As you will all have doubtless seen by now four UN observes have been killed by an Israeli air strike. They weren't in a vehicle on the road, they were in a fixed UN observation post. Prior to the air strike Israel shelled the post 14 times[1].
It gets more blatant and disturbing than that, from
cnn article...
The U.N. observers killed when an Israeli bomb made a direct hit on their bunker in southern Lebanon Tuesday called an Israeli military liaison about 10 times in the six hours before they died to warn that the aerial attacks were getting close to their position, according to a U.N. officer.
After each call, the Israeli officer promised to have the bombing stopped, an officer at the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) base in Noqoura said.
Finally, an Israeli bomb exploded directly on the U.N. post near Khiyam, killing four U.N. observers from Austria, Finland, Canada and China, the U.N. officer said.
and
"This coordinated artillery and aerial attack on a long established and clearly marked U.N. post at Khiyam occurred despite personal assurances given to me by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that U.N. positions would be spared Israeli fire," Annan said.
"Furthermore, General Alain Pelligrini, the U.N. force commander in south Lebanon, had been in repeated contact with Israeli officers throughout the day on Tuesday, stressing the need to protect that particular U.N. position from attack."
The timeline provided CNN by a U.N. officer in Lebanon showed the first bomb exploded about 200 yards from the U.N. outpost at 1:20 p.m. Tuesday, prompting the first call by the UNIFIL observers to their designated contact with the Israeli military. The officer said they were assured by the Israeli liaison that he would stop the attacks.
A series of about nine more bombs hit within 100 to 400 yards from the observers over the next several hours, with a call to the Israeli military following each explosion.
The U.N. base at Noqoura lost contact with the outpost at 7:40 p.m., apparently the time of the direct hit, the officer said.
So the Israelis not only knew about the place before their strikes began, but did nothing in the face of reports from that position that it was under fire.
In the face of condemnation, and despite an initial apology, they are now claiming that Hezbollah was the guilty party. Given fog of war I suppose its possible. But if it is discovered that israel was the guilty party it is not outside of previous practices. I am still puzzled by Israel supporters as that nation once bombed one of our own (US) ships, which they claimed was a mistake, at a time when they were engaged in grabbing territory in an illegal manner. This could be another one of those episodes... look for Israeli apologists to continue their work.
All of this said, its sort of shocking that it takes the bombing of a UN outpost to bring about criticism which should have been going on from the start.
I get that Hezbollah sucks. I don't like them and they did attack Israel first (if we ignore that it was bound up with what was going on in gaza). The point is that Israel is not supposed to be a terrorist organization and so it is bound by international rules of conduct. Because a terrorist group does X does not allow any and all means.
Their retaliation is heavily disproportionate to the action which initially occured against them, as well as the full threat posed to Israel by Hezbollah. What they have already done IN FACT to the Lebanese people, is more than Hezbollah could ever have done to Israel in theory. There seems to be some moral calculus that the life of an Israeli is worth more than any amount of any other life.
More so, they are targeting the people of Lebanon and their infrastructure which is specifically NOT targeting Hezbollah. Really the people of Lebanon do not become "potentially guilty" and so punishable because Hezbollah operates there.
Its that the UN and US let Israel get away with the acts they've already commited against the Lebanese which allows for such (relatively minor) tragedy and outrage as the bombing of a UN outpost. Condemning them for the outpost and not the rest, is pretty much an open hypocrisy, not to mention unlikely to bring any positive results.
Note, I'm not criticizing your post or suggesting your comments are limited to the outpost attack, just what appears to be happening in reaction to that attack among world leaders. They need to make the next step, which they should have taken initially, and force Israel to comply with Internation Law.
holmes {in temp decloak from lurker mode}
"What a fool believes he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away." (D.Bros)
™ Version 4.2
