More shenanigans by Israel?

xymphora

Friday, August 11, 2006

More shenanigans by Israel?

I read recent reports of the death of a number of Israeli soldiers in northern Israel, and wasn’t much interested. But then I got to thinking. From the report in the Guardian (my emphasis in red):

“Israel yesterday endured the bloodiest day of the war so far when at least 15 people, among them 12 soldiers, were killed in a series of Hizbullah rocket strikes on the north of the country.

The soldiers, all recently called-up reservists, were gathered around two parked cars under a row of fir trees at the edge of an historic cemetery next to the kibbutz of Kfar Giladi, when a barrage of rockets rained down on the northern hills. One landed just in front of one of the cars, gouging a shallow crater in the road. Both cars were left blackened and burnt out.”

and:

“The greatest loss of Israeli life came after sirens sounded at the Kfar Giladi kibbutz at midday yesterday, warning of an imminent rocket attack. The few residents left on site took shelter in a strong room, but the reservists remained where they stood. A heavy barrage of rockets followed, with about 100 Katyushas thundering into the hills around them in 15 minutes.”

and:

“The cemetery is the burial place of Josef Trumpeldor, a Zionist who was killed in 1920 fighting against the Palestinians and is famed in Israeli history for his dying words: ‘It is good to die for our country.’”

and:

“Israel said later that its warplanes had attacked the town of Qana and destroyed the launchers that fired the rockets on Haifa. Qana was the scene of an Israeli attack last Friday in which 28 civilians died. Israel acknowledged that last week's attack was a mistake, but insisted Hizbullah was hiding its launching sites among the town's civilians.”

Are you thinking what I’m thinking? Hezbollah, which can’t hit the broad side of a mountain with its rockets, suddenly becomes Annie Oakley and takes out 12 soldiers at once. Although Hezbollah, contrary to Zionist reports, has been targeting military installations and not civilians, and kills civilians because of the Israeli tactic of using Arab Israelis as human shields by putting its military installations near Arab neighborhoods (the Guardian article is one of the rare instances where this is pointed out, noting: “The most heavily bombarded areas were Haifa's Arab neighbourhoods.”), suddenly Hezbollah fires rockets at a Kibbutz in the countryside, with notable success. Some questions:

• How did Hezbollah know that the reservists would be there, showing a remarkable grasp of intelligence in Israel, or were they just lucky?
• Why did they fire at a holiday resort in the countryside hills?
• How did they develop such pinpoint accuracy?
• Why did the reservists not heed the alarm and take shelter?
• Is it a coincidence that the attack occurred at a Zionist shrine to someone who said “It is good to die for our country.”?
• Isn’t it convenient that Israel attacked Qana in retaliation for the attack, supposedly the site of the rockets, after its infamous ‘mistaken’ attack?

As part of its propaganda war, Israel has fired rockets on its own citizens before, it appears that Israel sent the captured and killed soldiers on a suicide mission into Lebanon to serve as the reason for a long pre-planned attack on Lebanon, Israel has admitted to leaving Hezbollah rockets in Lebanon to cause Israeli civilian deaths, and and Israel has shown a peculiar disinclination towards rocket defense. Is it possible to imagine that the rocket that killed these soldiers was fired from Israel?