schlemiel, schmuck, sitting duck, soft touch, stooge, sucker, trusting soul, victim, whipping boy, boob, can-carrier, chopping block, chump, dupe, easy mark, easy touch, fool, goat, lamb to the slaughter, mark, patsy, pigeon, prize sap, sacrifice, sap, scapegoat
Sometimes an exaggeration changes not just the degree, but the nature of something. Consider the accusation that Israel fired white phosphorus munitions directly at civilians which *is* a war crime: Israel did use white phosphorus but for smoke and illumination not to kill civilians. There undoubtedly were some people injured by the residue which fell from air bursts of such shells. But the number and severity of these incidents were multiplied beyond measure in Palestinian reports.
White Phosphorous is used by the Russian army, the Chinese Army and the American Army to light up a war zone so that you have less civilan casualties.
Two senior IDF officers are being offered up as scapegoats to satisfy the World's lust for Jewish blood in the aftermath of Operation Cast Lead.
Gaza Division Commander Brig. Gen. Eyal Eisenberg and Givati Brigade Commander Col. Ilan Malka, were the subject of disciplinary action by GOC Southern Command Maj. Gen. Yoav Gallant after headquarters staff found that the men exceeded their authority in approving the use of phosphorus shells that endangered human life, the Israeli government report said.
via israelmatzav.blogspot.com
An Israel Defense Forces brigadier general and another officer with the rank of colonel endangered human life during last year's military campaign in the Gaza Strip by firing white phosphorous munitions in the direction of a compound run by UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, the Israeli government says.
via haaretz.com
much that is alleged is true, but deny a correlative that indict in guilt. In the case of organ bandits there was a problem, but it wasn't the Israeli government that was involved in it. It is an international problem. The white phospherus accusation is much the same.
The finding aknowledges, at least in part, allegations by international organizations. It was contained in a report that the government provided to the United Nations over the weekend in response to last September's Goldstone Commission report.
via haaretz.com
keep in mind this is haaretz.com I am quoting above. The finding does not aknowledge anything of the kind. It merely says two individuals might of gone heavy with their munitions. poor journalism.
Gaza Division Commander Brig. Gen. Eyal Eisenberg and Givati Brigade Commander Col. Ilan Malka, were the subject of disciplinary action by GOC Southern Command Maj. Gen. Yoav Gallant after headquarters staff found that the men exceeded their authority in approving the use of phosphorus shells that endangered human life, the Israeli government report said.
the more they repeat lies the more they think people will believe them: The http://xrl.us/Goldstone-Report was initiated by Organisation of The Islamic Conference and the media failed to explain the accusations were coming from hostile countries that had never recognized Israel's existence. the white phospherus accusation is much like the organ bandit accusation that Ms. Amapour of CNN accused Israel of doing in Haiti getting the idea from the Swedish press:
http://twitter.com/AmanpourCNN/status/8293240218
"Haiti's Prime Minister just told me he has reports confirming child & organ trafficking happening here in Haiti now."
The incident in question occurred on January 15 of last year, two days before the end of Operation Cast Lead, in the southern Gaza City neighborhood of Tel al-Hawa, at a time when the Givati brigade and other Israeli forces were in the area.
In the course of engagement with a Hamas squad, which according to IDF intelligence possessed advanced anti-tank missiles, it was decided to use phosphorus smoke munitions to create cover that would make it harder for the Hamas fighters to see the IDF soldiers.
According to Israeli intelligence, the Hamas forces were stationed in a commanding location from which they could easily see the soldiers and the UNRWA compound that was located between the Israeli forces and the Hamas position.
The munitions disperse hundreds of pieces of felt impregnated with phosphorus and at least some of the pieces fell into the UNRWA compound, causing injury to an UNRWA employee there as well as to two Palestinian civilians who took cover at the location.
Many human rights organizations said that the IDF had illegally used the phosphorus munitions, which are shot from 155 mm. cannon, and that the material caused many burn injuries among the Palestinian population. The IDF responded that the munitions were permitted under international conventions and that similar shells are in use by other Western armies. The army also contended that the munitions were used in locations remote from heavily -populated areas.
