Israel has preannounced its intent to inflict heavy civilian casualties the next time it bombs southern Lebanon, already claiming that Hezbollah will be at fault because its forces are enmeshed with the population, a remarkable public admission, says Jonathan Marshall.
By Jonathan Marshall
It’s a rare and remarkable event when a government broadcasts ahead of time its intent to commit war crimes. Yet that’s just what senior Israeli military officials recently did in the pages of The New York Times.
Israeli military officials gave friendly Times correspondent Isabel Kershner a provocative briefing, warning (in her words) that in the “almost inevitable next battle with Hezbollah . . . many Lebanese civilians will probably be killed, and that it should not be considered Israel’s fault.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pressed his case for the military offensive against Gaza in a meeting with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in 2014. (Israeli government photo)
Claiming that the militant Lebanese Shiite organization has stationed arms and fortified positions in various southern villages, the anonymous Israeli military briefers accused their foe of using civilians as a shield. The officers were “blunt” that those villages “will most likely be the scene of widespread destruction” and heavy civilian casualties in the wake of an Israeli response to rocket attacks.
The reporter made little attempt to check the officers’ claims about Hezbollah, but that really wasn’t the point. Her story was an apparent trial balloon to test international reaction should Israel undertake an all-out military campaign against the local population, as it did in Lebanon in 1978, 1982 and 1996, and in Gaza in 2008-09 and 2014. Aside from critical notice by a few watchdog bloggers, there has been almost no reaction. The collective silence may lead Tel Aviv to believe the world is willing to give Israel the green light for mass killing of civilians.
A week before the Times story ran, Israel’s defense minister was even blunter. Speaking at a conference in Jerusalem, Moshe Yaalon said Israel would not shrink from targeting civilian neighborhoods in the event of a future conflict in Lebanon or Gaza: “We are going to hurt Lebanese civilians to include kids of the family . . . We did it in [the] Gaza Strip, we are going to do it in any round of hostilities in the future.”
Chilling as those words were, they simply expressed longstanding Israeli military practice and doctrine. During Israel’s most recent invasion of Lebanon in 2006, for example, the Israeli Defense Forces killed hundreds of Lebanese civilians and several unarmed United Nations observers. Reports by Human Right Watch documented serious war crimes by Hezbollah, which engaged in indiscriminate rocket fire against Israel, but also by the IDF for systematically failing to distinguish between combatants and civilians:
“Since the start of the conflict, Israeli forces have consistently launched artillery and air attacks with limited or dubious military gain but excessive civilian cost. In dozens of attacks, Israeli forces struck an area with no apparent military target. In some cases, the timing and intensity of the attack, the absence of a military target, as well as return strikes on rescuers, suggest that Israeli forces deliberately targeted civilians.
“The Israeli government claims that it targets only Hezbollah, and that fighters from the group are using civilians as human shields, thereby placing them at risk. Human Rights Watch found no cases in which Hezbollah deliberately used civilians as shields to protect them from retaliatory IDF attack. . . . In none of the cases of civilian deaths documented in this report is there evidence to suggest that Hezbollah forces or weapons were in or near the area that the IDF targeted during or just prior to the attack.
“By consistently failing to distinguish between combatants and civilians, Israel has violated one of the most fundamental tenets of the laws of war: the duty to carry out attacks on only military targets.”
Investigating similar crimes against civilians during the Gaza conflict of 2008-09, a UN fact-finding mission led by the eminent South African jurist Richard Goldstone drew attention to an Israeli military strategy known as the “Dahiya doctrine” after a suburb of Beirut that was heavily damaged by Israel in the 2006 war.
The Goldstone Report quoted the head of Israel’s Northern Command as warning, “What happened in the Dahiya quarter of Beirut in 2006 will happen in every village from which Israel is fired on. . . We will apply disproportionate force on it and cause great damage and destruction there. From our standpoint, these are not civilian villages, they are military bases. . . This is not a recommendation. This is a plan. And it has been approved.”
The Goldstone mission declared firmly that “reprisals against civilians in armed hostilities are contrary to international humanitarian law. . . . One party’s targeting of civilians or civilian areas can never justify the opposing party’s targeting of civilians and civilian objects, such as homes, public and religious buildings, or schools.”
The Goldstone mission’s damning conclusions did not stop Israel from savaging Gaza again in 2014. The United Nations estimates that at least two-thirds of the more than 2,000 victims were civilians. The Israeli group Breaking the Silence recently issued a report–“This is How We Fought in Gaza 2014”–with testimonials from Israeli soldiers about the IDF’s mass destruction of civilian infrastructure and casual indifference to civilian casualties.
