The hypocrisy of Israel's human shield claims

[nicky g]

Voices from the pro-Israel camp have been increasingly claiming that Hizballah is using civilians as “human shields.” In yesterday’s London Evening Standard, Israeli novelist Amos Oz wrote a comment piece claiming that Israel’s job in distinguishing combatants from civilians was made harder because Hizb Allah has been using civilians as “human sandbags.” Quite how he knows this from his study in Israel I don’t know, given that he failed to cite a source. Upstanding member of the gutter press that the Standard is, it splashed this unsupported aside from a commentary piece by a biased observer over its front page as a massive banner news headline, crying crocodile tears over the fate of the 130 killed Lebanese children while blaming Hizb Allah for their deaths rather than the people who actually dropped the bombs on them. It also worded its opening paragraph to make it appear that the charity Christian Aid had made the allegation when in fact it was simply an unsupported accusation of an Israeli professional fiction writer, and Christian Aid has condemned Israel’s disproportionate actions.

The human shield allegations come despite the fact that Hizb Allah’s southern stronghold in Beirut is now almost empty of civilians, and both Hizb Allah and the Israeli military have called upon civilians to leave southern Lebanon because of the destruction Israel is raining there. The reason some still remain isn’t that Hizb Allah is trying to hold on to them as protection, but that Israel has destroyed most roads and bridges out of the area and is indiscriminately bombing any traffic larger than a small car moving in and out of the region, making it impossible for everyone to get out. Meanwhile residents of the villages closest to the border can’t move out of their basements because of continuous heavy Israel fire which hasn’t let up since the start of Israel’s war. Civilians are being kept in the line of fire in Lebanon, and they’re being kept there by the Israeli army.

If Hizb Allah were using civilian shields, one would have expected a higher casualty rate than the four dead Hizb Allah* fighters so far given that 294 civilians have been killed so far; clearly they’re aren’t too many fighters amongst these civilians. Furthermore at least two of those fighters were killed yesterday in ground to ground fighting with Israeli troops, so the ratio of Hizb Allah to civilians killed by Israel’s indiscriminate air strikes is an amazing 150 to 1, at best. The overall ratio of Hizb Allah fighters to civilians killed is 75 to one as of yesterday. Meanwhile the Hizb Allah, whom we all know wants nothing more to kill Israelis and doesn’t care about their military or civilian status, had killed more soldiers than civilians as of yesterday (15 civilians out of 34 Israelis killed). It also, despite repeated claims that it wants nothing better than to kill Westerners (“the Islamofascists want to kill us all!”) resuced to British journalists from an angry Lebanese mob yesterday. So Hizb Allah has a ratio of better than 1:1, in terms of civilians to fighters killed, compared to Israel’s 75 to one of Hizb Allah fighters to local civilians.

In addition to the number of civilians it has killed, Israel has been extensively targeting civilian infrastructure, having attacked a power plant, a milk plant, a water treatment plant and three hospitals, one of which was completely destroyed. Noone can argue that it was in anyway attempting to target anything other than civilian life in attacking these.

Even more disgusting is that these allegations are that they come from a state that has repeatedly and openly engaged in civilian shield policies of its own. During the second intifada the Israeli military had a policy of forcing Palestinian civilians to go ahead of them when entering suspect houses or confronting Palestinian militants, the most blatant use of civilians shields for military forces in the region. Furthermore, Israel’s policy of settlement in the West Bank is frequently justified by arguing that these civilian settlements could serve as a buffer against a invading army from the East, building the use of its own civilians as human shields against military action right into the heart of its defence policy. It sends civilians into occupied land to act as a buffer against armies and cover its theft of local resources, further sending all of its teenage offspring to protect this theft and take on the local resistance; but it’s the Palestinians and Lebanese we’re told that don’t care about their children.

Israel is once more acting as a terrorist state. Its actions in Lebanon are almost entirely responsible for the civilian death toll, it is the one killing civilians, bombing indiscriminately, openly targeting civilian infrastructure and boasting about bombing Lebanon back into the past, and preventing civilians from getting away from war zones. Its actions are disgusting and its citizens and those of countries that fund it and give it diplomatic cover should be ashamed of their countries.






*I previously wrote that more Hizb Allah fighters than this had been killed when I saw that a certain number of non-civilians had been killed. In fact almost all of these were Lebanese soldiers killed while remaining in their own barracks, miles from any Hizb Allah presence. Today's press cites four Hizb Allah fighters killed so far.

[Zygote]

you forget that Israelis have been better at protecting their civilian as well and have exposed their military which is more likely to account for the fact that Hezbollah has a reasonable ratio of soldier to civilian casualties.

just a question, in your opinion, if Hezbollah was faced with the choice between pressing one of two buttons: the first button will mean the destruction of all Israeli soldiers and the second will be the destruction of all of Israel as a whole... which button do you think they will press?

then assume the same question is posed to Israelis but replace Hezbollah with "Israeli soldiers" and Lebanon as "Israel".

[misohorni]

There is no arguing with fanatics. They have a justification and self-serving lingo for everything. Words such as "human shields" and what not allows them feel better about what Israel is doing to millions of innocent civilians.

[TheDudeAbides]

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There is no arguing with fanatics. They have a justification and self-serving lingo for everything. Words such as "human shields" and what not allows them feel better about what Israel is doing to millions of innocent civilians.

[/ QUOTE ]

Millions? Cite your source.

[misohorni]

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Millions? Cite your source.

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Are you kidding me?

[New001]

[ QUOTE ]
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There is no arguing with fanatics. They have a justification and self-serving lingo for everything. Words such as "human shields" and what not allows them feel better about what Israel is doing to millions of innocent civilians.

[/ QUOTE ]

Millions? Cite your source.

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This isn't really that hard.

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Around 1.37 million Palestinians live in the Gaza Strip.

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The West Bank is inhabited by approximately 2.8 million people, 2.4 million Palestinians...

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Both from Wikipedia. I'm too lazy to go find you more concrete sources, but I'm sure you can find them yourself.

[TheDudeAbides]

No. I'm serious. What exactly is Israel doing to "millions" of civilians? And don't say displacing them - because that becomes a chicken and egg type of argument. One could just as effectively argue that their own government is doing this to them. And, echoing the sentiment of a previous poster, why the need to create a gimmick account? Anonymity breeds bravado I suppose.

[misohorni]

Let me explain it to you in a Sweet Pickle Bus way: there are millions of civilians in Lebanon. Now, you can figure out the rest. I have faith in you.

(I love it when the pro-Israel crowd acts ignorant and retarded about common knowledge, just because the knowledge does not line up with their world view)

[TheDudeAbides]

[ QUOTE ]
Let me explain it to you in a Sweet Pickle Bus way: there are millions of civilians in Lebanon. Now, you can figure out the rest. I have faith in you.

(I love it when the pro-Israel crowd acts ignorant and retarded about common knowledge, just because the knowledge does not line up with their world view)

[/ QUOTE ]

That's not the point. Like I said, Lebanon has been harbouring known terrorists, and has been fully aware of the possible results of such actions. Therefore, one could argue that millions of Lebanese are being displaced as a result of the action (or inaction) of their own government.

[LadyWrestler]

Good point!