by David Bedein
A little-noticed “United Nations’ Annual Report on Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict”, issued in January, which absolved allied coalition forces of culpability for civilian casualties in the almost decade long war against Taliban terror groups in Afghanistan.
According to the report issued by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, at least “5,978 civilians were killed and injured in 2009, the highest number of civilian casualties recorded since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001.”
The United Nations report asserted that the rising death toll there was due to the Taliban terror group’s suicide attacks and explosive roadside devices placed by the Taliban.
he UN report explained that the Taliban frequently attacked coalition forces in densely populated areas and did not blame the United States army or its allies for deaths of civilians who were non combatants who live near the areas from where Taliban launched its attacks, using the civilian areas as a collective human shield.
The UN Afghanistan report stands in stark contrast to a recent report issued by a United Nations’ Human Rights Council’s investigative team, headed by Judge Richard Goldstone, a South African judge, which conducted an inquiry into Israel’s January 2009 three week military incursion into the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.
The Goldstone Report discussed “eleven incidents in which Israeli forces launched direct attacks against civilians with lethal outcome... in which the facts indicate no justifiable military objective pursued by the attack.” These UN allegations of war crimes by the Israeli Defense Forces have been vociferously protested by Israel. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has gone so far as to call the Goldstone report a “strategic threat,” saying that it hampers the ability of democracies to fight terrorism and to engage in asymmetrical warfare.
A senior Israeli government official said that Israel is held to a different standard than other countries in international forums.
In direct contrast to the Goldstone Report from the same United Nations, the UN holds the Taliban terrorists directly responsible for collateral deaths in Afghanistan, at the same time that the UN alleges that Israel engages in “intentional attacks against the civilian population and civilian objects,” even though Hamas terrorists openly use homes, schools, hospitals and mosques as their protective place of operation.
Unlike Afghanistan, the UN blames Israel - not Hamas - for collateral deaths, injuries and damage to non combatants. The United Nations even suggests that Israel must award reparations to the population of the Gaza Strip, a territory ruled by an internationally recognized terrorist organization.
The United Nations Afghanistan report, on the other hand, noted that coalition forces have been attempting to minimize civilian casualties in Afghanistan, saying that “International military forces did take strategic and specific steps to minimize civilian casualties in 2009,”
In summarizing its findings, the Afghanistan Annual Report on Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict found the “declared strategy of prioritizing the safety and security of civilians is a welcome development.”
By the same token, the report laid the blame on the Taliban for causing Afghan civilian deaths,
Drawing the conclusion that “the inability or unwillingness of the armed opposition to take measures that pre-empt and reduce the harm that their tactics entail for civilians translates into a growing death toll and an ever larger proportion of the total number of civilian dead.”
Significantly, more non-combatants have been injured or killed in Afghanistan by allied troops than by IDF forces in Gaza.
A former British commander in Afghanistan, Col. Richard Kemp, told the BBC that he did “not think there has ever been a time in the history of warfare when any army has made more effort to reduce civilian casualties and deaths of innocent people than the [Israel Defense Forces] is doing... in Gaza."
However, a career diplomat with years of experience at the United Nations, noted that it is no surprise that the United Nations uses a different standard to judge Israel. The diplomat mentioned that the UN defined the Sri Lankan-Tamil conflict as an “internal matter”, and that the UN turned a blind eye to the brutal tactics used by the Sri Lankan army, when it finally crushed the 25 year Tamil terrorist rebellion only last year, causing the deaths of thousands of terrorists and non combatants who were slaughtered by Sri Lankan Government forces in the final stages of the conflict.
View the original link at Israel Behind the News
Showing posts with label terrorism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label terrorism. Show all posts
Monday, February 22, 2010
Friday, February 12, 2010
Remembering One Victim of Arab Terror
by David Bedein for the Jerusalem Post
Six years ago, Yehuda Haim got on a bus to work one sunny February morning in Jerusalem, and paid with his life.
Friday marks six years to the day, according to the Hebrew calendar, since a Jerusalem grocer, Yehuda Haim, was murdered on a bus that Arab terrorists blew up in Jerusalem.
