In the past two weeks, that I (Batool Fatima) have been in Lebanon to cover the Israel-Lebanon war, I have seen many faces of Israel. Unfortunately none of them is pleasant. But I will admit this much; sometimes I feel awe at the sheer audacity of its lies.
Take for instance the fact that every time it kills civilians under the pretext of combating Hizbollah fighters, all it has to do is shrug it's shoulders and say...'oops'.
Ok so I am being a little glib here but I have my reasons. The first example I can quote is when four unarmed UN observers were killed in Lebanon on July 26, 2006, in southern city of Khiyam. Daniel Ayalon, Israel's ambassador to United States had this to say...
"UNIFIL obviously got caught in the middle of a gunfight between Hezbollah guerrillas and Israeli troops." Really, that is just so obvious that the United Nations' post got in the way of Hizbollah and Israeli troops. How transportable of the UN post!
Kofi Annan's protest over this issue wasn't very well received either. Though he was 'deeply distressed' over the 'apparently deliberate' strike on a well marked UN post, this was the response of Dan Gillerman, the Israeli ambassador to United Nations: "I am surprised at these premature and erroneous assertions made by the secretary-general, who while demanding an investigation, has already issued its conclusions".
My second example comes from an Israeli strike on a UN Convoy on 29th July, 2006. A rescue convoy bringing civilians from a village near the Lebanon-Israel border came under fire from Israeli forces. A cameraman for a German network and his driver were lightly injured and their car destroyed when it was struck by two mortar rounds. Then on 6th August, 2006, a vehicle just ahead of a United Nations humanitarian aid convoy in Lebanon was hit during an air strike by the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF). During the incident, which occurred just north of Tyre, the two occupants of the vehicle were killed.
Israel shrugged these instances of by saying that they were 'tragic mistakes'.
My third example is probably the bleakest in this war. The second massacre of Qana on July 30th, 2006. To the best of my knowledge, this is the most grim repetition of history ever. Same town, same assailants, a different time and different faces. This attack bordered on war crimes, but Israeli spokesperson only had these words to offer.
'We are deeply sorry...this was a tragic incident'. Following the Qana Massacre, Israel decided to take it easy on Lebanon for forty-eight hours, and start and inquiry to understand how that specific building in Qana, housing over 100 people came under attack by mistake.
Those 48 hours never happened. Only a few hours later, Israeli cabinet decided to expand its ground offensive. Naquora was attacked, al-Mansouri saw air strikes near dawn, Litani River was raided by Israeli troops while al-Owaida hills were fiercely shelled. And so far I have only cited incidents from the first eight hours of August 1st, 2006. And by the way, that investigation into Qana Massacre by Israeli authorities....never happened.
Only a few days back while Rice was visiting Israel for a possible negotiation on cease-fire, Ehud Olmert said that Israel needed another 7-10 days for it's military operations. Now ten days later, Ehud Olmert after meeting with Israeli security cabinet has said that it will take another month for the military operations to achieve the desired results. Amnesia anyone?
And only in the early hours of 10th August, 2006, after Washington told Israel to hold back on its offensive, Israel decided to stop expanded attack on Lebanon in order to negotiate on cease-fire and give the United Nation's a chance at true diplomatic efforts. Well, that didn't work either. This morning twelve air strikes were carried out on Deir Antar, far near northern Balbaak and just by 0815hours, Israeli forces had entered Marjeyoun, Burj-ul-Mouluk and al Qalaya.
By noon it has attacked the oldest Lighthouse in Beirut and thrown leaflets around the city telling people to evacuate. Quite a long narrative but what am I getting at? I wish I knew. I am only trying to figure out what it is that Israel possesses, that it can get away with just about every war crime possible and still be on top of its game. Your guess is as good as mine.