Sharon hails raid as great success
Ivo Skoric
ivo at reporters.net
Thu Jul 25 19:57:45 CEST 2002
Shehada was a legitimate target. Hamas claimed responsibility for
many recent suicide bombings and he promised the attacks to
continue until Israel blinks. The course of the war showed that
Israelis have high tolerance for "collateral damage", i.e. civilian
deaths. So, I am not at all surprised at the recent military action
and that Sharon hails it as great success. After all, the objective
was achieved: Shehada is, indeed, dead.
On the other hand, Gaza is so densely populated that any aerial
raid is bound to produce civilian death. Shehada, perhaps, knew
that. Like the Israelis, Hamas also had high tolerance for "collateral
damage" - they did not mind sending their troops to death, and
they primarily killed civilians in the process. So, it is likely
Shehada did not give a damn how many of his own people would
die with him in case of an Israeli raid.
In reality, this attack was a gruesome attack on a residential
neighborhood. It deliberately targeted buildings full of civilian
population from the safety of the air in order to kill one man. It was
not only "heavy handed" - it was a crime against humanity. And
Gaza is a UN mandated territory, and therefore under the ICC
jurisdiction. PA should bring charges against Israel for this attack.
And Israel may use video-tapes of Shehada calling for more suicide
bombings against Israel as their defense.
But nobody says they should not have killed Shehada - they did
not have a license to destroy the entire neighborhood in the
process and kill 9 innocent children: that's a crime they have to
answer for. In hindsight, the lukewarm reaction from the U.S. is
understandable. Because, in this raid, Israelis killed 15 innocent
people while achieving their military objective of killing Shehada,
while the U.S. air force managed to kill 50 innocent people at a
wedding party in sparsely populated Afghanistan without achieving
their military objective of killing the Taliban leader, Mullah Omar.
Israeli air force achieved 100% more efficiency with 70% less
collateral damage. Of course, Ari Fleischer has troubles
condemning the raid in same words like British MPs. It is good (for
the US) that the Afghan raid does not come under ICC jurisdiction.
ivo
Date sent: Wed, 24 Jul 2002 23:00:22 -0400
Send reply to: International Justice Watch Discussion List
<JUSTWATCH-L at LISTSERV.ACSU.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Daniel Tomasevich <danilo at MARTNET.COM>
Subject: Sharon hails raid as great success
To: JUSTWATCH-L at LISTSERV.ACSU.BUFFALO.EDU
The IDF bombing in the Gaza strip , that killed many civilians,
was a success according to Sharon.
Daniel
(article not for cross posting)
-------------------------------------------------------------
The Guardian (London) July 24, 2002
Sharon hails raid as great success: International criticism
of attack that killed 9 children
BY: Suzanne Goldenberg in Gaza, Brian Whitaker and Nicholas Watt
Israel faced searing international criticism yesterday after an
airstrike which tore into a teeming neighbourhood of Gaza City,
killing a Palestinian militant leader as well as nine children who
were sleeping nearby.
As the international community lined up to condemn the attack, the
United States, normally Israel's staunchest ally, called the missile
strike "heavy handed". Arab politicians were less mild, describing the
attack as a war crime and a massacre. The Israeli prime minister,
Ariel Sharon, had earlier hailed the assassination of the founder of
the military wing of Hamas, Salah Shehada, as a "great success",
despite the total death toll of 15.
An Israeli army statement blamed Hamas. "Regretfully, this is what can
happen when a terrorist uses civilians as a human shield and their
homes for places of refuge," it said.
The Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, called the incident a
"disgusting, ugly crime, a massacre, a massacre no human being can
imagine."
Tens of thousands of Palestinians marched behind the flag-draped
caskets of 15 people killed by Israeli F-16s yesterday, demanding
vengeance.
The British government reacted sharply, calling the attack
"unacceptable and counterproductive".
Later, during angry scenes in the Commons when MPs condemned the
government for exporting arms to Israel, the foreign secretary, Jack
Straw, promised an investigation into whether the Israeli F-16 used in
the attack was carrying British military equipment.
In Washington, the White House spokesman, Ari Fleischer, said that the
US regretted the loss of innocent lives.
"The president has said be fore Israel has to be mindful of the
consequences of its actions to preserve the path to peace, and the
president believes this heavy handed action does not contribute to
peace," he said.
"The president's concern here is that there is loss of innocent lives.
The president has been and will continue to be the first to defend
Israel. In this case the president sees it differently." The EU
foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, said: "This extra-judicial
killing operation, which targeted a densely populated area, comes at a
time when both Israelis and Palestinians were working very seriously
to curb violence."
The UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, urged Israel to halt such
actions. "Israel has the legal and moral responsibility to take all
measures to avoid the loss of innocent life; it clearly failed to do
so in using a missile against an apartment building," a statement
said.
Even stronger words came from the Arab world. Ahmed Maher, the foreign
minister of Egypt, said the attack was "a war crime in the full
meaning of the word, in that it clearly targeted peaceful civilians".
The attack came as Israel's deputy defence minister, Dalia
Rabin-Pelossof, resigned. Colleagues said Ms Rabin-Pelossof, the
daughter of former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, was upset at Mr
Sharon's reluctance to resume peace talks with the Palestinians.
Although the Palestinians of the West Bank and Gaza had long ago grown
inured to attacks by Israeli aircraft, Tuesday night's strike marked a
qualitative change.
"This is the first time Israel has targeted a building of civilians,
not soldiers or police," said Nafis Shahlah, the director of Gaza's
Shifa hospital. "They were going to their homes to sleep."
Carnage in Gaza, page 3
Special report on the Middle East at guardian.co.uk/israel
Copyright 2002 Guardian Newspapers Limited
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