Targeting civilians
The key justification for the crackdown on the Palestinians in the Gaza and the West Bank spouted by the pro-Israeli camp is that the Palestinians are terrorists, because their suicide bombings and other attacks ‘target civilians.’ Frankly, I fail to see the ‘fine point’ these apologists put on it when, for example, in the recent ‘put down’ of the Hamas rocket launchers, the Israeli army killed an estimated 960 civilians out of a total of 1434 total dead – 67%!
Israel, of course, immediately and automatically disputed the number of civilian dead. The ultra-nationalist message of the country’s leaders, however, was undercut by direct testimony from members of the IDF, who are coming forward with tales of policy-driven slaughter of civilians, including unarmed women & children.
It’s hard to take the moral high ground after the US did all this and worse during the dark years of the Shrubya Iraqi fiasco. However, now that we are under new management, I really hope (but sadly doubt) Clinton will put some pressure on Israel to investigate their war crimes.
Tags: bush, Clinton, Gaza, Iraq, israel, Palestinians, war crimes
March 31st, 2009 at 12:09 am
I think Israel is paying a heavy price in public relations for its 22 day war against the entire population of the Gaza Strip.