Israeli civilians of course deserve to live free from fear of rocket attacks, whether fired from southern Lebanon or Gaza. But Israel’s chances of reaching a peaceful modus vivendi with its neighbors will remain nil if it continues responding to terror with greater terror; indeed, its collective punishment of civilians in the past contributed greatly to the rise of Hezbollah and Hamas.
Other governments, particularly Israel’s friends in the United States and Europe, have an obligation to tell Tel Aviv clearly that crimes against civilians will be prosecuted and punished, not tolerated by silence or indifference.
Jonathan Marshall is an independent researcher living in San Anselmo, California. Some of his previous articles for Consortiumnews were “Risky Blowback from Russian Sanctions”; “Neocons Want Regime Change in Iran”; “Saudi Cash Wins France’s Favor”; “The Saudis’ Hurt Feelings”; and “Saudi Arabia’s Nuclear Bluster.”
Not surprising is that Israeli propagandists are starting to respond with pure nonesense on this website just like any other that discusses or exposes the truth about Israel. JJ above is classic with his blaming every war criminal act of aggression Israel commits on anyone but the Zionist perpetrators. In 2014 Israel slaughtered 2200 in Gaza for something that happened in the West Bank. Israel in fact would not exist if not for being birthed after decades of planned Zionist terrorism to violently expell the Arabs which they were finally in a position to do in 1948. Of course the Zionists blame the Arabs for those criminal actions prior to 1948 as well. But that is the Zionist way – like a wife beater – to blame the victims. Of course they must control the press among their foreign sponsors in order not to be seen for what they are. And they also must be able to influence (read coerce) foreign politicians in order to maintain the ongoing crimes they’ve been guilty of since even before 1948. To sum Zionism and Israel up would be to say they only exist because they lack morality and ethics concerning non-Jews and have engaged in extreme criminal activities to achieve the measure of “success” that they have.
Not surprising is that Israeli propagandists are starting to respond with pure nonesense on this website just like any other that discusses or exposes the truth about Israel. JJ above is classic with his blaming every war criminal act of aggression Israel commits on anyone but the Zionist perpetrators. In 2014 Israel slaughtered 2200 in Gaza for something that happened in the West Bank. Israel in fact would not exist if not for being birthed after decades of planned Zionist terrorism to violently expell the Arabs which they were finally in a position to do in 1948. Of course the Zionists blame the Arabs for those criminal actions prior to 1948 as well. But that is the Zionist way — like a wife beater — to blame the victims. Of course they must control the press among their foreign sponsors in order not to be seen for what they are. And they also must be able to influence (read coerce) foreign politicians in order to maintain the ongoing crimes they’ve been guilty of since even before 1948. To sum Zionism and Israel up would be to say they only exist because they lack morality and ethics concerning non-Jews and have engaged in extreme criminal activities to achieve the measure of “success” that they have…
I find it odd that anyone should be surprised by this. Read the Old Testament and the history found there of the original conquest of Canaan. It was pretty simple: Kill everyone who isn’t one of us or enslave them if the Lord decides to show them mercy, which is to say, the more land we conquer the more labor we need.
That is one hell of an amazingly stupid article. Jonathan Marshall’s severe myopia prevented him obviously from noticing that every Israeli action, and I mean every single one of them, has been in reaction and in response to a Palestinian or otherwise Arab attack. Israelis have much better things to do in life than finding joy in killing other human beings. Leave that to Hamas, Hezbollah and ISIS. So the reality is not at all what Marshall so dishonestly make it to be. It’s a lot simpler than that: you don’t want to see casualties among Palestinian, Lebanese or any other civilians? Just don’t attack Israel! And you will then notice that Israel doesn’t respond, therefore there will be no casualties. If you can’t understand something as simple as that, there is nothing else I can do to help you.
And what would the Middle East look like if Israel were a fair and true democracy? What a clever idea it is, if all Israeli citizens were treated equally. In fact, as history may recall the Zionist were the ones newly moving in. BTW, why the name change fron Palestine to Israel…why is this important to the Zionist? Let’s face it, the Zionist have made a mess of things with their arrogance. It’s that plain and simple.
