The Massive War Crime That Is the Military Action in Lebanon

As I've said before, I don't like what Hezbollah stands for and I believe the state of Israel has ever right to exist and to defend itself. But I have big questions about how the government of Israel behaves, much as I question much of how the Bush Administration behaves and allows the Pentagon to behave.

With all this said, I see what goes on in Lebanon as far more of a war crime (a massive one) than a defensive action by Israel. I notice again today we heard countless times of the number of Israeli soldiers dead. But if you heard a peep about how many Lebanese civilians died... well.. you weren't listening to TV news.

Here is a post by Juan Cole, an expert on the Middle East:

The Israeli air force hit civilians at Ghaziyah in the south on Monday, killing 14. When the victims' families and friends held a funeral procession on Tuesday, the Israelis hit them again, killing 6 more innocent civilians. (This terror tactic, where you kill people and then kill their funeral party later, as well, is commonly used by the Baathist insurgency in Iraq).

The Israelis killed another five innocents, these being fruit packers and truckers near the border with Syria.In the south, the Israeli invaders fought hard battles as they moved as much as 7 miles into Lebanon, losing two reservists in firefights with the formidable Hizbullah.

So the Israelis warned the southern Shiites that they should flee north, otherwise these ordinary civilians would be considered fair game. So thousands flee north to Beirut and go to schools and other shelters in Shiite districts like Shiyah. So then the Israelis bomb Shiyah. If they were going to be bombed anyway, they may as well have stayed home.

Israel has effectively cut South Lebanon off from the rest of the country, having destroyed roads and bridges, etc. Aid workers have been forced to leave the area. The Israelis have declared southern Lebanon a "no-drive" zone, promising to kill anyone who drives around a vehicle. This policy would make it difficult for aid workers to truck in grain and other foodstuffs and medicine. So, they have just left.The Israelis also bombed a Palestinian refugee camp.

The nascent Israeli military ethnically cleansed hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in 1948, expelling some 100,000 from their ancestral homeland north into southern Lebanon, where they were reduced to living penniless and in squalor in camps in someone else's country. They have grown to 400,000, though some demographers suspect that half that number has gone off to Europe, where they cannot get work visas and so spend their days visiting parks and riding the subway.

The Israelis seem to have a list of old scores to settle, and are taking advantage of the war to settle some vendettas. Had anyone charged that Israel was attacked from refugee camp in Lebanon? This is just opportunism (like the whole war).