More 'deeply regrettable' killings of Lebanese innocents by Israel

[bigtree]

Wednesday, August 02, 2006

Baalbek Wakes Up to Death, Destruction Day After Major Assault

BAALBEK, Lebanon — Residents of the Hezbollah stronghold of Baalbek woke to scenes of death and destruction Wednesday after a night of massive airstrikes and an Israeli commando raid on a Hezbollah-run hospital that killed at least 15 civilians.

The town's mayor, Hussein Jamaleddin, lost his son, brother and five other relatives. He broke down crying hysterically, and pulled at the limbs of the dead hanging out of the shovel.

Airstrikes on villages within a kilometer of the hospital killed at least 15 people, including a family of seven — a mother, father and their five children — in an area near Al Jamaliyeh, witnesses said. A van driver was also killed when another missile struck nearby.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,206669,00.html


regret, as in: Israel: 'Deep Regret' At U.N. Deaths

CBS News - Jul 26 10:24 AM
Israel expressed "deep regret" at the deaths of U.N. observers at a post hit by an Israeli air strike
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/07/25/world/main1832266.shtml

[malaise]

1. Why is the killing continuing when

Condi said it's time to stop the violence:sarcasm: :sarcasm:

[bigtree]

2. is this the 'restraint' she said she asked Israel for?

[malaise]

5. Yes n/t

[Ilsa]

3. I tend to think of "deeply regrettable" as a situation like putting

creamer into someone's coffee who wants it black. There are insufficient words for the death and destruction going on in the ME right now.

[bigtree]

4. words are meaningless

without action. Where is Israel demonstrating that regret?

[bigtree]

6. "Where is the press? Where is the media to see this massacre?"

One of the air raids struck the village of Al Jamaliyeh, less than a mile from the hospital. A missile hit the house of the village's mayor, Hussein Jamaleddin, instantly killing his son, brother, and five other relatives.

``Where is the press? Where is the media to see this massacre? Count our dead. Count our body parts,'' Jamaleddin told The Associated Press on the telephone, minutes after the missile strike.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-5989042,00.html

[oberliner]

10. The media is ignoring it?

Say what you want about how awful this is, but I don't think you can accuse the media of not covering it.

The man is talking to someone from the AP on the telephone minutes after the strike and someone is including that conversation in an article. And there are several photos published by the AP as well.

[bigtree]

11. I'm not accusing them of anything

these are the expressions of a desperate and confused man in grief.

That's the context in which I presented them within this thread. He's right to the extent that not enough of a focus is given to the fact that these reckless killings are a crime against humanity.

[oberliner]

12. didn't mean you in particular

Sorry if it came across that way.

I was just trying to make the point that these incidents have been covered pretty extensively. I mean that in the sense that there are a lot of photos and a lot of words being written.

That those words are spun in a variety of different directions is undeniable.

[bigtree]

14. I think the killings should be the center of every account of the raid

but, of course, they're not.

[lindisfarne]

7. Yes, at least Hezbollah doesn't "deeply regret" killing Israelis when it

fires rockets into civilian areas, or "deeply regret" endangering the Lebanese population by using them as human shields when it fires rockets off from civilian areas.

[bigtree]

8. all of that is true

none of that excuses these killings

[greguganus]

13. I haven't seen any Israelis dancing in the streets when Lebanese

civilians are killed, but plenty of Hezbollah dancing when Israeli citizens are killed.

[bigtree]

16. plenty recorded by the media, that's for sure

but, of course, all of that is a deflection from whether these killings were, in fact, justified.

Hezbollah's alleged dancing is no defense for these reckless reprisals.

[manic expression]

17. I don't know if you've been paying attention or not

but Lebanese people really can't go on the streets right now.

And what about those Israeli kids writing messages on munitions to be fired into Lebanon? What about that? Or are you just going to ignore it?

[KingFlorez]

20. That is not an excuse

Because Hezbollah kills Israelis, it does not excuse Israel killing Lebanese civilians. You can't punish innocent people for something a terrorist group did, which is what Israel is doing.

