HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH: FUNDERS FIRST, ACCESS SECOND, TRUTH LAST

In a letter it just delivered to Secretary of State Rice, Human Rights Watch did not once explicitly condemn Israeli actions in Lebanon and did not once use the term "war crime" to characterize them. In the hour of truth HRW has shown itself to be more anxious about its funding and access to power than the lives of hundreds of thousands of Lebanese civilians killed, wounded and brutally displaced by the Israeli vandals.

Read complete article here: http://www.normanfinkelstein.com/article.php?pg=11&ar=274

http://www.normanfinkelstein.com/article.p...

Shredded by Cluster Bombs

Bush and Blair: "Keep It Up!"

By ROBERT FISK

Beirut.

I dropped by the hospital in Marjayoun this week to find a young girl lying in a hospital bed, swathed in bandages, her beauty scarred for ever by some familiar wounds; the telltale dark-red holes in her skin made by cluster bombs, the weapon we used in Iraq to such lethal effect and which the Israelis are now using to punish the civilians of southern Lebanon.

And, of course, it occurred to me at once that if George Bush and Condoleezza Rice and our own sad and diminished Prime Minister had demanded a ceasefire when the Lebanese first pleaded for it, this young woman would not have to spend the rest of her life pitted with these vile scars.

And having seen the cadavers of so many more men and women, I have to say--from my eyrie only three miles from the Israeli border--that the compliant, gutless, shameful refusal of Bush, Rice and Lord Blair of Kut al-Amara to bring this bloodbath to an end sentenced many hundreds of innocent Lebanese to death. As I write this near the village of Blat, which has its own little list of civilian dead, it's quite clear that many more innocent Lebanese are being prepared for the slaughter--and will indeed die in the coming days.

What was it Condoleezza Rice said? That "a hasty ceasefire would not be a good thing"? What was Blair's pathetic excuse at the G8 summit? That it was much better to have a ceasefire that would last than one which might break down? Yes, I entirely understand. Blair and his masters--we shall give Rice a generic title to avoid the obvious--regard ceasefires not as a humanitarian step to alleviate and prevent suffering but as a weapon, as a means to a political end.

Let the war last longer and the suffering grow greater--let compassion be postponed--and the Lebanese (and, most laughably, the Hizbollah) will eventually sink to their knees and accept the West's ridiculous demands. And one of those famous American "opportunities" for change--ie for humbling Iran--will have been created.

Hence, in the revolting words of Lord Blair's flunky yesterday, Blair will "increase the urgency" of diplomacy. Think about that for a moment. Diplomacy wasn't urgent at the beginning. Then I suppose it became fairly urgent and now this mendacious man is going to "increase" the urgency of diplomacy; after which, I suppose, it can become super-urgent or of "absolutely" paramount importance, the time decided--no doubt--by Israel's belief that it has won the war against Hizbollah or, more likely, because Israel realizes that it is an unwinnable war and wants us to take the casualties.

Yet from the border of Pakistan to the Mediterranean--with the sole exception of the much-hated Syria and Iran, which might be smothered in blood later--we have turned a 2,500-mile swath of the Muslim world into a hell-disaster of unparalleled suffering and hatred. Our British "peacekeepers" in Afghanistan are fighting for their lives -- and apparently bombing the innocent, Israeli-style -- against an Islamist enemy which grows by the week. In Iraq, our soldiers--and those of the United States--hide in their concrete crusader fortresses while the people they so generously liberated and introduced to the benefits of western-style democracy slash each other to death. And now the US and UK--following Israeli policy to the letter--are allowing Israel to destroy Lebanon and call it peace.

Blair and his ignorant Foreign Secretary have played along with Israel's savagery with blind trust in our own loss of memory. It is perfectly acceptable, it seems, after the Hizbollah staged its July 12 assault, to destroy the infrastructure of Lebanon and the lives of more than 400 of its innocents. But hold on a moment. When the IRA used to cross the Irish border to kill British soldiers--which it did--did Blair and his cronies blame the Irish Republic's government in Dublin? Did Blair order the RAF to bomb Dublin power stations and factories? Did he send British troops crashing over the border in tanks to fire at will into the hill villages of Louth, Monaghan, Cavan and Donegal? Did Blair then demand an international, NATO-led force to take over a buffer zone--on the Irish, not the Northern Ireland side, of the border?

