Human Rights Group: IDF Uses Citizens as Human Shields
The Jerusalem Post reports:
The IDF allegedly forced Palestinians to serve as “human shields” during searches of homes in the Gaza Strip, according to soldier testimonies that will be released to the public Wednesday in a new report accusing the army of war crimes during Operation Cast Lead.
Yeah, yeah. We know the drill by now. Whenever Israel defends itself against Palestinian terrorism, it are the latter who are the victims and the former who are the aggressors. It’s always the same.
The report was compiled by Breaking the Silence, an organization established several years ago by IDF veterans to collect testimonies of soldiers who have participated in operations in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
That changes the story somewhat, I suppose.
Or does it?
The IDF Spokesman said in response to the report that it was regretful that a human rights organization such as Breaking the Silence had again issued a report that contained anonymous testimonies without checking their veracity and without allowing the IDF, with minimal decency, the opportunity to review the findings prior to publication.
Quite right. As long as this organization fails to identify or at least back up the claims made by its ‘witnesses,’ we should simply ignore its report.
If these soldiers had the ‘courage’ to talk to Breaking the Silence, they should also have the courage to defend their claims in public.
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As I read it: one soldier and one incident. Details of that one incident unclear. A dramatic headline for so little content
The IDF committed great atrocities in Gaza. It’s catching up to them now.
Be wary of unverified reports, but don’t take a critical eye away from either Israel or Palestine. That is the key, I think.
“The IDF committed great atrocities in Gaza.”
– - –
The IDF showed huge restraint in Gaza. Again. To their ultimate detriment.
Whenever you wonder which side in a dispute holds the true moral high ground, look to the frequently-repeated themes and stories coming out of each side. When you see that one side has developed a concerted response to any criticism consisting of telling outrageous lies about the other side, you’ve generally found the pond scum.
Remember the “massacre” in Jenin? And all of the other hysterically-sobbed-to-the-camera stories of massacres, and mothers and kids shot down, and wedding parties wiped out, and ambulances targeted with missiles? Remember that famous heart-tugging series of photos of quite a few different places that had been bombed, with kids’ toys scattered all about each one and the theme of “they’re targeting kids!”, that someone finally noticed had the exact same kid shoe, and the exact same set of toys, in each and every picture?
Remember the film of the small boy “shot by the IDF” during a street battle?
Remember the ambulances picking up wounded, who jumped out and returned to the fight when the ambulances got out of camera range (they thought)? (Heck, not a story anymore, now it’s a theme.)
Remember one side that puts armed missile-launchers amongst crowds of women and kids? Think they do it because everybody wants to watch?
This poster knows to continually repeat the exact same words, probably on many, many blogs daily, and knows to avoid responsive argument, because it really works – repeat something untrue enough times, and it becomes a societal truth.