Tuesday, July 25, 2006

Is Israel using White Phosphorus?


Sunday night I watched Anderson Cooper 360 and caught this report by CNN's Karl Penhaul, in S.Lebanon: Penhaul: Just yards away, in the hospital, more civilian casualties maimed in air strikes. Dr Wahid Najir claims the Israelis have packed their bombs w/ chemicals to burn their victims. Dr Najir: This is the effect of what sort of, this is phosphorus. Penhaul: Internatl rules of war forbid the use of weapons that cause indiscriminate suffering, but no specific reference, though, to phosphorus. The Israeli defense forces say its weapons/ ammunition conform to internatl law. I'm unable to get independent confirmation of Najir's allegation, but it's a widely held view here. (well Penhaul, internatl law certainly didn't stop the US from admitting to using in Iraq, now did it?) Penhaul: There's a smell of phosphorus and the wound smells and is black, the doctor tells me. (like this 1st pix) It's really an atrocious war. Only the civilians are suffering." Yes, and plenty of them are. This site has horrific pix and says this: Look if you dare. Maybe Penhaul can confirm this: Forbes magazine is reporting that patients are being admitted to hospitals w/ phosphorus incendiary weapons used by Israel. Kos & TPM is reporting that chemical weapons are being used against Lebanese civilians. Yahoo news is reporting that "cluster munitions" have been used on Lebanese civilians by Israeli artillery. Forbes and the Internatl Red Cross/ Red Crescent Org are reporting that ambulances have been targeted by munitions, despite being clearly marked w/ the giant red cross. Read these lovely Israeli "censorship" guidelines that were just issued which ban reporting of the "use of unique kinds of ammunition and weaponry" in Lebanon. My words from my July 22nd post are haunting me as I write this: "And I have a theory on why the west is really scrambling to get their citizen's out of Lebanon: It is in part b/c they don't want a PR nightmare on their hands about turning their backs on their citizens in crisis, but I think the real reason is this: They don't want western eye-witnesses to relay to us & the media in their native countries what is really going on in Lebanon." So many tried to ignore the reports from Iraq about the US using WP on civilians, until the military admitted it. Let's not ignore these reports coming out of Lebanon... despite what these Israeli rabbis said in '04: "Leading rabbis, among them heads of hesder yeshivot and members of the Yesha Rabbis Council, issued a proclamation stating that Israel's security needs override the welfare of Arab civilians living in the terror-infested areas and that Jewish Law provides that during war time, there is no difference between the populace and the army. If a danger arises to Israeli soldiers or to civilians, Jewish ethics teach that our lives take precedence over others." Well rabbis, there is self defense and then there is collective punishment, and then there are war crimes. Given the unspeakable horrors the Jewish people experienced and endured in WWII (just to name only 1 of the times your people have been persecuted) I would think that you would be experts in distinguishing between them.
Posted by Tina :: 1:08 AM :: 11 Comments:

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