I’ve been watching and reading the American news and everyone seems to be saying that Israel are the bad guys and that we are being to harsh. But its not that way. We have been warning the Lebanese to leave so that we don’t hurt them while we fight. The terrorists have been hiding in civilians houses and using them as shields and when those shields are killed we are blamed as harsh. I read that dozens of Palestinians have died in attacks while only ten Israelis have but I don’t pity the Palestinians. We fight wars for 3 of our people, they don’t care even for one. Is there any way to get the media to realize the truth?
I don’t think that’s really a fair question. In war people get hurt, and sometimes innocent people die too. To the families of the people who died, we will always seem “harsh”. The real question is, are we doing the right thing? It seems to me that we are, and unfortunately the situation may require killing innocent people.
The difference is in whether non-combatants are *targeted* or are caught in the crossfire. Terrorists target civilians. Legitimate military actions - including those taken by the US and Israel - don’t.
there is an article on Aish.com that is about facts and myths of the war. It includes a discussion of civilian deaths. You might be interested in it. I’ll bli neder post a link.
well, to be honest i know very little about the circumstances but i was watching cnn on sunday when the whole incident with Qana came out and i must say that they did… sorta… hit all sides of the matter over the course of the many hours i watched it. im not saying that they didnt give a bias cuz they did semi imply that the Isrealis were in the wrong with that and I dont know all the facts from the rest of it for various reasons but who knows what the real story is. there cant really be a media or person without some bias even if they try to
I think (from what I’ve seen) that CNN is very pro-arab (now I’ve started watching fox news instead)
With the Qana incident, that looked pretty bad for Israel b/c so many civilians were killed (I’m not saying Israel was wrong, Hizbullah is hiding among the civilians, but I’m just guessing that the incident didn’t win Israel favor in the eyes of the public)
I have heard that CNN is anti-Jewish as well. I never use them as a news source. I actually heard several years ago that they are pro-Arab. NBC is very good as of the last time I watched tv. I dont watch tv as I dont have a tv in my apartment, and when I am at home, I have better things to do.
to defend y i watched them is cuz i was in europe and so if i wanted news in english i was VERY limited… though at home i never watch it… i do CBC but thats just cuz its more local.
and as i said… i saw the day with Qana which didnt help our cause at all
I dont really read the newspaper or listen or watch to the news. It is all repeats and the same. It never changes. To keep updated, the newspaper headlines, headlines on Comcast and AOL do the job. The past year I subscribed to the Chicago TRibune because at Jewel the lady wouldnt let me go until I signed up for a subscription, when all I wanted was the newspaper. Honestly, I only get the newspaper for the ads and coupons. THe news stays the same day after day. It eventually becomes redundant.
Anyways what was the Qana incident?
in a nutshell, the Qana incident was that the Isrealis were sending bombs into Lebanon territory. one hit a building in the town of Qana where many women and children were taking refuge. these people had been told to get out of the area as much as 2 days beforehand, if i remember my story correctly, and since they didnt and they are in a war zone… it is true that they probably didnt have a very easy time in getting out but they were warned. also since Hezbollah was sending rockets from that town then the Isrealis had a valid reason.
that said… the news picked up on the fact that civilians were hurt and that they were in Lebanon. beyond that… well… look at the complains above.
I just came back from Israel last week ( I was on Michlelet, which was amazing)
The Quana incident was basicly like this:
The Israelis had arial footage of at least 150 rockets being fired from right next to the building with woman and children staying in it. The Israelis warned them to leave Quana for several days, after which they bombed the location. Alot of woman and children were killed.
that is the facts. now for my input. first of all, I disagree with the person who said they have no sympathy for the palestinians who were killed. every person is created B’tzelem Elokim. Their death is not something we should just shrug off.( Anybody who was in Rabbi Machlis’ class on Michlelet this year may remember his shiur on this topic.) Remember that of Pesach, we spill out some of our wine, because our celebration cannot be complete since so many Egyptians had to die for our geula.
With that in mind, Israel did have to do something about the rockets flying into Israel, B/c they were killing people. Hizbollah purpousley kept people where they launched rockets from, so civilian casualties were inevitable to a certain extents.
gotta go.
Just to let you know, The Arabs in kfar quana COULD NOT get out. Hizballah kept them their by force, IN ORDER that there should be a high level of civilian casualties.
Israel knew Hizballah had prevented them from leaving, and bombed knowing they were going to kill large numbers of Palestinians.
That being said, the option was to allow Hizballah to kill large numbers of Israelis.
Countries usually act in the interest of their civilians, not the civilians living under the enemy.
That is war. War is bad. sometimes it is necessary, but it is always evil, because it always kills people.
Even the cold war killed many (and continues to kill many) people due to the proxy wars the two countries fought.
In fact, this war was, in effect, a proxy war of the cold war, since the weapons Israel was using were US weapons, while Hizballah was using primarily Russian made weapons (Katyusha rockets)
And when and why did these weapons find themselves in this battlefield?
Because the US and Russians wanted to test their new weapons against one another, to see which was really better, but they were to cowardly to fight one another like men.
So they found two groups of people they viewed as expendable (the Jews and the Arabs), and who hated one another, and gave them the weapon to test.
Aren’t you glad the US cares so much about Israel?
As it says - the kindness of the nations is a sin.
our only real hope is Hashem, because the US wants us to keep fighting like everybody else.
