Saturday, October 31, 2009
It's nice to see some Israeli military people speaking out publicly on how they fought during Cast Lead. That's been one voice, a knowledgeable voice with real, direct authority, that's been missing all too often. Usually we see political people, academics and hasbara-types. Many of them are very good, but they are not enough, and no one can tell the story better than the people who were there and who made the decisions. Goldstone is bringing them out. More please. Here's Ken Timmerman at Newsmax: Israeli Colonel Refutes Damning U.N. Report
The United Nations and much of the world media have blasted Israel for alleged war crimes during its incursion into the Gaza Strip in January, but one Israeli tank commander is mounting a spirited defense, using declassified video footage from Israel Defense Force drones and commercial media.
The video clips show the extraordinary efforts the IDF made to avoid civilian casualties, at times steering bombs away from their intended targets, because the target had moved into a crowd of civilians.
They also provide graphic testimony of war crimes committed by Hamas. In one scene, an armed Hamas fighter can be seen grabbing a child by the arm holding the child in front of him as he crossed the street.
"He knows that our snipers shoot them when they are in the open, crossing the street," says Col. Ben-Tzion Gruber. "So they grab children as human shields. He knows we don't shoot when there are children around."
In another scene, a Hamas fighter can be seen launching a rocket from the roof of a house, and then calling in neighborhood children to serve as human shields so he can leave before Israeli jets bomb the house. In yet another, a Hamas fighter actually hides behind three children as he shoots at Israeli troops.
In a remarkable sequence filmed by The Associated Press on the ground in Gaza on the Palestinian side, armed Hamas fighters piled into an ambulance with the huge letters "UN" painted on its side as Israeli forces advanced into the street where they had prepared an ambush.
"How many Hamas terrorists will fit into a United Nations ambulance? Count them," Gruber told an audience on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, as he pointed to the fighters and their weapons.
Seven armed fighters piled into the back of the ambulance, some of them carrying bulky antitank weapons.
Shortly after Hamas took over Gaza 2 1/2 years ago, they fired all 500 ambulance drivers and 7,000 teachers in U.N. employ, replacing them with people loyal to them who allowed Hamas to use the ambulances to carry troops and munitions and the schools as rocket launch-sites, Gruber said...
If you google "phosporus gaza" you will get the impression that the case against Israel of using phosporus in Operation Cast Lead was undeniable and undenied.
It's about time that someone who knows what phosphorus looks like when it's used in battle speaks out.
"Gruber also refuted oft-repeated claims by Goldstone that Israel used white phosphorus bombs during the Gaza operation. He showed photographs of real phosphorous bombs exploding, and compared them to actual footage of the bombs Israel used in Gaza. “We did not use phosphorus. Period. We used smoke bombs. You could walk through the cloud of smoke without feeling anything.”"
Why wasn't the world media inundated with this type of statement in January 2009 when the allegations were first made?
It's ironic that anti Semites often claim that Jews run the world's media, yet they can't seem to get statements like the above in prominent positions in the world's press.
Israel needs to sack its PR people and get people who know how to use the system.
It took UN Watch to organise Col. Richard Kemp to set the record straight on the IDF's actions in Gaza. Why wasn't Israel on the front foot in marshalling military people to defend the IDF's reputation?
I agree totally with comment #1. The thing is that Israel is damned if it does and damned if it doesn't. If the IDF makes its case, most commentators in the press will just dismiss it; if it doesn't, that's taken as an a tacit admission of guilt.
Then there's the problem of the media outlets themselves. What if they show disbelief or a simple unwillingness to cover the IDF's findings? Or what if they give minimal coverage only to dismiss the IDF's claims?
I suppose the IDF could concentrate on sympathetic or at least open outlets. I'd hate to think the media war is already lost.
Joanne,
or a simple unwillingness to cover the IDF's findings?
The NYT's Erlanger back in 2006, after the fighting in Lebanon ended, admitted at a conference in Jerusalem that when the IDF wanted to take him into Lebanon to see the humanitarian work being done with wounded Lebanese he refused because he was not interested.
The link to that
Erlanger told the panel he turned down an offer by the IDF Spokesperson Unit to gain access to IDF efforts aimed at enabling humanitarian aid to reach Lebanon, saying he was not interested in the story.
is in this example of what Israel can expect from the media:
ERLANGER, JUDGE AND JURY, NOT REPORTER
The New York Times Jerusalem Bureau Chief, Steven Erlanger, made clear that he did not see his job as reporting the war as experienced in Israel but as judging whether Israel ran the war the way he thought appropriate.