Besides all of that, as an American taxpayer, I am overly tired of buying Israel new military products. If it were left to me I would package up all of the US’s Neocon’s and Dual citizens and dump them on Israel door step…with a ‘thanks but no thanks’ note, and tell Netanyahu here’s your aid. Forget the 3.5 billion or so, and we are done with you!
I may sound ignorant, but then again, I’m not the one calling people here on this posting board stupid or delusional. Have a nice day. No, really have a nice day. Debate can be energizing!
Except to mention in passing the USS Liberty and the Mavi Marmara murders, this isn’t worthy of comment.
The poster is a True Believer in the Eternal Innocence of the shitty little apartheid nation at the east end of the Med.
“every Israeli action, and I mean every single one of them, has been in reaction and in response to a Palestinian or otherwise Arab attack. Israelis have much better things to do in life than finding joy in killing other human beings. Leave that to Hamas, Hezbollah and ISIS.â€
The commenter repeatedly employs most prevalent rhetorical strategy used by Hasbara propagandists to ‘splain’ Israeli armed aggression:
“‘Defensive’ and ‘preventative’ are the words that best describe Israeli military action.â€
– from page 96 of “Global Language Dictionary†(the Hasbara propaganda manual) by The Israel Project. Labeled: Not for distribution or publication. 2009
When challenged, the Hasbara propagandists simply shout louder.
Israel will think twice before attacking Lebanon again. They lost in 2000, and tried to save face in 2006, and lost again in spite of the IDF using everything they had. They dropped cluster bombs on civilians even after the truce was announced, their air force destroyed the Lebanese infrastructure, and they still lost. Why? Because Israel cannot withstand any attack on it’s home-front. In 2006 the Israelis that can afford it left northern Galilee settlements down south, or left the country all together, and the ones that couldn’t afford it, spent the entire war in their bunkers in complete psychological collapse. The Israelis are still talking about Hassan Nasrallah’s appearances in which he said that the resistance would hit target further and further south, and delivered on his promises. Now he is promising that they would strike the oil refinery and chemical plants in Haifa, which could lead to hundreds of thousands of casualties on the Israeli side. Israel and it’s army are a bunch of cowards, their preferred battle is against unarmed civilians. This whole Arab spring bullshit is the result of Israel and it’s neocon supporters in the US not knowing how to deal with Hizbullah and the Lebanese resistance supported and trained by the Iranians.
Israel cannot afford the price of the next Lebanon war!
The kind of destruction that Israel recently announced will take place in Lebanon can only be achieved by using, at the minimum, tactical nukes.
The loss of face in 2006, and thus the undermining of their most important asset, their deterrence, went up in smoke. To try to do damage control and repair of that deterrence factor, they turned to Gaza yet again, to shoot fish in a barrel and prove they are a force to reckon with.
No, you idiot. It doesn’t require a tactical nuke! Do you even understand the size of Israel and even more so of Lebanon? They’re minuscule! The goal spelled out can be achieved with far less devastating weaponry. Hezbollah has rocket launchers installed in the basement of houses all over Southern Lebanon? Fine, Their choice. Down will come the entire house, with or without civilians serving as human shields. It will be who shoots first. If Israel doesn’t raze each one of these houses immediately, the rockets will fly out of them meaning that some innocent Israelis will pay the price. That cannot be allowed to happen, and therefore these houses will have to be destroyed right away, courtesy of Hezbollah by way of Israel. Thank you Nasrallah.
Hey Dynomite,
Israel tried that in 2006 and got nothing. now Hizballah has missiles installed in northern Lebanon that can reach every corner of occupied Palestine. If the Zionist cowards thought they could get away with your armchair quarterback plan, they would have implemented it a long time ago.
“these houses will have to be destroyed right away, courtesy of Hezbollah by way of Israel.”
The fundamental rhetorical strategy used by Hasbara propagandists to ‘splain’ Israeli military attacks:
“‘Defensive’ and ‘preventative’ are the words that best describe Israeli military action.â€
– from page 96 of “Global Language Dictionary†(the Hasbara propaganda manual) by The Israel Project. Labeled: Not for distribution or publication. 2009
Hey, even beginner habara guys have to start somewhere. Covering up Israeli war crimes is a really important job.
I’d invite people to google “richard goldstone” and “pressure” to see what was done to this elderly gentleman.
Exactly, and thank you for bringing that up.
I try to avoid answering the Hasbara ( like Eddie above ) directly, since arguing with them even on their own terms, bringing up facts (at least in my experience ) is like beating a dead horse. You will achieve nothing, but will only drain your own resources on a largely hopeless case.
