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Israel punishes civilians

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by Letters to the Editor

Friday, October 13, 2006

Ryan Masse's article, "Barret Mistaken, Delusional," contains a slew of half-truths, misrepresentations, and outright lies dressed up as facts by smug journalistic prose. But there is one particular whopper which, in my opinion, dwarfs the rest: "Israel has taken extreme caution to minimize civilian casualties in combat."

Israeli soldiers have taken a rather different view of the matter. One IDF artillery commander described his army's conduct as follows: "In Lebanon, we covered entire villages with cluster bombs, what we did there was crazy and monstrous." Ninety percent of these launchings of cluster bombs occurred in the last 72 hours of the "war" (perhaps assault or massacre are better descriptors), after a cease-fire had already been agreed upon. They served absolutely no military purpose, unless you consider blowing the limbs off of Lebanese farmers for the next few years as they try and harvest their crops an important strategic goal.

Israel's disgusting conduct in Lebanon this summer was, sadly, not without precedent. During the 1982 invasion of that same war-ravaged country, Israeli troops, under the command of Arial Sharon, surrounded and sealed off the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps. They then provided cover for their allies, the fascist (and yes, I mean fascist in the sense of actively imitating the Nazi Party) Phalange, to enter the camps and systematically murder, with axes and knives, 3,000 Palestinian refugees. Again, these are hardly military actions undertaken with "extreme caution." "Extreme prejudice" seems to have been more on the order of the day.

There are plenty of things wrong with Mr. Masse's article. I happen to think so thoroughly misrepresenting Israel's human rights record is the most odious. In perpetuating this myth, Mr. Masse has taken a page from one of the most infamous twentieth century leaders: "Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it and eventually they will believe it."

Paul Heideman is a Graduate Student in the Department of Afro-American Studies.

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Anonymous (October 13, 2006 @ 12:53pm):

International law does not contain a sweeping ban on the use of cluster bombs. The IDF uses only methods and weapons that are permitted according to international law. The firing of artillery in general, including the firing of artillery to demolish a target, was initiated in response to enemy fire upon the State of Israel. Thus, the responsibility for the presense of cluster bombs in Lebanon falls upon Hezbollah and it's state-sponsors.

Moreover, the Lebanese Christian Phalangist militia was responsible for the massacres that occurred at Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in 1982. When Israeli soldiers ordered the Phalangists out, they found hundreds dead (not thousands-- estimates range from 460 according to the Lebanese police, to 700-800 calculated by Israeli intelligence). The dead, according to the Lebanese account, included 35 women and children. The rest were men hiding among innocent refugees and included Pakistanis, Iranians, Syrians and Algerians.

By contrast, few voices were raised in May 1985, when Muslim militiamen attacked the Shatila and Burj-el Barajneh Palestinian refugee camps. According to UN officials, 635 were killed and 2,500 wounded. During a two-year battle between the Syrian-backed Shiite Amal militia and the PLO, more than 2,000 people, including many civilians, were reportedly killed. No outcry was directed at the PLO or the Syrians and their allies over the slaughter. International reaction was also muted in October 1990 when Syrian forces overran Christian-controlled areas of Lebanon. In the eight-hour clash, 700 Christians were killed -- the worst single battle of Lebanon's Civil War. These killings came on top of an estimated 95,000 deaths that had occurred during the civil war in Lebanon from 1975-1982.

Clearly, Paul Heideman's accusations of lying apply to his own historical revisionism.

Anonymous (October 13, 2006 @ 2:07pm):

Great comments, Paul. Masse's article has been exposed as a hodgepodge of lies and caricatures. Furthermore, Masse himself has been exposed as an unapologetic Zionist who knows nothing nor cares about the Palestinians and their history. Before calling Garret a bigot, perhaps this guy should look in the mirror.

Contrary, to what Masse seems to believe, the lives of white Jews are not more valuable than the Palestinians.

I could go on and on, but I think Paul has done a good enough job refutting Mr. Extreme Zionist.

Anonymous (October 13, 2006 @ 3:07pm):

I wonder, what makes so many Americans such fervent Zionists? Is it that the book we read on Sunday tells tales from the promised land, is it because we still feel really bad about WWII, or is it something else?

Maybe Mr. Masse can answer this in his next column: have we been brainwashed? Do we actually love Israel, or are we not allowed to NOT love Israel?

Anonymous (October 13, 2006 @ 5:29pm):

Way to completely ignore Hezbollah's behavior. People like you, who accept the word of terrorists unquestioningly, give real liberals like me a bad name.

Anonymous (October 14, 2006 @ 12:15am):

1. Given that I only quote israelis throughout the entire article, I am a little confused about how I could be "unquestioningly accepting the word of terrorists." Unless you are of course referring to the Israeli army officer, who is, by his own admission, a terrorist.

2.) I am not and have never claimed to be a liberal.

3.) As if international law defines what is right. The slave trade was legal, for godsake. or perhaps you can explain how it is moral to deploy a weapon designed for dense infantry concentrations on a civilian population. Those bomblets will be in Lebanese orchards for years to come, bringing death to anyone unlucky enough to come across them.

4.) The numbers I quoted for Sabra and Shatila come from Israeli journalists among Kapeliouk. He visited the camps immediately after the massacres. Official death tolls are always much lower than actual ones. Witness Iraq today, where Bush claims 30,000 have died when medical evidence indicates that over 600,000 have died.

5.) I fail to see how these other massacres are relevant. Is it not the case that if what the Syrians and militias did was wrong, what Israel did was also tremendously wrong? Do two wrongs really make a right? Or are you just trying to divert attention from Israel's truly sordid human rights record?

Anonymous (October 17, 2006 @ 4:42am):

Heideman states ""Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it and eventually they will believe it."

Like other apologists for repressive regimes, he also never mentions the horrific human rights records of most Arab countries, nor the fact that recent the war was initiated by Hezbollah who violated international law and carried out war crimes by firing thousands of anti-personnel rockets almost exclusively at Israeli civilian targets.

Heideman perpetuates the big lie that the war was Israel's fault.

It reminds me of the big Palestinian lie of "the right to resist the Israeli occupation" used to falsely justify suicide bombings, shootings and throat slittings.

Peace will come when the reactionaries like Heideman are silenced by those who are actually working to overcome the injustices on both sides.