Propaganda canards
In his speeech before Parliament on Monday Jan 12, British Foreign Minister David Milliband declared that the IDF's attack on Gaza is "disproportionate." But, in Helmand province in Afghanistan and formerly in Basra in Iraq, British forces have used exactly the same proportions to fight Islamist rebels. They have used armoured vehicles, tanks, high powered machine guns, canon, and air support against fighters armed only with guns and RPGs. So in relation to the accusation of use of "disproportionate force," I accuse David Milliband, the British Government and the British people of gross hypocrisy. Let your soldiers go out with only guns and RPGs to fight a ruthless enemy, and then we'll consider doing it.
Further, the British have killed many civilians in these actions, partly because it is impossible to prosecute a war against terrorists who are embedded amongst the population without causing civilian casualties. Although I don't know the exact proportions in either case, the IDF in Gaza or the British forces in Helmand, or for that matter the US forces in Iraq, I doubt that the proportions of civilian casualties are very different.
By the way, you cannot accept the exaggerated casualty figures given out in Gaza, because there is no independent verification and further Hamas fighters wear civilian clothes and so are deliberately counted as civilians. Would you accept a casualty figure put out by the Taliban or al Qaeda?
Also, the Palestinians are experts at media distortion, for example the so-called Israeli "massacre" of civilians in Jenin on the West Bank in 2002, where eye-witnesses described Israeli soldiers shooting down civilians, but it never happened! All this of course is just negligible compared to the shedding of innocent blood carried out by the UK and US in bombing raids over Germany during WWII and the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
I once spent an anxious time speaking with a group of Japanese over dinner after I gave a lecture at a research company in Japan. One of them asked me what I thought about the dropping of the A-bombs and I said that I supported it, and that if, as the US argued, it shortened the war and saved ca. 1 million US casualties to take the Japanese islands, then it was justified. I was met with a stoney silence. So it's OK for the US to kill 100,000 or more civilians in one go, but Israel mustn't kill ca. 300 in a war in 18 days. What claptrap!
These accusations of "excessive force," "war crimes" and "massacres" by Israel have been taken up enthusiastically by the Muslim world and by the predominantly liberal West. There is little doubt that these accusations, rarely subjected to careful analysis or independent verification, are based largely on anti-Semitic stereotypes that regard Jews as "demonic," as derived from both Christian and Muslim traditions. However, while I of course deplore and oppose these false accusations, I don't care about them as much as I used to. I prefer to point out that no one is coming to the aid of Hamas in Gaza, not even their few friends, and while the accusations and sensationalism fly, the IDF is busily cleaning up the cesspit that is Gaza from its nest of thugs and terrorists.
Further, the British have killed many civilians in these actions, partly because it is impossible to prosecute a war against terrorists who are embedded amongst the population without causing civilian casualties. Although I don't know the exact proportions in either case, the IDF in Gaza or the British forces in Helmand, or for that matter the US forces in Iraq, I doubt that the proportions of civilian casualties are very different.
By the way, you cannot accept the exaggerated casualty figures given out in Gaza, because there is no independent verification and further Hamas fighters wear civilian clothes and so are deliberately counted as civilians. Would you accept a casualty figure put out by the Taliban or al Qaeda?
Also, the Palestinians are experts at media distortion, for example the so-called Israeli "massacre" of civilians in Jenin on the West Bank in 2002, where eye-witnesses described Israeli soldiers shooting down civilians, but it never happened! All this of course is just negligible compared to the shedding of innocent blood carried out by the UK and US in bombing raids over Germany during WWII and the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
I once spent an anxious time speaking with a group of Japanese over dinner after I gave a lecture at a research company in Japan. One of them asked me what I thought about the dropping of the A-bombs and I said that I supported it, and that if, as the US argued, it shortened the war and saved ca. 1 million US casualties to take the Japanese islands, then it was justified. I was met with a stoney silence. So it's OK for the US to kill 100,000 or more civilians in one go, but Israel mustn't kill ca. 300 in a war in 18 days. What claptrap!
These accusations of "excessive force," "war crimes" and "massacres" by Israel have been taken up enthusiastically by the Muslim world and by the predominantly liberal West. There is little doubt that these accusations, rarely subjected to careful analysis or independent verification, are based largely on anti-Semitic stereotypes that regard Jews as "demonic," as derived from both Christian and Muslim traditions. However, while I of course deplore and oppose these false accusations, I don't care about them as much as I used to. I prefer to point out that no one is coming to the aid of Hamas in Gaza, not even their few friends, and while the accusations and sensationalism fly, the IDF is busily cleaning up the cesspit that is Gaza from its nest of thugs and terrorists.
posted by Jack Cohen at 8:25 PM
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