Anyone that dares to report the nature of Israeli war crimes, gets pressured, threatened, ridiculed, is set up for character assassination, bribed, blackmailed, gets his “file” under the spotlight for everyone to see, even though it is likely filled with lies and doctored data, so on and so forth.
Even a moderately savvy person regarding these issues is quickly learning about the Hasbara script, the manipulation, the lies, the subterfuge, the hypocrisy, the double standards, the shameful dishonesty that disseminates through their largely controlled mainstream media.
It is almost always a non-starter to engage with a hardcore Hasbara. You can only point out where and how to get more reliable information about the subjects brought up, and hope the person who reads the sources and will attempt to do an unbiased analysis as far as possible.
The Goldstone Report has been largely discreditied for its bias. Even the lead author has appologised – http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/reconsidering-the-goldstone-report-on-israel-and-war-crimes/2011/04/01/AFg111JC_story.html
“Goldstone has done terrible damage to the cause of truth and justice and the rule of law. He has poisoned Jewish-Palestinian relations, undermined the courageous work of Israeli dissenters and—most unforgivably—increased the risk of another merciless IDF assault.â€
Goldstone Recants: Richard Goldstone Renews Israel’s License to Kill
By Norman G. Finkelstein
——–
“What other kind of authority does a judge have than moral authority? If you profess to be a judge, and you bow to any opportunistic occasion, then you’ve lost your authority as a judge.”
http://mondoweiss.net/2011/11/finkelstein-on-goldstone
The Goldstein Report has been largely discreditied for its bias. Even the lead author has appologised – http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/reconsidering-the-goldstone-report-on-israel-and-war-crimes/2011/04/01/AFg111JC_story.html
I think there might be a few inaccuracies with this article.
http://www.jpost.com/landedpages/printarticle.aspx?id=403750
The only thing new about Zionism is that more Americans are seeing them for all the death and destruction they’ve caused with what is the most extremist of religious extremism as any ever to exist. What other religious state coerced other states into going along with its periodic slaughters, ethnic cleansing, assassinations and land thefts by way of propagandizing the public, controlling politicians and falsifying the news reports in foreign countries all as part of what they claim is Gods elaborate plan for his chosen people (them) to be deceitful murderers and thieves? And somehow these blatant offenders of common decency have convinced many that they are beyond reproach and criticism. Man corrupts everything including religion — Zionism is religious extremism with no equal in many respects.
I came to this article following on the link posted at The News Scouter. News Scouter has become our source of all the “must read” news stories and editorials.
News Scouter is an aggregator and compiler of ‘Independent News and Editorials:
The News Scouter: http://newsscouter.com/
News Scouter is a news comer – an honest site – a relief from the junks that is spread over the aggregator sites like the ‘Rense’ and ‘DrudgeReport’. In the interest of all the honest writer, journalists, and blogger, we are doing our best to let the word out and promote The News Scouter – If you go there, you will find out what I am talking about.
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Visit The News Scouter often. We have noticed they are constantly ‘scouting’ for the latest news stories – updating, I believe, on hourly basis.
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Another example of poor little Israel – the perpetual innocent victim – from its 2006 Lebanon rampage.
Israel’s Descent into Barbarism
Abe mentions how the NYT peddles “uncritical stenography of Israeli military propaganda”. Isn’t that the truth!
Israel sells its story on a new Lebanon war, and the ‘Times’ bites
Down in the comments of my link amid all the Israeli shills was this:
No matter – poor little Israel is ALWAYS the innocent victim.
In the article “Israel Says Hezbollah Positions Put Lebanese at Riskâ€, Times reporter Isabel Kershner provides a platform for Israeli officials to rationalize in advance their criminal aggression that will lead to massive civilian casualties.
Since nonviolence is not an option for them, Israeli officials need to lay the groundwork to deflect any responsibility for the killing they plan to carry out. This P.R. strategy is a calculated response to the worldwide popular backlash after Israel’s slaughter of more than 2,100 Palestinians, including nearly 600 children, in Gaza last summer. The Times obliges with uncritical stenography of Israeli military propaganda, accepting the word of state power at face value.