[leftchick]

9. Villagers Carry Away Dead After Israeli Strike On Baalbek

Villagers Carry Away Dead After Israeli Strike On Baalbek
Wednesday August 2nd, 2006 / 21h24



A relative mourns as the body of Awad Jamaleddine is removed by a bulldozer, after he was killed with several members of his family, during an overnight Israeli raid on the eastern town of Baalbek, a Hezbollah bastion 10 kilometres from the Syrian border. Israeli commandos struck deep into Lebanon and snatched five suspected guerrillas in a helicopter raid that provoked the heaviest rain of Hezbollah rocket fire in the 22-day-old conflict.(AFP/Joseph Barrak)

http://www.easybourse.com/Website/dynamic/News.php?NewsID=35825&lang=fra&NewsRubrique=2


BAALBEK, Lebanon (AP)--Villagers outside the Hezbollah stronghold of Baalbek, Lebanon, used the bucket of a front-end loader to carry away the dead Wednesday, after a night of Israeli airstrikes and a commando raid killed 16.

Israel's deepest thrust yet into Lebanon drew new attention to this city with a notorious past, where guerrillas held Western hostages like former Beirut-based Associated Press Chief Middle East Correspondent Terry Anderson two decades ago.

Israel's commando raid on an Iranian-funded, Hezbollah-run hospital wasn't just a daring military strike deep in enemy territory. It was a blow at the symbol of guerrilla power in the heart of their Bekaa Valley bastion of eastern Lebanon.

Israel's military swooped in late Tuesday, dropping commandos from helicopters and wreaking havoc with airstrikes before withdrawing after taking prisoners. Israel said it captured five Hezbollah fighters and killed 10 guerrillas in the deepest assault into Lebanon in 12 years.
Sixteen civilians, including a family of seven, died in the heavy clashes and air raids, and a Hezbollah leader rumored to have been the target of the overnight operation spoke by phone to the guerrilla organization's television station later to prove he wasn't captured. Hezbollah didn't report its casualties.

Though Israel hasn't yet released the names of those captured, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said: "They are tasty fishes."

[lindisfarne]

15. As long as governments and non-governmental militias exist whose

self-professed goals are to destroy another state and are willing to use military means to work towards that goal and possess significant military power (and may be used as a surrogate by another state which is supplying rockets, bombs, munitions, etc.), and are willing to use civilians within their own country as human shields, the killings will never cease.

No state is going to sit back and do nothing while another state shoots rockets at it.

Hezbollah is an extremist movement. Their goal is not to protect Lebanese interests. It is to use Lebanon and the Lebanese to achieve other goals, including destruction of Israel and beyond that, destruction of anyone who doesn't subscribe to their fundamentalist viewpoint. No different in terms of mindset from white supremacists or the Taliban or Jerry Falwell. Shall we allow white supremacists to resume lynching certain Americans?

[bigtree]

19. yet, our powerful democracies aspire to be better than all of that.

No one should trample over innocents in pursuit of their foe. Our civilized institutions are supposed to reflect that.

[lindisfarne]

21. You're very idealistic. Hezbollah is "trampling over innocents in pursuit

of foe". Even worse, it is using and endangering Lebanese without any regard, in order to achieve its goals.

Yet, you only have criticism for Israel.

[bigtree]

23. only criticism of Israel in this thread . . .

try my journal

here's a couple of posts of mine (but only because you were polite. I don't feel I need a disclaimer on every criticism of Israel's actions)

Hizbollah: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=1692942

another today: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=1799088#1799384


I don't think there is a wit of responsibility to be attached to 'Hizbollah' in the Israeli raid and its consequences. The deaths were from one of those airstrikes that have killed hundreds of others, including children, without any noticible effect on Hizbollah at all. I don't understand the purpose behind the air assault. It seems that the Israeli authorities decided that striking their target was more important than these Lebanese lives. I think that's reprehensible as these deadly strikes appear to have had no significant effect on Hizbollah at all
.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

18. Tsk, tsk. Very regrettalbe. Sad. Birth pangs. Unfortunate.

Collateral damage. Investigation. It's war. Self-defense. Things like this happen. We try to avoid. Tragic accidents.

Repeat as necessary to justify murder.

[laura888]

22. Exactly. Well put. n/t