Of course not. But Israel has special privileges afforded to no other nation. It can do exactly what Blair would never have done--and still receive the British Government's approbation. It can trash the Geneva Conventions--because the Americans have done that in Iraq--and it can commit war crimes and murder UN soldiers like the four unarmed observers who refused to leave their post under fire.

The idea that Nasrallah is going to kneel before a Nato general and hand over his sword--that this disciplined, ruthless, frightening guerrilla army is going to surrender to Nato--is a folly beyond self-delusion.

But Blair and Bush want to send a combat force into southern Lebanon. Well, I shall be there, I suppose, to watch its swift destruction in an orgy of car and suicide bombings by the same organization that yesterday fired another new longer-than-ever range missile that landed near Afula in Israel.

The Lebanese government--democratically elected and hailed by a US administration which threw roses at its prime minister after the US state department claimed a "cedar revolution"--has just caught the Americans off guard, producing a peace package to which the Hizbollah has reluctantly agreed, starting with an immediate ceasefire. Can Washington ignore the decision of a democratic government? Of course it can. It is encouraging Israel to continue its destruction of the democratically elected Hamas government in Gaza and the West Bank.

So stand by for an "increase" in the "urgency" of diplomacy--and for more women with their skin torn open by cluster bombs.

Robert Fisk is a reporter for The Independent and author of Pity the Nation. He is also a contributor to CounterPunch's collection, The Politics of Anti-Semitism. Fisk's new book is The Conquest of the Middle East.

CONDOLEEZZA THE BELLE FROM HELL: "Sorry to Oil the Crimes against Humanity in Qana and the Human Rights Violations by Irgun Zvai Leumi / Likud Terrorist / IDF IAF Nazis in Lebanon but Oil comes First. Fill her Up ????????"

LOBAL OUTRAGE GREETS ISRAEL "WAR CRIME" IN QANA

BEIRUT (AFP) - Israel's air strike on the Lebanese village of Qana sparked global outrage, with the UN Security Council deploring the deaths and Arab and Muslim leaders and thousands of livid protesters in the Middle East branding the assault a war crime.

Diplomats said the United States again forced the emergency meeting of the UN Security Council to water down its statement so that Israel was not openly criticised.

But the statement said: "The Security Council strongly deplores this loss of innocent lives and the killing of all civilians in the present conflict and requests the secretary general to report to it within one week on the circumstances of this tragic incident."

Qatar, which proposed the statement, had wanted to call the attack "deliberate" and to call for a ceasefire.

The statement said: "The Security Council expresses its concern at the threat of escalation of violence with further grave consequences for the humanitarian situation, calls for and end to violence, and underscores the urgency of securing a lasting, permanent and sustainable ceasefire.

The final statement was agreed after the United States announced that Israel has agreed to suspend its air attacks for 48 hours pending an investigation into the Qana bombing.

The 15-nation council met in emergency session at the demand of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora after the Israeli raid left 52 people dead, including at least 30 children.

"We must condemn this action in the strongest possible terms, and I appeal to you to do likewise," Annan told the council.

"I'm deeply dismayed that my earlier calls for immediate cessation of hostilities were not heard, with the result that innocent lives continue to be taken and innocent civilians continue to suffer," he said.

In Lebanon, where the deadlist attack of the 19-day-old conflict killed at least 52 people, more than half of them children, the government accused Israel of war crimes and crimes against humanity as thousands of demonstrators attacked the UN headquarters in Beirut.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was forced to cancel a visit to the Lebanese capital after a furious Prime Minister Fuad Siniora said there was no place for talks without an immediate ceasefire following the strike.

"These aggressions are crimes against humanity and war crimes in all senses of the words," Lebanese Information Minister Ghazi Aridi said. "It is to hide their failure in achieving their military objectives."

Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa said he "strongly condemned Israel's ongoing barbaric attacks on Lebanon, the latest of which is the attack on the village of Qana."

The Organisation of the Islamic Conference said "the latest Israeli massacre amounts to a war crime and shows Israel's contempt for international law and the Fourth Geneva Convention on the protection of civilians in times of war."

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, whose country has been involved in diplomatic efforts to defuse the crisis, called Israel's attack "irresponsible" and reiterated his call for an immediate ceasefire.

Jordan, another regional broker, also strongly condemned the raid. "This criminal aggression is a flagrant violation of international laws," said Jordan's King Abdullah II in a statement.

