart insurance policies involving the proper to self-safety. And like our possess nation it used to be high-quality to peer PM Cameron near the barn doorways after the reality.

Answer 5

Waw thank u for this information, i suspect this at the begining; why to kill inocents? are the missiles so dumb? , but really, i didn't knew it! But now i realize the truth, again, thank for info.

Answer 6

interesting studie