New report shows Hamas used more than 100 mosques and hospitals to fire rockets during Cast Lead
Great cover
According to the paper: “The IDF and the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) cooperated with the report’s authors and declassified hundreds of photographs, videos, prisoner interrogations and Hamas-drawn sketches as part of an effort to counter the criticism leveled at Israel in the UN-sponsored Goldstone Report.”
The research group was led by Col. Reuven Erlich, a former Intelligence officer. Erlich was quoted as saying: “By placing all of their weaponry next to homes, by operating out of homes, mosques and hospitals, by firing rockets next to schools and by using human shields, Hamas is the one responsible for the civilian deaths during the operation”.
As an example of how Hamas deliberately used civilian homes as shields, the report quoted a note from Hamas found by the IDF in one home saying: “We are your brothers, fighters in this holy war, and we used your home and some of your possessions. We are sorry.”
Well, it will be interesting to see how extensively this report is covered in the western media. At the time of writing this article, the BBC website did have a report up on the use of human shields in Gaza…about Israeli soldiers allegedly using Palestinians as human shields.
Tags: Israel
March 15th, 2010 at 12:31 pm
Can we expect that the BBC will have this item in their news reports? I wait in breathless anticipation. There is to come a programme by the BBC on the suffering of the children of Gaza caused by the Israelis who ,it is constantly reiterated, that the killed 1400 Gazans during Cast Lead
March 15th, 2010 at 6:10 pm
Why the hell is this report so late?
March 15th, 2010 at 10:42 pm
This report will inevitably get no airtime. The MSM are not interested in giving both sides of the story. It’s so much more effective to demonise just one - the public just get confused if you give them more than one villain to deal with.
OT briefly.
Robin - just started your book, A State beyond the Pale. I am very much enjoying your writing and the clear and elegant explanations of the issues. The 8 points of your historic overview are a very useful device to quickly and clearly understand how past events have led to the current day impasse.
Your book should be required reading for anyone interested in the Israel/Palestine issue.
March 15th, 2010 at 10:44 pm
My goodness! How Goldstone got it so SO wrong!
March 15th, 2010 at 11:40 pm
I was at a meeting in London last week when 3 of the Goldstone committee debated the Goldstone report with Ami Ayalon, a former Israeli Admiral and head of Shin Bet, the intelligence organisation.
One of the committee members was Colonel Desmond Travers, a former Irish soldier who has served on numerous peacekeeping task forces and who has rubbished the finding of the UKs Colonel Tim Collins, the soldier who became well known for his inspirational speech to his men before the Iraq invasion.
Tim Collins, as well as Col Richard Kemp both made observations (as actual combat soldiers), that they believed mosques were used to store munitions by Hamas. Travers actually said last week that as a member of a family whose ancestors had fought the British in Ireland, he doubted very much whether Mosques would have been used as they were ‘too obvious’.
Quite.
March 16th, 2010 at 4:51 am
Robin,
A valiant fight! So clear-eyed and honest, but all to no avail. Israel can do no good because it arouses jealousy by its mere existence. Assertion of Jewish independence is the crime. Israeli failure to join the universal mush is the unforgivable sin. How can Israel’s economic prosperity based upon the capitalist model and the happiness of its people be allowed to exist in such high contrast to the surrounding poverty and oppression!
Robin, I am sorry to say it, but I believe that President Obama will ignite a single battle or small war with Israel so that American soldiers will die, thus causing Americans who support Israel to be forced to choose between Israel and America.
March 16th, 2010 at 1:43 pm
Brought to you courtesy of Barack Obama:
http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=171085
March 16th, 2010 at 3:58 pm
If only the Goldstone Report has been as thorough.
March 16th, 2010 at 7:48 pm
I think we know this report will be totally ignored by the mainstream Western media. A search of Google news using the term ‘Hamas human shields’ revealed:
One mention by Earthtimes
One mention by Christian Broadcasting Network
One mention by Haaretz
Al-jazeera carried a mention of Israelis using a human shield.
On the other hand, unsubstantiated allegations of organ harvesting are eagerly pounced on and published by the western media without even the pretence of due diligence or fact-checking. The bias is rather sickeningly obvious.
March 17th, 2010 at 3:35 pm
“Why the hell is this report so late?” One answer I heard in Israel few months ago was that the government thought that answering the report will elevate the importance of Goldstone internationally and they thought that many were not aware of it or did not care. Sounds unbelievable but this came from a knowledgeable source.
Regarding the Army’s behavior – One Army official said that the Hamas plan was to recreate the accident that happened in Lebanon once when following the Hizballah the Army fired at some house assuming it was empty and civilians were killed [Kana]. That incident stopped the fight.
According to that official – the Army was very careful not to fall into that trap and succeeded. The fight stopped when Israel wanted it to stop and therefore Hamas started with the Goldstone war.
March 17th, 2010 at 8:00 pm
Let me make a short remark: I think Catherine Ashton richly deserved that Netanyahu rejected to meet her today. The fact that Peres chose to accept her for a visit is, from my perspective, bad and needless. Let’s remember: it is somewhat awkward when The Israeli PM meets someone like the Austrian Foreign Minister, but snubs Ashton. It tells more about her than Bibi. Ashton is a #1 enemy of Israel inside the EU. Allegedly many people dislike mistrust and even hate her. The danger is that this mistrust could be transferred on the British corps as a whole. (And I suspect the majority of the members begin to realize that she causes more damage to Europe than benefit. Eventually she prooves just one thing: that it’s not a good idea to trust such an important position on a British diplomat and this can be something that will undermine the British bargaining position in the future when it comes to giving out serious positions in EU circles.)
March 18th, 2010 at 11:14 am
Thank you President Obama
“A man was critically wounded on Wednesday afternoon when a Kassam rocket fired by Gaza terrorists hit the Netiv Ha’asara area.
The casualty was apparently a foreign worker in one of the greenhouses in the area.
He was evacuated to Ashkelon’s Barzilai Hospital.
On Wednesday, two Kassam rockets were launched from the Gaza Strip, landing not far from Sderot.
Following a relatively long period of calm, the Code Red alarm system sounded over Sderot once again, followed by an explosion.”
http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=171296
March 18th, 2010 at 12:25 pm
I was wrong - Netanyahu allegedly did meet Ashton yesterday, but it was Lieberman standing together with her before the press. Bad move.
April 20th, 2010 at 12:44 pm
This is a very good site, I stumbled across it on Google. If there is one thing I could add… The site doesn’t display properly on Kameleon browser, just a tip thats all. I will be checking it out later on this week. Thanks!