Ever since the restaurant at the Beit Agron Press Center in Jerusalem closed in 2001 because of declining tourism, Haim’s sandwich business at the corner grocery store had been booming for reporters.
Yehuda would make each reporter a pre-prepared sandwich with fresh bread and any condiments the customer would ask for.
For me, he knew exactly how many pickles I liked with my tuna fish, and just how I liked my egg salad. And he carefully cut each fresh vegetable to order.
I had a special need, since I would wash my hands at Beit Agron and make the blessing over the bread only when I got to the store. I became used to hearing Yehuda’s “amen” to the first bite in my sandwich, before he would fill it with his goodies for me yet again.
One Sunday morning, on the bus to work, passing the old Jerusalem train station, the bus in front of ours blew to bits. The first instinct was to run to the bus, don the proverbial press badge and grab a camera to report the event, snapping shots and getting them to the wires in real time. Not knowing at the time that one of the bodies flung from the bus window was Yehuda Haim, who was on his way to work.
The names of the victims were solemnly announced on the radio news, including that of Yehuda Haim.
All I could think about was Yehuda’s smiling face on Friday, when he said “amen” to my blessing on a tuna bagel, when he wished a good Shabbat to three reporters who came by his store.
His smiling face was turned by an Arab terrorist into lifeless body parts on Derech Hebron. That day at lunch, I had lost my lunch partner. Maybe Yehuda would say amen to my blessing from heaven for that day’s bagel, I thought.
The reality of media reporting continued, as Yehuda was being buried.
And the name Yehuda Haim became one of the 1,478 people murdered by Arab terrorists during what has been termed a “peace process.”
ON THE day of the funeral, Fanny Haim, Yehuda’s widow, had the presence of mind to write an open letter to the judges in The Hague, which she asked our agency to translate for her, where a European court held hearings on the legality of a fence designed to keep murderers from killing people like Yehuda.
In the hours before she buried her husband, she wrote the following letter:
“Today, in The Hague, you will sit in judgment. Today, I will bury my husband, my heart has been cut in two. I am not a politician. I am appealing to you as someone who has lost her husband, a woman whose heart has been silenced - and a woman whose tragedy the separation fence could have prevented. I was married to Yehuda for 21 years. He was the love of my youth, since I was 15. Yehuda’s sister is the wife of Israel’s economic attache in The Hague and works in the embassy there. For months, she, her husband and the embassy staff have been trying to open the world’s eyes. For months, they have been fighting for the rights of the State of Israel.
As for me, what could I have asked for? Only for my small right, my husband’s right, the right to see our children grow and prosper, go to school and serve in the army. I will no longer receive this right. But today, you can see to it that other Israeli families will merit this basic thing - to raise a happy family, to get up in the morning without bereavement, without gravestones, and without cemeteries.
Today, as you begin your deliberations with open eyes, think, just for a moment, about the ordinary people behind this bloody conflict. Think for a moment about the golden heart of my husband, Yehuda, and about our young son, Avner. Maybe you can explain to him - he’s only 10 years old - why in God’s name he doesn’t have a father any more? People will enter your hall today, who will speak, who will accuse. Mourners will enter my home and I will be unable to understand and I will certainly not be consoled. This evening, you will go home, kiss your spouses, hug your children - and I will be alone.
True, the politics are far from me, but now as the pain is far too close to me. I think that I have acquired, with integrity and with tears, the right to appeal to you and say: If there had been a fence all along the length of the state, then maybe I, just like you, could kiss my husband this evening. Do not judge my country; do not restrain it from preventing additional people from becoming victims. Today, I am burying my husband; don’t you bury justice."
Each day, we take the bus to work, and we remember people like Yehuda Haim who paid with their lives, only because they took the bus to work on one sunny February morning in Jerusalem.
The writer acts as the Middle East correspondent for the Philadelphia Bulletin and as the director of the Israel Resource News Agency and the Center for Near East Policy Research, both of which are based at the Beit Agron Press Center in Jerusalem, and on the Net at www.IsraelBehindTheNews.com.
