Israel responded to an unprovoked attack by Hizbullah, right? Wrong

[cal04]

Whatever we think of Israel's assault on Lebanon, all of us seem to agree about one fact: that it was a response, however disproportionate, to an unprovoked attack by Hizbullah. I repeated this "fact" in my last column, when I wrote that "Hizbullah fired the first shots". This being so, the Israeli government's supporters ask peaceniks like me, what would you have done? It's an important question. But its premise, I have now discovered, is flawed.

Since Israel's withdrawal from southern Lebanon in May 2000, there have been hundreds of violations of the "blue line" between the two countries.

(snip)
On July 12, in other words, Hizbullah fired the first shots. But that act of aggression was simply one instance in a long sequence of small incursions and attacks over the past six years by both sides. So why was the Israeli response so different from all that preceded it? The answer is that it was not a reaction to the events of that day. The assault had been planned for months.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that "more than a year ago, a senior Israeli army officer began giving PowerPoint presentations, on an off-the-record basis, to US and other diplomats, journalists and thinktanks, setting out the plan for the current operation in revealing detail". The attack, he said, would last for three weeks. It would begin with bombing and culminate in a ground invasion. Gerald Steinberg, professor of political science at Bar-Ilan University, told the paper that "of all of Israel's wars since 1948, this was the one for which Israel was most prepared ... By 2004, the military campaign scheduled to last about three weeks that we're seeing now had already been blocked out and, in the last year or two, it's been simulated and rehearsed across the board".

http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,1839281,00.html

[Kagemusha]

1. This incursion just hurt more and inspired a 'existential threat' response

The sort where they have to prove their potency to scare everyone off so they can live in complete peace and security while everyone else lives under the threat of Israel's weapons. Ah well.

[EFerrari]

2. I'm so sorry you're quoting my local fish wrap.

Their headline today:

HEZBOLLAH’S DEADLIEST STRIKES — 15 ISRAELIS DIE

As if, who dies is important. :(

And these "unprovoked attacks" have been planned between Israel and our Cabal for a year or so.

So, no. That isn't response, that is opportunism.

[patdem]

3. I recall watching Kosovo being bombed, a MODERN city being bombed

coulda been anytown USA..and now we see it going on angain in both Israel and Lebanon. I DO NOT CARE who threw the first punch...STOP THE FUCKING KILLING NOW....IMMEDIATELY

[whirlygigspin]

4. OMG!

Sometimes, even the truth gets on TV, but not without a fight. Take a look at this shining example with George Galloway on Skynews.


http://news.sky.com/skynews/video/videoplayer/0,,31200-galloway_060806,00.html


breaking through the electronic Berlin Wall

[Emit]

5. That very last comment he makes!

"You don't give a damn! You don't give a damn! You don't even know about the Palestinian families! You don't even know that they exist! Tell me the names of one member of the same family slaughtered on the beach in Gaza by an Israeli war ship ... You don't even know their name, but you know the name of every Israeli soldier ... because you believe, whether you know it or not, that Israeli blood is more valuable than the blood of Lebanese or Palestinians..."

Very powerful stuff.

[UndertheOcean]

7. he said that ? ..wow!

:)

[caduceus111]

15. Wow! That's one brilliant tirade by Galloway.

On Britain's equivalent of Faux News no less.

Watch the video carefully. Note how they crank up the volume of the adjacent video whenever Galloway is talking, and turn it down when the anchorwoman/talking head is speaking. Tell me that wasn't intentional to drown out his words.

Unbelievable. Galloway is telling it like it is.

=caduceus=

[mom cat]

18. That was a Must See! George is great.

[EFerrari]

6. I sent this to the readers' rep at the SF Chronicle.

because by glorifying 15 Israeli deaths in their headline today, they glorify this misbegotten policy. And they are spinning.

DXX:

This is the most nauseating headline that ever graced the Chronicle front page.

Will the paper also cover the humanitarian disaster now gathering there? The oil slick that is now the Lebanese coast -- and soon to be, the northern Israeli coast -- because the IDF bombed a processing plant?

May those 15 innocent souls find rest. And may those thousands of other innocent souls get coverage.

{contact info here}

/typo

[jpkenny]

8. Please kick and recommend this. It's like the Downing Street Memo

and the PNAC plan. this must receive wide distribution.

[WiseButAngrySara]

9. Why am I not in the least surprised by this? GD Israel. I used to love

you, but now I weep.

[BuyingThyme]

10. Wrong. (Right.)

This has nothing to do with the kidnappings or the missiles fired from heaven. This is preemptive war. A war based on lies. I think there's another word for it.

[Ms. Clio]

11. too bad these facts just won't penetrate some of the thicker skulls

but I'm bookmarking it anyway.

[breakaleg]

12. I guess it depends on how long your memory goes back...

Hezbollah made their move not completely unprovoked. They are trying to facilitate the return of the Lebanese prisoners Israel kidnapped during the last occupation.

So, their move does have some background.

[robinlynne]

13. by both sides?

really. please back that up.

[chill_wind]

14. Threads on this story.

(sent to the Dungeon)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=124&topic_id=142520&mesg_id=142520

Don't know if this one sent or originally there:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=124&topic_id=142066&mesg_id=142066


***********************************************
May this one fare better. It is important. It is receiving attention at other news sites, as evidenced when googled.

K/R

[sandnsea]

16. I said that from day one

This is about Hezbollah lobbing rockets into Israel and not disarming in accordance with 1559 and Israel's agreement to pull out of Lebanon. It's about securing the border and ending hostilities with one more country in the ME. There cannot be rogue militias operating within countries and the host country turning their back to it. The terrorist tactics and teaching hate have to end.

[leftchick]

17. Down The Memory Hole!

http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=2928

Media Advisory

Down the Memory Hole
Israeli contribution to conflict is forgotten by leading papers

7/28/06

In the wake of the most serious outbreak of Israeli/Arab violence in years, three leading U.S. papers—the Washington Post, New York Times and Los Angeles Times—have each strongly editorialized that Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon were solely responsible for sparking violence, and that the Israeli military response was predictable and unavoidable. These editorials ignored recent events that indicate a much more complicated situation.

Beginning with the Israeli attack on Gaza, a New York Times editorial (6/29/06) headlined "Hamas Provokes a Fight" declared that "the responsibility for this latest escalation rests squarely with Hamas," and that "an Israeli military response was inevitable." The paper (7/15/06) was similarly sure in its assignment of blame after the fighting spread to Lebanon: "It is important to be clear about not only who is responsible for the latest outbreak, but who stands to gain most from its continued escalation. Both questions have the same answer: Hamas and Hezbollah."

The Washington Post (7/14/06) agreed, writing that "Hezbollah and its backers have instigated the current fighting and should be held responsible for the consequences." The L.A. Times (7/14/06) likewise wrote that "in both cases Israel was provoked." Three days and scores of civilian deaths later, the Times (7/17/06) was even more direct: "Make no mistake about it: Responsibility for the escalating carnage in Lebanon and northern Israel lies with one side...and that is Hezbollah."

As FAIR noted in a recent Action Alert (7/19/06), the portrayal of Israel as the innocent victim in the Gaza conflict is hard to square with the death toll in the months leading up to the current crisis; between September 2005 and June 2006, 144 Palestinians in Gaza were killed by Israeli forces, according to a list compiled by the Israeli human rights group B'tselem; 29 of those killed were children. During the same period, no Israelis were killed as a result of violence from Gaza.