Hezbollah Rockets Haifa
At least eight people have been killed in a barrage of rockets fired into Haifa by Hezbollah. The attack was timed to hit during the morning rush hour.
HAIFA, Israel - Lebanese guerillas fired a relentless barrage of rockets into the northern Israeli city of Haifa during morning rush hour Sunday, killing eight people at a train station and wounding seven others in a dramatic escalation of a five-day-old conflict that has shattered Mideast peace.
Hezbollah's firing of at least 20 rockets at Haifa came after Israel unleashed its fiercest bombardment yet of the Lebanese capital, starting after midnight Saturday. The attack reduced Beirut apartment buildings to rubble and knocked out electricity in many areas of the city.
Within two hours of the 8 a.m. Haifa attack, Israel warplanes retaliated with at least six airstrikes on southern Beirut, blasting the Hezbollah headquarters building and sending a thick smoke cloud over the city.
U.S. officials were monitoring violence in Lebanon hour-by-hour to decide whether to evacuate an estimated 25,000 Americans, possibly to the neighboring Mediterranean island of Cyprus. About 350 people — most of them Europeans — were evacuated Saturday night and early Sunday from Lebanon to Cyprus on Italian military flights.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said there would be "far-reaching consequences" for the Haifa attack. Black smoke rose over the city. Air-raid sirens wailed as the dead and wounded were evacuated. Rockets also hit an oil refinery, gas storage tanks and a busy street during morning rush hour.
Hezbollah's deliberate and ongoing attacks against civilians should be denounced even by the Arab nations. The deliberate hiding of rockets in civilian houses should also be denounced. Where are all the cries for strict interpretation of the Geneva Conventions against Hezbollah? Where are all the screeches about war crimes? BOTH of the actions Hezbollah has chosen are war crimes under the Geneva accords.
Where are all the screams of outrage from the left now?
By MaDr, Sunday, 16 July , 2006 @ 11:09 am
The Left, like the terrorists adapt. We’re support the troops, just not the war. In this case, it’s two-fold. Any commentary from the Left is bound to show their arse, as their legions of anti-Semites are let out of the closet. Also, the last thing they want is any close scrutiny or debate concerning the Conventions. Some might conclude they’re only used to constrain Israel & the US; only. A closer look might expose how unrealistic and contradictory they are.
By Kathy, Sunday, 16 July , 2006 @ 6:45 pm
Hezbollah’s deliberate and ongoing attacks against civilians should be denounced even by the Arab nations.
I agree. And Israel’s deliberate and ongoing attacks against civilians in Lebanon should be denounced even by Israel’s allies, like the United States.
Of course, it’s a bit awkward for the Bush administration to denounce deliberate and ongoing attacks against civilians, considering.
By Gaius, Sunday, 16 July , 2006 @ 7:05 pm
Your moral compass needs calibration. There is a huge difference between tose who intentionally target civilians and those who do it inadvertantly. Sorry you are unable to see the difference.
By Kathy, Monday, 17 July , 2006 @ 4:09 am
But Israel IS intentionally targeting civilians. That’s the whole point of what they’ve been doing. That’s what all the outcry is about. As of yesterday, about 100 Lebanese had been killed, and all but 3 of them were civilians.
By Gaius, Monday, 17 July , 2006 @ 4:37 am
No, they are not. Israel has warned hours before they hit an area, putting theit own pilots at greater risk. They have tried very hard to spare civilians. Hezbollah has chosen to put rockets inside civilian homes. Where’s your outrage? Hezbollah has launched rocket barrages on civilians, where’s you outrage? Hezbollah and Hamas both have not allowed the Red Cross to visit the soldiers they kidnapped. Where’s your outrage. You give the terrorists a pass and blame the ones who are forced to retaliate to acts of war and to war crimes committed against them.
Try applying the standards equally at least.
By Kevin Devereaux, Monday, 17 July , 2006 @ 9:39 am
Kathy,
Israel is not deliberately targetting civilians in either Lebanon or Gaza. What they are striking is Hamas and HezB weapons caches, communications, troops and other infrastructure. Unfortunately Ham and Hez, as a matter of tactics, hide their facilities in heavily populated ares to insure maximun civillian casualties if Isr. strikes those targets. This is a similar tactic to what North Vietnam did during Vietnam, Sadam did in IRaq, and what Iran has done with its Nuc. facilities.
Virtually all of Irans Nuke facilities are burried under cities and towns. When we get past the diplomatic cha-cha and bomb them, the collateral damage (civillan dead), will be very high but that can not be avoided given where the enemy put their assets.
If an enemy military uses civilian buildings for shelter those buildings are fair targets under the rules of War.
Lastly HezB’s rockets are virtually unguided, like the German V-1 in WWII. Fuel them point them and fire them off - they fly unitl they are our of fuel and then they fall on anything under them, most of what Isr. is using are smart/guide weapons aimed at specific buildings….
By Kathy, Monday, 17 July , 2006 @ 4:39 pm
Gaius and Kevin,
You are both rationalizing the indiscriminate killing of civilians. People can find a way to legitimize anything if they really want to, but that doesn’t change the fact it’s a rationalization.
Of course I’m outraged at Hezbollah. They started this whole thing and they probably were hoping for exactly the reaction from Israel that they got. But that doesn’t change the fact that Israel IS deliberately following a scorched earth strategy in the hope that it will turn Lebanese civilians against Hezbollah. It’s a counterproductive strategy, because Israel is actually NOT hitting the areas where Hezbollah fighters and sympathizers are. Read Michael Totten on this. He lives in Lebanon, he is in the midst of this, and he is actually sympathetic toward Israel. But he feels Israel is going about this the wrong way.
As for applying the standards equally, it’s YOU who needs to do that, not me. In your world, everything Israel and the U.S. do in the Middle East (or anywhere, for the U.S.) is fine, even when what they’re doing is exactly the same as what the people on the other side, whom you hate, are doing. If the U.S. is doing it (or in this case, Israel) it’s not wrong, by definition — because, by definition, the U.S. or Israel *cannot* do anything wrong.
By Gaius, Monday, 17 July , 2006 @ 4:42 pm
Your moral equivalence is pathetic. Really, it is.
By Kathy, Monday, 17 July , 2006 @ 5:28 pm
Your moral equivalence is pathetic.
You make my point for me, Gaius. You don’t believe in applying the standards equally. That’s what your “moral equivalence” mantra is all about. You are stating it as plain as day and you don’t even realize it. The U.S. and Israel are inherently superior and thus should not be held to the same moral standards as other countries. Any attempt to actually hold them to the same moral standards as other countries — especially the countries we hate — is labeled “moral equivalence.”
By Kathy, Monday, 17 July , 2006 @ 6:06 pm
Your moral equivalence is pathetic.
In other words, you *don’t* believe in applying the standards equally. And, apparently, you don’t want to be called on it, either.
By Gaius, Monday, 17 July , 2006 @ 6:24 pm
You are the one not applying the standards equally. You see evrything through your Bush hatred glasses.
There is evil in the world. We are not it. Someday, maybe you’ll see it before it is too late for you.
Keep excusing that evil, though and there is little chance you will.