Iran blamed the bloody attack on Rice's visit to the region.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas condemned the attack and asked the United Nations to oversee an immediate ceasefire, top Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat told AFP.

"Abu Mazen (Abbas) has called the Lebanese president and prime minister and offered his deepest condolences (for) the victims of the crime that was committed by Israel in Qana which he condemned in the strongest possible terms," he said.

Some 2,000 Palestinians protested in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

The United Arab Emirates joined the chorus of condemnations of the "ugly massacre".

"This crime ... provides new proof of Israel's systematic policy of using its destructive weapons to kill in an indiscriminate way and without consideration for international laws and conventions that protect civilians," said Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan.

Rice voiced deep sadness over the loss of "innocent" life in the attack and urged Israel to take "extraordinary care" to avoid civilian casualties.

She pledged to work for a ceasefire as soon as possible but again stopped short of demanding an immediate halt to hostilities. Speaking to reporters in Jerusalem, Rice said it was time to "get to a ceasefire" in Lebanon.

US Under Secretary of State Nicholas Burns said the deaths were "tragic" but that they did not constitute a war crime.

"Not only do we feel sorrow for what happened in Qana, but also a determination that it is really important to remove the conditions that led to that," chief White House spokesman Tony Snow told reporters Sunday.

Israel expressed "regret" over the civilian casualties but rejected increased international pressure for an immediate ceasefire. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the village was a "safe haven" for militants.

It ordered an inquiry into the incident, with one official suggesting the lethal blast could have been caused by Hezbollah explosives.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's personal representative in Lebanon was "deeply shocked and saddened" by the civilian deaths, and called for an immediate ceasefire and an investigation.

In Europe, Finland, which holds the rotating EU presidency, said it was "shocked and dismayed" by the strikes.

"There is no justification for attacks causing casualties among innocent civilians, most of them women and children," it said in a statement, echoing condemnations from Scandinavian and other European countries.

British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett described the Qana raids as "quite appalling" and said Britain had "repeatedly urged the Israelis to act proportionately".

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier expressed "profound pity" for the victims, calling on Israel to observe "proportion" in its attacks and avoid civilian casualties, and reiterating calls for a swift ceasefire.

Britain and Germany issued a joint statement saying the events at Qana "have underlined the urgency of the need for a ceasefire as soon as possible."

French President Jacques Chirac condemned the bombing as an "unjustifiable action which shows more than ever the need to agree on an immediate ceasefire".

Spain announced that Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos, a former EU Mideast envoy, would visit Lebanon on Wednesday out of "solidarity with the Lebanese people and government."

The governments of Italy and Ireland also expressed their consternation, as did Greence, saying: "Nothing can justify the massive slaughter of civilians."

Switzerland said it acknowledged the right of Israel to defend itself but added: "The operations should adhere strictly to the rules of international humitarian law."

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said nothing could justify the Qana bombing, adding that the EU backed an "immediate ceasefire".

Morocco dubbed the attack "odious" and reiterated calls for the international community to press for an end to hostilities.

China "strongly condemned" the attack and reiterated calls for a ceasefire, state media said Sunday. A Chinese national was among four UN observers killed in an Israeli air strike in Lebanon last week.

Around 5,000 protesters marched in Belgium following the attacks, as did more than 600 in Paris.

burs-smc/stu/gd

http://tales-of-iraq-war.blogspot.com

MEANINGLESS WORDS WHILE CHILDREN DIE...

July 31, 2006

WHY MUST THE RIGHT WING SOUND SO BRUTALLY STUPID?

John Chuckman



Just when I thought he had shown a glimmer of statesmanship, Stephen Harper, Canada's prime minister courtesy of just over one-third of the vote, reverted to character. Following Israel's apparently-deliberate targeting of four UN observers in Lebanon, including one Canadian, Harper thought it appropriate to ask, not why Israel killed them, but why the observers were there?

His inspired question reminded me of nothing so much as a rape-case lawyer attacking the victim with questions along the lines of why was she in such a place? at such a time? wearing such a dress?

Condoleezza Rice, Bush's official idiot-savant, gave us a memorable quote last week concerning Israeli barbarism in Lebanon: "We are witnessing the birth pangs of a new Middle East." I wonder what would have been press reaction in America to some high official saying, as the World Trade Center toppled in flames, "We are witnessing the birth pangs of a new America"?

