The Osterley Times: Olmert: "All residents were asked to leave"

Monday, July 31, 2006

Olmert: "All residents were asked to leave"

It was an attack that was so shameful that even the US couldn't bring itself to veto a UN resolution condemning it.

Having yesterday killed more than 60 civilians- including 34 children - in an attack strangely reminiscent of the Israeli strike ten years ago on this same town of Qana in 1996 which left 102 people dead as they sheltered in a UN compound, the Israelis have finally agreed to a 48 hour cessation of air strikes.

However, Israel still reserves for herself the right to kill:

"If we see a missile, we will shoot it," (Asaf Shariv, a spokesman for the Israeli Prime Minister) said. "If we see a launcher, we will shoot it. If we see the Hizbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, for sure we will shoot him. Ground operations are continuing."

So we shouldn't kid ourselves just how much of a reprieve has been won here. However, we can ask - if the Israeli campaign of cruelty against the civilian population of Lebanon is to continue - just how effective has the campaign so far been? What has actually been achieved to justify this level of civilian deaths?

Yesterday Hizbullah fired 140 rockets into Israel, the largest number it has ever launched in a single day, giving some indication of the effectiveness of the Israeli campaign in reducing the attacking power of Hizbullah. Zero, nil, zilch, nada.

The Israeli campaign for all it's vicious cruelty is having no effect on their enemy who's ability to attack seems to increase with each Israeli onslaught.

However, the Israelis are at pains to point out that this is not a ceasefire and that the onslaught will continue in 48 hours.

Just prior to Rice's press conference, Justice Minister Haim Ramon said the 48-hour suspension of air strikes did not mean the war was about to end but should lift some pressure on Israel.

Ramon told Army Radio: "This (suspension) decision will allow us to continue the war over time and it will take off some of the political pressure, so I am sure this is the right decision for now. It is not stopping the war.

"If it ends today it means a victory for Hezbollah ... and for world terror, with far-reaching consequences. Therefore this war is not about to end, not today and not tomorrow," he said.

And so the war, if Israel gets her way, will continue. For no better reason than Israel cannot be seen to lose. However, Israel is demonstrably losing, so one can only imagine - employing Ramon's logic - that the killing must simply continue until Israel can find something, anything, that they can hold up as signifying victory.

It is unlikely, after yesterday's atrocity, that the world will accede to that request. Israel appear, as they did in 1996, to have overplayed their hand and shown too little consideration for the safety of civilians for their operation to be allowed to continue.

The condemnation world wide has been unanimous.

Tony Blair said the Qana attack was "absolutely tragic [and] showed the necessity of wrapping this entire process up now".

Mr Blair and the German chancellor Angela Merkel last night issued a joint statement trying to bridge the differences that have emerged between Britain and the EU. "The tragic events of today have underlined the urgency of the need for a ceasefire as soon as possible. It is now necessary to work in New York [at the UN Security Council] on the preconditions for such a ceasefire.

Further condemnation poured in from the Middle East, Europe and the UN. Jordan's King Abdullah described Qana as "an ugly crime". Syria and Iran, accused by the US and Israel of arming and financing Hizbullah, also weighed in. "The massacre ... constitutes state terrorism committed in front of the eyes and ears of the world," Syrian president Bashar al-Assad said.

Ms Rice appeared shaken when news of the bombing broke: "I think it's time to get to a ceasefire. We actually have to try and put one in place," she said.

Yesterday Ehud Olmert maintained:

That Israel had "no policy of killing innocent civilians," but he stopped short of an apology. The Prime Minister told his regular Sunday cabinet meeting: " All residents were ... called to leave.

There can be few people left who believe him. For the charge is not that Israel deliberately sets out to kill civilians, it is that Israel simply doesn't take adequate preventative steps to ensure that civilians are not killed during their operations. Indeed, Olmert's comments that "All residents were asked to leave" makes very clear where he believes the blame for this atrocity truly lies.

He's blaming the civilians themselves. For the crime of being in their own homes.

Olmert, and indeed the entire IDF, appear to have totally lost the plot. Surely now, even Bush must finally raise his hand and say, "Enough".

Sadly, I have no confidence that he will do so. The United States is still, at this moment, refusing to call for a ceasefire.

This is the BBC coverage from yesterday, before the full death toll was actually known.