(Updated Feb. 1, 09)

No. In fact Israel does its best not to and has to a large extent succeeded.

Seeing things

Viewers have seen an enormous number of camera images showing the wounded being taken to hospitals. We have seen them hastily being bundled into cars and ambulances. Then hurriedly being removed from the ambulances and taken into the hospitals.

As one who watched news times on Al Jazeera, CNN, BBC, Sky and Fox I wonder how come I did not see one wounded person in female garb being taken from the street into an ambulance? Did you? It certainly seems the Palestinians are still up to their filming tricks. Here is comment from a doctor who closely examined a video aired on CNN.

“I’m no military expert, but I am a doctor and this video is bullsh*t. The chest compressions that were being performed at the beginning of this video were absolutely, positively fake. The large man in the white coat was NOT performing CPR on that child. He was just sort of tapping on the child’s sternum a little bit with his fingers. You can’t make blood flow like that. Furthermore, there’s no point in doing chest compressions if you’re not also ventilating the patient somehow. ”˜Note that they say the boy is dead, but still try reviving him…bad acting`.”

Chaos

This is not to suggest that Israel has not killed civilians. Even though they are certainly not on Israel`s target list, the death of civilians in a war zone is unfortunately inevitable. (As are deaths by friendly fire in every war.)

Col. Richard Kemp, a senior British advisor on military issues who was recently interviewed on BBC explained that there were chaotic episodes in every war. He clarified that mistakes were made in all armies (British and American too) and that chaos was part and parcel of war. Civilians who were used as human shields were particularly vulnerable. Apparently even the best trained soldiers make mistakes, there seldom being enough time for perfect decisions when the battle rages.

Kemp was obviously familiar with the military codes of behavior of the Israeli Defence Force. Answering the interviewer he said, “I don’t think there has ever been a time in the history of warfare when any army has made more efforts to reduce civilian casualties and deaths of innocent people than the IDF is doing today in Gaza.” This was not what the interviewer had expected. She was clearly taken aback. I imagine the BBC will not invite Col. Kemp to opine again as an expert witness on the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Targeting civilians

Hamas rocket and mortar fire have always been deliberately intended to kill Israeli civilians. Israel, on the contrary, has only intended to kill Hamas terrorists. Yet it is Israel which is under threat of being tried for war crimes. None of Israel`s indignant accusers have threatened Hamas with war crimes for firing on Israeli civilians these past 8 years. Talk about selective judgment!

The people of Israel are not bloody minded and its army genuinely sees no point in killing the enemys innocent civilians. Indeed, we believe this to be immoral and reprehensible. Nor is there any military benefit whatsoever - in fact its 100% counter productive. Israel is right to apologize for such killings. Have you ever heard a Hamas leader apologize?

Civilian shields

The number of Hamas civilian deaths would have been minimal were it not for their civilians in the war zones. Most such deaths were the result of firing at Hamas who were literally hiding behind their civilian shields in homes or buildings. Incredibly, dead civilians began to constitute a military advantage for Hamas: the more killed or wounded claimed, the more potent their TV propaganda. These images became a weapon far more effective than the Hamas military. A reminder that one should never underestimate the power of TV images to influence world opinion.

Odious comparisons

Remarkably, the horrendous number of civilian deaths in the US led coalitions war on Iraq never created similar interest in world media. The TV reporting during the Iraqi war does not compare with the insatiable interest to depict Israel as a slavering aggressor ”“ never as a brave defender. Compared to the approximately 1,300 dead in Israels short war on Hamas, a mere 98,521 civilian deaths were reported in the war on Iraq for the period 2003 to December 2008!

The millions of civilians killed in other troubled areas ”“ Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Darfur, Sudan, Central African Republic, Somalia, Rwanda, Angola, Congo, Chechnya, Colombia, to name a few of the killing fields, is staggering. Nevertheless, the worlds journalists never descended en masse to any of these countries. Nothing to compare with their irrational preference for reporting Israels punitive mini wars against Hezbollah and Hamas terrorists.

What accounts for UN Secretary General, BanKi Moon, and UN Human Rights investigator, Richard Falk`s disproportionate interest in Israel’s mini wars? Neither has shown any similar interest in the numerous genuine civilian massacres, near genocidal bloodletting, and serious war crimes committed in the abovementioned countries?

Falk has become widely known for his anti-Israel stance, so we are not surprised. But Moons hounding of Israel is upsetting. He fulminates against Israel yet is disinterested in the indiscriminate slaughter and mayhem in Sri Lanka, Darfur et al. Such prejudiced criticism from the UNs secretary is unwarranted and offensive. It is entirely unacceptable from someone who should be neutral. (Is he perhaps unnerved by the 57 Islamic countries who are members of the UN?)

Crusading journalists

Hamas proudly marched and arrogantly challenged Israel to come and get them. Their propaganda attempted to frighten Israeli soldiers with a menu of blood and guts that awaited them. They drooled at their vision of Israel`s soldiers being decimated by their ingenious, deadly booby traps and carefully planned ambushes.

When, after being showered by thousands of rockets and mortar fire for 8 years Israel finally cried “enough!” the world`s journalists fell over themselves in their scramble to get to Israel. Their media ratings stood to increase no matter what followed. If the Arabs gave Israel a bloody nose they would be praised for their courage. If Israel killed too many Hamas they could and did depict us as brutal Nazis deserving to be tried for war crimes. They just love to compare Jewish actions to that of Nazis even though this can never be true.

By and large the journalists did not bother to hide their preference for the so called “downtrodden” Palestinian refugees in Gaza. So called because over 80 percent have lived all their lives in Gaza! Yet for the past 60 years they have been forced by their co-religionists to remain downtrodden. They live by the charity of the United Nations and ironically, also depend on the generosity of their hated enemy Israel, for water, electricity, fuel, gas, medical supplies and much else. How they bite the hands of those who feed them.

Hamas` victory

To no one`s surprise Hamas has claimed victory. Allow me to wish them similar success next time round.

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Jock`s note:

The grand total of civilian deaths from 6 years of violence in Iraq is documented at 98,521. Not all caused by the Coalition armies. Death from other violence (roadside bombings etc) is included. Here is the monthly table extracted from Wikipedia. The year on year total is 98,521.

	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008
Jan	3	576	1023	1430	2796	742
Feb	2	584	1189	1448	2494	977
Mar	3976	957	779	1767	2569	1538
Apr	3437	1256	1020	1589	2403	1260
May	545	619	1224	2097	2734	759
Jun	594	832	1215	2426	2086	669
Jul	649	762	1438	3150	2536	583
Aug	791	823	2165	2743	2325	591
Sep	551	943	1324	2406	1221	535
Oct	491	947	1199	2918	1185	526
Nov	479	1532	1201	2967	1043	467
Dec	529	906	989	2658	903	430
	12,047	10,737	14,766	27,599	24,295	9,077

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 25th, 2009 at 1:59 am and is filed under Civilian Casualties, Palestine Israel Conflict. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.