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<a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/heller04012009.html" eudora="autourl">
http://www.counterpunch.org/heller04012009.html<br>
</a></font><font face="Verdana" size=2 color="#990000">April 1,
2009<br><br>
</font><h1><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4><b>Tales of War
Crimes <br><br>
<br>
</i></font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=5 color="#990000">
Thank God, It Was Only Rumors
</b></font></h1><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4>By STANLEY
HELLER <br><br>
<br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=6 color="#990000">M</font>
<font face="Verdana" size=2>ilitary Advocate General Brig. Gen. Avichai
Mendelblit has instructed the Military Police Investigation unit to close
the inquiry into Israeli soldiers' accounts of serious violations of the
army's rules of engagement during the Gaza Massacre or as the IDF so
winningly calls it: “Operation Cast Lead”. It turns out the General
discovered all the charges "were based on hearsay and not first-hand
experience." Just a bunch of rumors.<br><br>
Thank God for that. Those shells were just rumors, the ones that hit the
U.N. warehouse and the al-Quds Hospital. It wasn’t white phosphorus. The
jellyfish-like white tentacles that are a signature for a white
phosphorus burst were probably a Palestinian fireworks display. The Abu
Halima family was wrong. There was no shell that exploded in their house
killing four children.
<a href="http://www.hrw.org/en/features/rain-fire-white-phosphorus-gaza">
Human Right Watch</a> made a mistake. It must have been a sandstorm or a
jinn. <br><br>
Stories that Israeli soldiers wrecked and defiled Palestinian homes were
obviously urban legends. After claiming to visit one home near Jabalya
camp Israeli newspaper columnist
<a href="http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1068989.html">Amira Hass
wrote</a>, <br><br>
</font>
<dl>
<dd>“There are houses where excrement was smeared on the walls, or where
dry piles of it were found in corners. In many cases, the smells
indicated that soldiers had urinated on piles of clothing or inside a
washing machine. In all the houses the toilets were overflowing and
clogged, and there was filth all around. When the Abu Eidas returned to
house No. 5 in Jabalya, they discovered pots of urine and excrement in
the refrigerator.” <br><br>
</dl>Where did she come up with this tall tale? The courageous Israelis
who commented on her article nailed her good, “What Propaganda”, said
Gershon Reed” , “Yes, Amira War is Hell”, said Baruch Gold. “More Hamas
Propaganda”, said “Rambo”.<br><br>
In an effort to clear up confusion Israeli army chief Gabi Ashkenazi
announced, "I can say that the IDF is the most moral army in the
world." Well there you have it. It comes from the Chief of Staff,
himself. The International Red Cross complained that the Israeli army was
firing on ambulances. No doubt the charge is a lie. An Israeli
handwritten order on a piece of paper that stated:
“<a href="http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1072830.html">Rules of
Engagement: Open fire also upon rescue</a>’, was obviously just a joke.
Have humanitarian organizations no sense of humor?<br><br>
Amos Harel, the Haaretz military affairs reporter, tells about the
testimony given to Danny Zamir who interviewed soldiers who had graduated
from his pre-military preparatory program at Oranim Academic College and
who had fought in Gaza. Zamir claimed that soldiers told him accounts of
soldiers killing a woman and two of her children, shooting and killing an
elderly Palestinian woman, and destroying property at will.
<a href="http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1072475.html">Supposedly a
soldier told Zamir</a>, "That what's great in Gaza, you could say -
you see someone walking down a track, not necessarily armed, and you can
simply shoot them. In our case, it was an elderly woman.” Obviously Harel
or Zamir made it all up.<br><br>
In <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1074218.html">another
article</a> Harel brings up testimonies about the army’s use of the
so-called "neighbor procedure". What’s wrong with asking a
Palestinian to invite his neighbors to come out for a polite chat with
the Israeli army? Harel says Israeli soldiers force Palestinians to do
this. Nonsense. Hearsay. Baseless slander. Israelis don’t take human
shields. By definition that’s only something Arabs do.<br><br>
Another Haaetz columnist
<a href="http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1072821.html">Gideon Levy
wrote</a>, “An army whose armored corps has yet to encounter an enemy
tank and whose pilots have yet to face an enemy combat jet in 36 years
has been trained to think that the only function of a tank is to crush
civilian cars and that a pilot's job is to bomb residential
neighborhoods.” What does Levy know? An old woman could be a suicide
bomber. A six year old could be a suicide bomber. So the IDF destroyed
<a href="http://www.palestinemonitor.org/spip/spip.php?article807">20
ambulances</a>. Ambulances could be carrying terrorists. As a U.S. bumper
sticker said in Vietnam days, “Kill ‘em all and let God sort ‘em
out.”<br><br>
Bleeding heart Amnesty International bellyached about the
<a href="http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1072821.html">use of
flechettes </a>in Gaza. “Flechettes are 4cm long metal darts that are
sharply pointed at the front, with four fins at the rear. Between 5,000
and 8,000 are packed into 120mm shells which are generally fired from
tanks..” They are “ anti-personnel weapon designed to penetrate dense
vegetation”. Well, doesn’t Israel have to fight the terrorists who hide
in Gaza’s vast jungles? Amnesty claims Wafa' Nabil Abu Jarad, a
21-year-old pregnant mother of two, was one of those killed by flechettes
in Gaza. Where does it come up with this science fiction?<br><br>
Since the IDF is a most moral army the photos of hateful graffitti
soldiers allegedly wrote on houses in Gaza were necessarily faked.
Journalist
<a href="http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1071651.html">Amira Hass</a>
says there were sentences like “We came to annihilate you; Death to the
Arabs; Kahane was right; No tolerance, we came to liquidate.” She writes
about scribblings cursing the prophet Muhammad. Clearly bogus. So what if
the graffiti “appears alongside the names of army units and individual
soldiers.” Hasn’t she heard of Photoshop? <br><br>
And where did the Israeli journalist Uri Blau come up with
<a href="http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1072466.html">this dubious
report</a>? “Dead babies, mothers weeping on their children's graves, a
gun aimed at a child and bombed-out mosques - these are a few examples of
the images Israel Defense Forces soldiers design these days to print on
shirts they order to mark the end of training, or of field duty.” He
claims “A sharpshooter's T-shirt from the Givati Brigade's Shaked
battalion shows a pregnant Palestinian woman with a bull's-eye
superimposed on her belly, with the slogan, in English, 1 shot, 2 kills.’
He even has a photo. Still, he must have made a mistake. The most moral
army in the world doesn’t shoot pregnant women. It wouldn’t brag about
its cruelty on casual wear. Givati Brigade T-shirts no doubt feature
purple bougainvillea flowers emblazoned with the slogan “Purity in
Arms”.<br><br>
Stanley Heller</b> is host of
“<a href="http://www.www.TheStruggle.org">The Struggle</a>” TV news
magazine Contact him at
<a href="mailto:mail@TheStruggle.org">mail@TheStruggle.org</a><br><br>
<br><br>
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