View this article at Israel Behind the News
Six years ago, Yehuda Haim got on a bus to work one sunny February morning in Jerusalem, and paid with his life.
Friday marks six years to the day, according to the Hebrew calendar, since a Jerusalem grocer, Yehuda Haim, was murdered on a bus that Arab terrorists blew up in Jerusalem.
Ever since the restaurant at the Beit Agron Press Center in Jerusalem closed in 2001 because of declining tourism, Haim’s sandwich business at the corner grocery store had been booming for reporters.
Yehuda would make each reporter a pre-prepared sandwich with fresh bread and any condiments the customer would ask for.
For me, he knew exactly how many pickles I liked with my tuna fish, and just how I liked my egg salad. And he carefully cut each fresh vegetable to order.
I had a special need, since I would wash my hands at Beit Agron and make the blessing over the bread only when I got to the store. I became used to hearing Yehuda’s “amen” to the first bite in my sandwich, before he would fill it with his goodies for me yet again.
One Sunday morning, on the bus to work, passing the old Jerusalem train station, the bus in front of ours blew to bits. The first instinct was to run to the bus, don the proverbial press badge and grab a camera to report the event, snapping shots and getting them to the wires in real time. Not knowing at the time that one of the bodies flung from the bus window was Yehuda Haim, who was on his way to work.
The names of the victims were solemnly announced on the radio news, including that of Yehuda Haim.
All I could think about was Yehuda’s smiling face on Friday, when he said “amen” to my blessing on a tuna bagel, when he wished a good Shabbat to three reporters who came by his store.
His smiling face was turned by an Arab terrorist into lifeless body parts on Derech Hebron. That day at lunch, I had lost my lunch partner. Maybe Yehuda would say amen to my blessing from heaven for that day’s bagel, I thought.
The reality of media reporting continued, as Yehuda was being buried.
And the name Yehuda Haim became one of the 1,478 people murdered by Arab terrorists during what has been termed a “peace process.”
ON THE day of the funeral, Fanny Haim, Yehuda’s widow, had the presence of mind to write an open letter to the judges in The Hague, which she asked our agency to translate for her, where a European court held hearings on the legality of a fence designed to keep murderers from killing people like Yehuda.
In the hours before she buried her husband, she wrote the following letter:
“Today, in The Hague, you will sit in judgment. Today, I will bury my husband, my heart has been cut in two. I am not a politician. I am appealing to you as someone who has lost her husband, a woman whose heart has been silenced - and a woman whose tragedy the separation fence could have prevented. I was married to Yehuda for 21 years. He was the love of my youth, since I was 15. Yehuda’s sister is the wife of Israel’s economic attache in The Hague and works in the embassy there. For months, she, her husband and the embassy staff have been trying to open the world’s eyes. For months, they have been fighting for the rights of the State of Israel.
As for me, what could I have asked for? Only for my small right, my husband’s right, the right to see our children grow and prosper, go to school and serve in the army. I will no longer receive this right. But today, you can see to it that other Israeli families will merit this basic thing - to raise a happy family, to get up in the morning without bereavement, without gravestones, and without cemeteries.
Today, as you begin your deliberations with open eyes, think, just for a moment, about the ordinary people behind this bloody conflict. Think for a moment about the golden heart of my husband, Yehuda, and about our young son, Avner. Maybe you can explain to him - he’s only 10 years old - why in God’s name he doesn’t have a father any more? People will enter your hall today, who will speak, who will accuse. Mourners will enter my home and I will be unable to understand and I will certainly not be consoled. This evening, you will go home, kiss your spouses, hug your children - and I will be alone.
True, the politics are far from me, but now as the pain is far too close to me. I think that I have acquired, with integrity and with tears, the right to appeal to you and say: If there had been a fence all along the length of the state, then maybe I, just like you, could kiss my husband this evening. Do not judge my country; do not restrain it from preventing additional people from becoming victims. Today, I am burying my husband; don’t you bury justice."
Each day, we take the bus to work, and we remember people like Yehuda Haim who paid with their lives, only because they took the bus to work on one sunny February morning in Jerusalem.