Of course, Condi was keeping her eyes on the big picture, as she tends to do, the picture as viewed from high above the earth where human beings become unseen bacilli in a vast fabric of coastlines and geometric patterns, not close-up where you can distinguish blood-spattered ruins and childrens' limbs snapped like broken bird wings.

You might want to ask Condi why America's murderous assault on Vietnam, where it dropped more bombs than in World War Two, was such a miserable failure rather than the birth of anything? Or why Baghdad, after experiencing American Shock and Awe, has sewers that work only to catch run-off blood from the streets? Perhaps Condi would say they just needed a little topping-up on the bombing to complete the miracle of birth?

Her words came near to the time an Israeli source explained to the world that Israeli pilots were operating now on the principle that ten Beirut apartment blocks would be bombed for every Hezbollah missile launched. A few days after, an Israeli pilot struck gold, killing fifty-seven civilians, including thirty-seven children.

From Israel, came only Goebbels-speak: Hezbollah always hides in just such places. Left unasked and unanswered in the soulless repetitions of this point is: then what kind of a human being would still fire on them?

Israel insists that Hezbollah's missiles are a horror not to be endured.

I'll remind readers that Hezbollah's main "missile" is the Katyusha artillery rocket, not a missile at all, because it is not guided. The Katyusha was designed to be fired in large barrages from mobile, multi-tube launchers to blanket an area, but Hezbollah does not posses these - they would quickly be destroyed if they did - and uses Katyushas as single-launch rockets. Used this way, the Katyusha is a glorified firework, totally inaccurate with a short range and a small explosive charge. Ninety-nine percent of these "missiles" land in the desert or on garage roofs or in parking lots. The few times they have killed anyone were accidents.

Hezbollah has managed to fire a few clusters now in response to Israel's horrific bombardment, but apart from one dramatic incident, killing eight, they have killed few Israelis. We have heard a great deal about a new longer-range rocket, but this is just a bigger Katyusha with a bigger warhead. It also is totally inaccurate.

By comparison, Israel drops 500-pound, high-explosive bombs which are deadly accurate, being hooked into American satellite-guidance systems. It drops them from some of the world's most sophisticated fighter-bombers. An order of American 5000-pound, “bunker-busting,” laser-guided bombs was rushed recently to Israel to help in the good work. Israel also uses American Hellfire missiles, mounted on helicopters or fighter planes. These really are missiles, highly accurate, in the slick words of their manufacturer's sales pitch, they feature “dual warheads for defeating reactive armor, electro-optical countermeasures hardening, semi-active laser seeker, and a programmable auto-pilot for trajectory shaping."

Israel uses some of the world's best long-range artillery pieces, and it fills their breeches with deadly depleted-uranium shells which bring the added gift of long-lived vaporized uranium after exploding. It uses American cluster bombs, the horrible things that dismembered or crippled thousands of Iraqi children. And it now appears to be using the white-phosphorus shells or bombs Americans used in Fallujah to burn flesh in much the same way they used napalm in Vietnam.

Tony Blair, known to Bush insiders as Fluffy the toy poodle, made a showy trip to Washington about his concern over events in the Middle East, the concern apparently focusing on a revolt by his own cabinet. As usual, he got nothing from Bush, except the honor of standing at a podium next to America's first certified-moron president. Blair also got to do a little choreographed turn with Bush at the end of the press conference, allowing the pair to stride out with a ceremonial flourish after somber moments of saying nothing.

British journalists apparently miffed the American crowd because they didn't follow the mindless ritual of standing up when the president is announced, it not being the practice to stand for Blair in London. Even worse perhaps was one British journalist's description of the event as a “press availability” rather than a press conference. It was undoubtedly the most informative comment of the week.

Latuff always tells it like it is.

We're the Good Guys

By Jeff Katz

Shalom,

I am writing this note on Monday afternoon. Yesterday was

the unfortunate incident in Kfar Kana.

I am feeling a little calmer now. You should have seen me

last night and this morning. It has to do with the bombing

in Kfar Kara and the 48 hour "no air strike" truce we agreed

to and Condoleeza's last press conference.