New York Times Coverage Follows Narrative of Israeli State Power
By Matt Peppe
http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/05/20/new-york-times-coverage-follows-narrative-of-israeli-state-power/
Sorry I goofed on my keyboard
Search:
American ambassador recalls Israeli assassination attempt with U.S. weapons
Another shot at making the ‘Greater Israel’. In the early 80s Israel attacked Lebanon for no reason, the border had been quiet. There had been an incident at the Israeli embassy in London England, but that was perpetrated by Black September, an enemy of Arafat and the PLO. Anyway Israel took the opportunity and the PLO fled to Libya leaving the Palestinian refugee camps under supposed US protection. Then we had the Sabra and Shatila massacres where Israel told its friends, the Christian Phalange, that Palestinians were responsible for their leaders murder (actually by Syrians) and then let them into the unprotected Palestinian refugee camps while they watched, listened and provided body bags.
Rather than leave Lebanon, Israel stayed in Lebanese territory south of the Litany river, land that they considered part of Greater Israel. As with all foreign occupations, resistance grew in the form of Hizballah which eventually pushed the intruders out. But that was not before they used American bombs and against all the rules, laced southern Lebanon with bomblets from those weapons.
To get a further picture of Israeli intrigue I suggest a search using:
American ambassador recalls Israel assignation attempt with U.S. weapons
by Andrew Killgore a retired foreign service officer and U.S. ambassador to Qatar.
Then one can ask oneself, “How do they get away with it all?“
When Norman Finkelstein called Israel a “lunatic state”, first I thought he exaggerated just for advertising.
But having studied the topic for a few years now, I am convinced it was an understatement.
It is not acceptable for this rogue state to not suffer the consequences for its lunacy. All aid, military hardware should be cut immediately, and the state should be put under massive economic sanctions.
Israel keeps the Suez Canal open. No Suez Canal, no Saudi oil.
They’re just out to prove they are just as bad or worse than the Germans.
It is way over due that Israel become a single state democracy. This would mean Christians, Moslems, Jews, and all others are equal in every way. Representation would likewise be reflective of that society’s population. Everyone would have a seat at the table.
As an American taxpayer I can only urge our nations leaders to quit funding this Israeli regime. I shutter to think of how many people have suffered due to Israel’s violence. What we are funding and witnessing is the very same tyranny we fought against during WWII. By all the standards of human decencies we are apart of what we all feared the most, terrorist!
To Joe Tedesky:
I agree with you wholeheartedly.
Most “Jews” do not consider themselves equal in any sense of the word.
Especially if they are ZIONISTS (which is to say not all “Jews”)
they consider themselves superior almost by definition.
The same could be said for many groups of “Christians”.
The same might be equally applicable to many “Muslims” who in Israel are the
primary victims of /zionist oppression.
None of these faith-designated groups has a “right to exist” and the essential
bases of Zionism must be radically altered. They must be prepared to
accept the rule of others if others should be democratically chosen (to Knesset,
Cabinet, Judicial posts, service in the Army, making of treaties, determinations
of ownership of land, etc. Zionists do not accept such views but are convinced
that Scripture and the Devine have given Zionists the sole and determining
jurisdiction in all of the above. Zionists refuse to share, to live together etc.
This is not to say that each of these groups must stop advocating for their own
interests. Beginning of course, from fair play in an electoral process etc. After that,
I can disagree with those in power and combine with others who share my
disagreements.
No one has any inalienable right. In the US such inalienable rights were originally
thought to exclude blacks, Native Americans, women, and often the poor. (The
US “Commonwealth of Virginnia”, among the largest at one time, excluded all of
the above from participation in governing.
In fact, Palestinians themselves can be expected to differ in terms of policies,goals,
strategies, etc.
This is not always enjoyable and it would obviously be preferrable if everyone else
agreed with me. Unfortunately they never do.
—-Peter Loeb, Boston, MA, USA
Joe, you are delusional. Name one single country among Israel’s neighbor who has managed to transition fron chaos and tyranny into a functional democracy. If you turn Israel into a one-state that includes all the Palestinians currently still living in 59 refugee camps 67 years after they were created, you will end up in no time with a repeat of Syria because the Palestinians are incapable of living in a real democracy. All they want it to destroy Israel and take over. It’s not going to happen.
“…the Palestinians are incapable of living in a real democracy. All they want it to destroy Israel and take over.”
The racist commenter above is employing a key rhetorical strategy used by Hasbara propagandists:
“‘Defensive’ and ‘preventative’ are the words that best describe Israeli military action.”
– from page 96 of “Global Language Dictionary” (the Hasbara propaganda manual) by The Israel Project. Labeled: Not for distribution or publication. 2009