If Israel’s intention was to kill civilians, why was the combatant to civilian casualty ratio one to less than two? Certainly if one of the world’s most advanced military intended to kill civilians it could have made that ratio one to five or even one to ten. There are 1.5 million people in Gaza and around 10,000 Hamas militants, so the ratio of militants to civilians is 1:150. If Israel hit civilians intentionally, how on earth did it reduce such a ratio to 1:3 or 2:3 ?
With the conclusion of Operation Cast Lead, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi ordered the convening of five special investigative committees each headed by an officer with the rank of colonel to examine some of the serious allegations leveled against the army. One of the committees examined the use of phosphorus shells.
After three months, at the end of April of last year, then deputy chief of staff Maj. Gen. Dan Harel presented the committees' findings and with respect to phosphorus munitions said that they had found no instances in which shells were fired in violation of orders and in any event, they were fired in open areas.
Nonetheless, the report that the Israeli government gave to the United Nations last Friday explicitly states that the two senior officers were disciplined after one of the investigating committees noted among its findings that they approved the firing of phosphorus shells at Tel al-Hawa "exceeding their authority in a manner that jeopardized the lives of others."
The report to the UN also says that Ashkenazi recently ordered the convening of a sixth committee to examine additional allegations made against the IDF as well as an incident which one of the previous panels had been unable to thoroughly probe.
The investigative teams have been looking into only the most serious and prominent of the allegations made as a result of Cast Lead. This is in addition to military police probes that were carried out, or are still in progress, into about 150 alleged incidents of improper conduct on the part of soldiers involving civilians and Palestinian property during the Gaza campaign.
Some of the incidents were raised in operational IDF debriefings held after Cast Lead, but most came to light following complaints by human rights organizations, individual Palestinian civilians and press reports. Twelve incidents were raised for the first time in the Goldstone Commission report, which was commissioned by the UN Human Rights Council.
In the course of the IDF investigations, about 500 soldiers were questioned and nearly 100 Palestinian civilians were interviewed at the Erez checkpoint on the Israel-Gaza border. As a result of the IDF's investigations, 36 criminal investigation files have been opened so far, but criminal legal proceedings have so far been opened in only one case, in which two Givati brigade soldiers were convicted of stealing a Palestinian civilian's credit card.
via haaretz.com
(IDF Civilain casualties were a low ratio compared to other contemporary conflicts: A United Nations report estimates that worldwide 75% of war casualties are civilians. Some have suggested that the combatant-civilian casualty ratio for America’s recent drone attacks in Pakistan is as high as 1 to 10. Others have suggested that during NATO’s 1999 Kosovo operation, there were four civilian casualties for every combatant casualty. In late December of 2009, an American air strike killed ten civilians in Afghanistan. Although there are valid arguments about the prudence of these operations, no reasonable person argues that these numbers prove an intention to kill Pakistani, Yugoslav, or Afghani civilians. If the ratio alone proves anything it is that there was a policy of reducing civilian deaths, not targeting civilians.)
Dershowitz: Goldstone is a traitor to the Jews
Prominent political commentator and pro-Israel campaigner Professor Alan Dershowitz slammed jurist Richard Goldstone, the architect of a UN report which accuses Israel of Gaza war crimes, calling him a traitor to the Jewish people, Army Radio reported yesterday. Dershowitz and Goldstone were colleagues and close friends for many years before the UN Gaza probe, but once Goldstone published his report the ties between the two were severed. (Haaretz Staff)
via haaretz.com
The International Red Cross has taken a more cautious position than Amnesty International or Human Rights Watch. The IRC web site published a statement on Jan. 17, 2009:
other examples of abuse in the http://xrl.us/Goldstone Report is the assumption to begin with that killing innocent civilians itself is a war crime or an attempt to document an initiation point in hostilities that makes no reference to the eight years of rocket fire or hostages that Gaza has taken part in. Sadly there is so many flaws in the accusation that it becomes a full time job to learn of it. On the internet and in the media people were making allegations before any research had been done.
