Off-target Missile Strike Sparks Outrage Contributed by Bill Faith
Israeli Attack on Lebanese Village Kills at Least 56, Sparks Outrage
QANA, Lebanon — At least 56 people, more than half children, were killed Sunday in an Israeli airstrike on Qana, the deadliest attack in 19 days of fighting, which shot the overall death toll over 500. Infuriated Lebanese officials canceled a planned visit by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who returned early to Washington with her diplomatic mission derailed.
Rice, in Jerusalem for talks with Israeli officials, said she was "deeply saddened by the terrible loss of innocent life" in Qana but stopped short of calling for an immediate end to the hostilities. However, she made one of her strongest statements yet saying: "We want a cease-fire as soon as possible."
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A tragic situation. An accident, or perhaps faulty intelligence. The world is "outraged." How much longer will Hezbollah and Hamas continue to deliberately target Israeli civilians before the world gets around to being upset about that?
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From :
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The question is, what were the people doing there? Residents in this region and specifically the residents of Qana were warned several days in advance to leave the village. Now, what could be the most important part of this entire story from Qana... Many people are working to confirm this now, but this video shows Hezbollah terrorists firing rockets from behind a three-story building which looks remarkably similar to the building destroyed in Qana:
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The Jerusalem post has more .
Civilian casualties and the dual racism By TigerHawk
An Israeli airstrike has killed a -- more than 50 -- including a large number of children. This is a great tragedy, but the Israelis say that Hezbollah was firing rockets at Israeli civilians from the village that Israel hit -- since the beginning of the conflict. There is not yet any reason to doubt Israel on this. Nevertheless, leaders of countries that have done worse are protesting, and Condoleezza Rice has postponed her next trip. They are pandering to the worldwide hatred of Israel. On the facts known this morning, culpability may just as easily lie with Hezbollah. Of course, it should never go unsaid that Hezbollah targets Israeli civilians without even bothering to justify its attacks on them as incidental to a military purpose. Killing Jews is quite sufficient, thank you very much. Every launch of every Hezbollah rocket into every Israeli city should earn similar denunciations, but they do not. Why? The dual racism that holds Israel to a higher standard than the rest of the world, and Arabs to a lower one. ...
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Don't miss Donald Sensing's comments .
U.S. State Department: Israel Has Right to Defend Itself
WASHINGTON — The Bush administration on Sunday urged Israelis to avoid civilian casualties in the fighting in Lebanon and expressed sorrow about the deaths of at least 56 civilians in a village in southern Lebanon.
ButWhite House spokesman Blair Jones reaffirmed the administration's insistence on reaching a sustainable cease-fire.
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The administration has insisted that any cease-fire come with conditions to address long-standing regional disputes, including the insistence by Israel that Hezbollah be disarmed — something the Lebanese government has been unable to do.
"We want to avoid a situation where we essentially put a Band-Aid on something," Burns said. "We have to a have view of a sustainable cease-fire. We have to make sure Hezbollah is not allowed to be in a position to strike again."
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From :
This just in... It's widely reported that the residents in the area, as well as in Qana specifically, were told repeatedly to leave. The question one has to ask, is why did this happen under the circumstances? Who benefits by the large loss of civilian life? The answer is clearly Hezbollah, which uses human shields, and their sponsors in Syria and Iran. Israel dropped leaflets warning residents that airstrikes were on the way. We have obtained the text of that leaflet which was dropped by the Israelis as well as a scanned image of what one of these leaflets looks like:
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See also CQ:
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Outside the Beltway has more , including video of Israel's UN ambassador on Meet The Press this morning.
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Coverage of this topic continues at
Contributed by Bill Faith on July 30, 2006 at 10:16 AM in , |
Comments
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The IDF has video of rockets being launched right by that building just prior to their sending that rocket in. There is no doubt that Hezbollah is hiding behind women and children and that they will do whatever is necessary to make themselves appear the victims. The citizens of Qana were told to leave because there would be bombing there and the only reason I can think of why someone (especially women and children) would stay is because they had no choice. They could very well have been forced to stay there.
What Hezbollah wants is for everyone to forget that it was their bombings and their kidnapping of the Israeli soldiers that started this specific battle. Those children would be alive if Hezbollah has disarmed according to UN treaty when Israel left Lebanon years ago.