[Nettime-bold] Re: Sharon hails raid as great success

["Ivo Skoric" <ivo@reporters.net>]

Shehada was a legitimate target. Hamas claimed responsibility for 
many recent suicide bombings and he promised the attacks to 
continue until Israel blinks. The course of the war showed that 
Israelis have high tolerance for "collateral damage", i.e. civilian 
deaths. So, I am not at all surprised at the recent military action 
and that Sharon hails it as great success. After all, the objective 
was achieved: Shehada is, indeed, dead.

On the other hand, Gaza is so densely populated that any aerial 
raid is bound to produce civilian death. Shehada, perhaps, knew 
that. Like the Israelis, Hamas also had high tolerance for "collateral 
damage" - they did not mind sending their troops to death, and 
they primarily killed civilians in the process. So, it is likely 
Shehada did not give a damn how many of his own people would 
die with him in case of an Israeli raid.

In reality, this attack was a gruesome attack on a residential 
neighborhood. It deliberately targeted buildings full of civilian 
population from the safety of the air in order to kill one man. It was 
not only "heavy handed" - it was a crime against humanity. And 
Gaza is a UN mandated territory, and therefore under the ICC 
jurisdiction. PA should bring charges against Israel for this attack. 
And Israel may use video-tapes of Shehada calling for more suicide 
bombings against Israel as their defense.

But nobody says they should not have killed Shehada - they did 
not have a license to destroy the entire neighborhood in the 
process and kill 9 innocent children: that's a crime they have to 
answer for. In hindsight, the lukewarm reaction from the U.S. is 
understandable. Because, in this raid, Israelis killed 15 innocent 
people while achieving their military objective of killing Shehada, 
while the U.S. air force managed to kill 50 innocent people at a 
wedding party in sparsely populated Afghanistan without achieving 
their military objective of killing the Taliban leader, Mullah Omar. 
Israeli air force achieved 100% more efficiency with 70% less 
collateral damage. Of course, Ari Fleischer has troubles 
condemning the raid in same words like British MPs. It is good (for 
the US) that the Afghan raid does not come under ICC jurisdiction.

ivo



Date sent:      	Wed, 24 Jul 2002 23:00:22 -0400
Send reply to:  	International Justice Watch Discussion List
             	<JUSTWATCH-L@LISTSERV.ACSU.BUFFALO.EDU>
From:           	Daniel Tomasevich <danilo@MARTNET.COM>
Subject:        	Sharon hails raid as great success
To:             	JUSTWATCH-L@LISTSERV.ACSU.BUFFALO.EDU

The IDF bombing in the Gaza strip , that killed many civilians,
was a success according to Sharon.


Daniel
(article not for cross posting)
-------------------------------------------------------------

   The Guardian (London)        July 24, 2002

   Sharon hails raid as great success: International criticism
   of attack that killed 9 children

   BY: Suzanne Goldenberg in Gaza, Brian Whitaker and Nicholas Watt

   Israel faced searing international criticism yesterday after an
   airstrike which tore into a teeming neighbourhood of Gaza City,
   killing a Palestinian militant leader as well as nine children who
   were sleeping nearby.

   As the international community lined up to condemn the attack, the
   United States, normally Israel's staunchest ally, called the missile
   strike "heavy handed". Arab politicians were less mild, describing the
   attack as a war crime and a massacre. The Israeli prime minister,
   Ariel Sharon, had earlier hailed the assassination of the founder of
   the military wing of Hamas, Salah Shehada, as a "great success",
   despite the total death toll of 15.

   An Israeli army statement blamed Hamas. "Regretfully, this is what can
   happen when a terrorist uses civilians as a human shield and their
   homes for places of refuge," it said.

   The Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, called the incident a
   "disgusting, ugly crime, a massacre, a massacre no human being can
   imagine."

   Tens of thousands of Palestinians marched behind the flag-draped
   caskets of 15 people killed by Israeli F-16s yesterday, demanding
   vengeance.

   The British government reacted sharply, calling the attack
   "unacceptable and counterproductive".

   Later, during angry scenes in the Commons when MPs condemned the
   government for exporting arms to Israel, the foreign secretary, Jack
   Straw, promised an investigation into whether the Israeli F-16 used in
   the attack was carrying British military equipment.

   In Washington, the White House spokesman, Ari Fleischer, said that the
   US regretted the loss of innocent lives.

   "The president has said be fore Israel has to be mindful of the
   consequences of its actions to preserve the path to peace, and the
   president believes this heavy handed action does not contribute to
   peace," he said.

   "The president's concern here is that there is loss of innocent lives.
   The president has been and will continue to be the first to defend
   Israel. In this case the president sees it differently." The EU
   foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, said: "This extra-judicial
   killing operation, which targeted a densely populated area, comes at a
   time when both Israelis and Palestinians were working very seriously
   to curb violence."

   The UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, urged Israel to halt such
   actions. "Israel has the legal and moral responsibility to take all
   measures to avoid the loss of innocent life; it clearly failed to do
   so in using a missile against an apartment building," a statement
   said.

   Even stronger words came from the Arab world. Ahmed Maher, the foreign
   minister of Egypt, said the attack was "a war crime in the full
   meaning of the word, in that it clearly targeted peaceful civilians".
   The attack came as Israel's deputy defence minister, Dalia
   Rabin-Pelossof, resigned. Colleagues said Ms Rabin-Pelossof, the
   daughter of former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, was upset at Mr
   Sharon's reluctance to resume peace talks with the Palestinians.
   Although the Palestinians of the West Bank and Gaza had long ago grown
   inured to attacks by Israeli aircraft, Tuesday night's strike marked a
   qualitative change.

   "This is the first time Israel has targeted a building of civilians,
   not soldiers or police," said Nafis Shahlah, the director of Gaza's
   Shifa hospital. "They were going to their homes to sleep."
   Carnage in Gaza, page 3

   Special report on the Middle East at guardian.co.uk/israel


                 Copyright 2002 Guardian Newspapers Limited

_______________________________________________
Nettime-bold mailing list
Nettime-bold@nettime.org
http://amsterdam.nettime.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/nettime-bold