Melanie Phillips has two great posts you should check out: The war against Israel Part 1, Part 2:
...the only reason there aren’t more Israeli deaths than the few score who have been killed and hundreds who have been injured is because around one third of Israel’s population is virtually living in shelters. And the only reason there is such a well-developed network of shelters is because Israel’s citizens have endured a state of siege for half a century from a genocidal Arab world that wants to wipe them off the map. Today, one third of Israel has effectively been shut down. To use this self-protection born of lamentable necessity as an argument that they are not actually the victims of this situation is beyond grotesque...
Buried at the end is this very interesting update concerning the bombing of that UN outpost:
Retired Canadian General Lew MacKenzie — who is speaking in Toronto tonight at a Stand with Israel rally — was interviewed on CBC Toronto radio this a.m. He told the show’s anchor that he had received an e-mail only days before from the dead Canadian observor who was a member of his former battalion. MacKenzie says that the message indicated in effect that the UN position was being used as cover by Hezbollah, who, MacKenzie explained, can do so quite freely as they are not members of the UN and not subject, therefore, to official condemnation. MacKenzie further took issue with the misleading reportage (citing CNN in particular) that suggests that Beirut is being bombarded by the IDF and that the city is in ruins. He said that the bombing is no where near the saturation levels that constitute a bombardment and the IAF have specifically targetted a twelve-block area that is, more-or-less, Hezbollah City, and only after dropping leaflets warning civilians to vacate well in advance of the planned airstrikes.
[via Israpundit]
Some other interesting thoughts on that here.
Update: A comment in the post below:
As an American-Isreali while serving on the Lebenon/Isreal Border just over a year ago in May, our base was pounded with rockets and morters two weekends in a row. The Hezbolah were using the UN bases as cover while not inside the UN Bases were positioned alongside as to prevent us (I was in a tank) from returning fire. Talk about peacekeepers! We all know the UN is a platfrom for promoting terrorisim and the suffering of those who truly want to live peacfully and democraticly.
Update 2: LGF has audio of the Canadian General Melanie Phillips quoted above. Excellent. Really, listen to it. On one of the UN soldiers killed:
We received emails from him a few days ago, and he was describing the fact that he was taking fire within, in one case, three meters of his position for tactical necessity, not being targeted. Now that’s veiled speech in the military. What he was telling us was Hezbollah fighters were all over his position and the IDF were targeting them. And that’s a favorite trick by people who don’t have representation in the UN. They use the UN as shields knowing that they can’t be punished for it.
More concerning Hizballah using UN positions for cover in this post.
If this is true, then it looks like Kofi set them up, to use their deaths against Israel.
The email from the Canadian UN “peacekeeper†has now been revealed. This was a summary of his team’s operations, sent to Canadian TV a few days before they died.
Quotes:
Team Sierra is currently observing both IDF/IAF and Hezbollah military clashes from our vantage point which has a commanding view of the IDF positions on the Golan mountains to our east and the IDF positions along the Blue Line to our south, as well as, most of the Hezbollah static positions in and around our patrol Base. It appears that the lion’s share of fighting between the IDF and Hezbollah has taken place in our area.
Based on the intensity and volatility of this current situation and the unpredictability of both sides (Hezbollah and Israel), and given the operational tempo of the Hezbollah and the IDF, we are not safe to venture out to conduct our normal patrol activities. We have now switched to Observation Post Duties and are observing any and all violations as they occur.
. . . .
What I can tell you is this: we have on a daily basis had numerous occasions where our position has come under direct or indirect fire from both artillery and aerial bombing. The closest artillery has landed within 2 meters of our position and the closest 1000 lb aerial bomb has landed 100 meters from our patrol base. This has not been deliberate targeting, but has rather been due to tactical necessity.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
In other words, Hezbollah had encamped around them, and basically controlled the area - to the point that UN corps could no longer leave their own base!
I believe the term is “human shieldsâ€.
The guy admitted that the “close calls†around his position were valid tactical maneuvers - in other words, there was no other way to get at Hezbullah. The classic hide-behind-innocents strategy we have seen from Hezbollah.
The only question now is why Koffi didn’t order them out of a war zone, since they were not equipped or authorized to defend themselves.
Full text here.