Reply #86: You posted #76 at 10:23 AM . . [View All]

[msmcghee]

. . "To Dispel Myths Propagated by Israel"

When I wrote my response to this (#86) and posted it at a few minutes later at 10:35 AM I was in the process of leaving the house and my wife was telling me that we were late. I didn't read your post carefully.

I was afraid of being inaccurate so I re-read your post anyway. Seeing that I was wrong on the date I immediately deleted that post and notified you that I was in a hurry and would make corrections later. This was a a couple minutes later but the time stamp of the original version was retained - as it always is.

That was while you were posting your message #89 posted at 10:39 AM stating that I was dishonest and that you'd "caught me with my pants down".

Just to be sure I wasn't deceiving anyone I saw that post and with my wife really freaking out by this time I quickly wrote my post #91 at 10:40 AM admitting my mistake again and assuring you I'd correct it.

Now to the substance of your post:

The first part (para 3) describes exactly what Dan Gellerman sent to the UN in the letter that comprised my original post -

- that Hezbollah crossed into Israel after initiating artillery and rocket fire against Israeli positions. In this account the additional information is included that the firing erupted all along the blue line and was concentrated in the Shab'a farm area far from the location of the kidnapping.

This makes sense to me. If I were planning to kidnap someone at location (a) - it might be good to have a diversion at location (b).

And yet you offer this as evidence of Israel's "poetic license"? Please explain which part of that contradicts the essential elements of Gellerman's official letter to the UN. If you recall it was that some people here stated flat out that the kidnapped Israeli reservists were on the Lebanese side of the line and that the missiles were only fired when Israel entered Lebanon after the kidnapping to rescue the reservists. That was the myth I was dispelling - the myth that your own para 3 above now dispels completely.

The rest of your post copies reports that basically show that it is a very tense border as it would be since Israel was fully aware of the thousands of missiles that were being set up to fire at Israeli civilians miles south of the border. Israel's overflights were obviously to keep track of those as far as possible - and I'm sure to be a warning to Hezbollah that firing those missiles would be met with a strong response. Makes perfect sense to me - as it would to any rational person who doesn't want their children and family killed by missiles fired from across a border.

You have said nothing that disputes the gist of Gellerman's letter to the UN. In fact, your only relevant quote affirms it 100% as far as I can see. Your quote from the CounterPunch is useless. I would not quote anything from a similar discredited pro-Israeli source to support my views.

Gellerman is an official representative of the Israel government. A letter he sends describing an event will become a permanent UN record. Even if he wanted to lie that would hurt Israel in the long run as Israel's enemies would have a field day pointing out any proven substantive lies (as these would be) of his at every opportunity.

So far no credible source has contradicted Gellerman's letter - as even your para 3 above confirms. I also notice that none of the major left bloggers (who value their credibility) are making any claims that Israel started this and not Hezbollah. In fact the whole thing (the starting event) is almost not being discussed on the left blogs. Wonder why? It's because most sane people in the world and in the US see this for what it is. A provocation by Hizbollah against the state of Israel that could well be the start of a world war. If that happens they do not want their archives filled with their irrational praise and encouragement of the Hezbollah criminals who started this - nor their attacks against the nation that is legitimately defending the lives of its citizens.

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