The writer acts as the Middle East correspondent for the Philadelphia Bulletin and as the director of the Israel Resource News Agency and the Center for Near East Policy Research, both of which are based at the Beit Agron Press Center in Jerusalem, and on the Net at www.IsraelBehindTheNews.com.
View this article at Israel Behind the News
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
The Philadelphia Bulletin: Facebook as a Terror Weapon
by David Bedein
Terrorists Turn To Social Networking In An Effort To Target Israelis
Israeli intelligence has issued an unprecedented warning: Terrorists may use Facebook as a weapon in their war of terror.
A senior Israeli officer identifies recently fired high-tech workers or young career women seeking work abroad as potential terrorist targets for Facebook infiltration.
Their method is simple: monitor personal details on social networks and send their targets a tempting offer - for example, a dream job in Europe - with the hope they will also be able to obtain information, recruit spies and maybe even a kidnap an Israeli.
That is the Israel security establishment’s nightmare, and it believes Hezbollah already uses this technique.
An Israeli citizen recently told law enforcement authorities he had been solicited on Facebook by someone who introduced himself as a businessman from Lebanon. The businessman asked him to relay intelligence information in return for a fee.
Israel security sources say this instance was not the only case, and they believe Hezbollah has engaged in some of these activities.
“Based on our investigations, both into the people who lured Israeli civilians and the people whom they tried to lure, a worrisome picture emerges,” said a high-ranking security official. “Israelis have a short memory, but it happened once before that a boy was lured by means of the Internet by woman terrorist Amna Mona who in the end murdered the boy, Ophir Rahum. We’ve seen a lot of attempts like that lately.”
The official also said resumes sent out on the Internet also serve as bait.
“In response, someone could receive a tempting job offer that is hard to turn down and for which they would have to go to Europe - and then be kidnapped. This isn’t made up,” the official said.
It is known that Arab terror organizations use Israeli Web sites and social networks where there are a lot of Israelis, including veterans of classified Israeli Army units, with the goal of obtaining classified information on Israel’s security targets.
One year ago, two residents of the Bedouin city of Rahat were arrested and accused with transferring information to al-Qaida on Facebook.
See this story in the Philadelphia Bulletin
See this story at Israel Behind the News
Terrorists Turn To Social Networking In An Effort To Target Israelis
Israeli intelligence has issued an unprecedented warning: Terrorists may use Facebook as a weapon in their war of terror.
A senior Israeli officer identifies recently fired high-tech workers or young career women seeking work abroad as potential terrorist targets for Facebook infiltration.
Their method is simple: monitor personal details on social networks and send their targets a tempting offer - for example, a dream job in Europe - with the hope they will also be able to obtain information, recruit spies and maybe even a kidnap an Israeli.
That is the Israel security establishment’s nightmare, and it believes Hezbollah already uses this technique.
An Israeli citizen recently told law enforcement authorities he had been solicited on Facebook by someone who introduced himself as a businessman from Lebanon. The businessman asked him to relay intelligence information in return for a fee.
Israel security sources say this instance was not the only case, and they believe Hezbollah has engaged in some of these activities.
“Based on our investigations, both into the people who lured Israeli civilians and the people whom they tried to lure, a worrisome picture emerges,” said a high-ranking security official. “Israelis have a short memory, but it happened once before that a boy was lured by means of the Internet by woman terrorist Amna Mona who in the end murdered the boy, Ophir Rahum. We’ve seen a lot of attempts like that lately.”
The official also said resumes sent out on the Internet also serve as bait.
“In response, someone could receive a tempting job offer that is hard to turn down and for which they would have to go to Europe - and then be kidnapped. This isn’t made up,” the official said.
It is known that Arab terror organizations use Israeli Web sites and social networks where there are a lot of Israelis, including veterans of classified Israeli Army units, with the goal of obtaining classified information on Israel’s security targets.
One year ago, two residents of the Bedouin city of Rahat were arrested and accused with transferring information to al-Qaida on Facebook.
See this story in the Philadelphia Bulletin
See this story at Israel Behind the News
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