It's like we Israelis are stuck in some Greek tragedy or

some movie that has a sad ending with the hero dying. And no

matter how many times you see it, the ending is always the

same. It seems no matter who Israel is acting/fighting with

on the stage, we always end up being the bad guy and the

crowd hating our guts. The true villain walks off with the

girl and the money. The play is cut short before we get to

finish the job we set out to do. I mean haven't we been in

this situation before, in 1996 in Lebanon. In 2002 in Jenin

(the "massacre")?

Have you seen the air force clips that were aired last

night? They show how the Hizbolla shoot rockets from behind

civilian apartment buildings and then, my friends, you watch

as the truck carrying the rocket launcher drives into a car

park under a house! How the heck does anyone expect us to

clear out these rockets without bombing the house? The

local Lebanese population was warned by Israel to leave the

area three days in advance. Some locals stayed because the

couldn't afford to leave, r were not permitted to leave. I read that Lebanese taxis charge $1000 to go to Beirut. So someone please explain to me whythese locals didn't hide in a building where there were no rockets or any ammo dumps?

This morning the reporter on Sky News asked our former

foreign minister why the Israeli army didn't go house to

house in Kfar Kana and confirm, room by room, just who is in

that room and then determine if that person is a civilian or

a combatant. For god's sake! Give me a break! Kiryat Shemona

was shot with 100 (one hundred) rockets in less than 1 hour

yesterday. Did the Hizbollah go room by room looking for

civilians? If they had the chance, yes they would. They

would find the kids and make sure they shot each one. I know

it. You know it . We just lived through it. It was called

suicide bombers.

Afula Hospital (Emek Medical Center) prepares for War.

I love maps. But I probably have never pointed out or mentioned Afula. It is a small town dead in the center of the Jezreel Valley. It's

famous for "Golani Falafel" and until "Golani Falafel" is

publicly traded on NASDAQ, most of you will never hear of

Afula.

Last week Afula hospital was targeted by Hizbollah long

range missiles. How do I know it was "targeted"? Five rockets

of the 5 shot landed near Afula hospital. There are no army bases or sensitive facilities in Afula. Hizbollah targeted the Afula hospital.



Should you be surprised that Hizbolla targeted a hospital?

Well, they've already targeted Rambam hospital in Haifa and

hit the hospitals in Nahariya and Tsfat. So theyintention-

target our hospitals and the world expects us

to go room by room looking for civilians in Lebanon. But we

covered this topic in the first part of this mail.

Benay [Jeff's wife] volunteers in the Emergency Room of Afula hospital.

She has prepared 300 files for a mass-wounded situation. The

E.R. is in the basement of the hospital and it is built as one

huge bomb and chemical warfare shelter. Funny how there

isn't a single hospital in the Arab world that would even

consider the necessity to build a hospital in a bomb

shelter. Why? Because they know we would never

target a hosptal.

Yesterday the hospital decided to empty out its top floors

and bring all the patients down to the lower levels. Lets

think what this entails. Cancel all unnecessary operations.

Kick out any patient you can. Double up on bed space in the

lower floors and have the staff and patients live and work

in 1/3 of the space they are used to. Wards are now

intermingled. Patient beds are doubled up. Have I mentioned

about privacy, sanitation, confusion.?

Here's a quote from the instruction sheet given by the

hospital's director to the various wards:

- Dept. heads will do their utmost to lower the number of

patients in their departments.

- Social Services will encourage patients to go home.

- The operating rooms will perform only cancer and emergency

operations.

But how does the head of the hospital end her directive?

And here's the part that keeps me going:

"In this war we will be tested as a society, as an

organization (hospital) and as individuals.

Working together, in full cooperation, we will complete the

very complicated task before us:

- to clear the wards

- work in very tight surroundings

- give the best service that we can

- be prepared for a mass-wounded situation."

So what's the part that keeps me going, that makes me proud

of being an Israeli and a Jew? It's the fact that Afula Hospital,

that same hospital being targeted by Hizballah, is used

by Arabs and Jews. It is staffed by Arabs and Jews.

Seventeen percent of its Department Heads are Arabs,

proportionate to their percentage in the total population.

The Moslems and Christians and Druze and Circasians

all work together and treat all their patients equally... and

guess what? That won't change no matter how many rockets

Hizbollah drops on the Afula Hospital. That's what makes

us different from our enemies. That's what's makes me proud.

So you see, we are the good guys. And we have to win.

We're all in this together,

Jeff

Latuff tells the truth again.

Latuff is truly a gifted political artist.

Keep speaking truth to power!