Moono: "B'tzelem makes it 7." Well I provided names, dates, locations, and incidents. I would venture that B'tzelem is wrong [as they often are]. For starters, they omitted the father and son Bedua who were killed just this past March.
Qassams fired in reprisal." If Israel does not fire missiles "in reprisal," what logic does a non sqanctioned milita use? In fact, Human rights Watch, certainly no friend to Israel, calls the Qassams "illegal under International Law." Maybe you might want to think about that before you ofer a blanket defence.
TAE: "Why is 7 seconds not enough time." Besides the painter having to radio in the info, and a supervisor digesting it, the artillery would have to be reprogrammed. I mean, taking that into account, it is simply common sense.
"Why would TAE be disappointed." It seems to me that you get joy out of painting Israel nefariously. Am I being too sensitive?
"How does TAE know that the IDF is not lying." Well, on one hand you have the state army of a sovereign nation, providing films, physical evidence, and forensic evidence, and on the other hand you have illegal entities claiming that Israel is commiting genocidal acts. Using the past as a reasonable barometer for these militants verison of truth, we can see that they fabricate and lie at every turn.
Look at Jenin. Arafat, then the head of the PA, went on international television and claimed that when the smoke cleaered the world would see "thousands" of dead "Palestinian" men, women, and children. When the smoke finally did clear, Arafat remained silent.
This is certainly not to say that Israel never lies. However, when the world is staring at it, and it is providing physical evidence to back its claims, I would say that smart money will be on Israel.
The only physical evidence that the militants have is three pieces. I] A computer generated blood test result showing that ine victim had been there in a time period that COULD have coincided with the time in which Israel WAS firing its 6 shells in that DIRECTION. II] the blood test is backed by a hand written hospital log showing that the same patient arrived in the time period represented by the blood test result. III] A piece of shrapnel, containing an artillery fuse, offered by one victim to hospital authorities.
Items number I and II can EASILY be fabricated even by amateurs, and item III can be from anywhere . The beach and surrounding area have been the frequent target of IDF artillery since that is the area wwhere most Qassams are launched. In fact, as I believe I stated, an IDF operation took place on that same beach less than 2 weeks before this incident!
"There have been cases in the UK where Israel maintained something adamantly and then later on changed their tune." Of course you mean the Hundall Case. Generally, investigators worldwide do not like to be pressured into revealing preliminary findings because they very well could be wrong, partly wrong, and so on. The Hundall family, paticularly the mother, pressured Israel into revealing what it knew every step of the way. Thus, Israel offered one piece but that piece was then deemed inconsequential, etc. That is natural during an investigation.It has nothing to d9o with veracity.
"Can I link to a bunch of cases where the IDF volunteered that it had done wrong." Actually, I can. I will not do so now but if you wish I will provide a couple of links to cases where the IDF admittted mistakes, as well as prosecuted wrongdoers. the fact is, Israel is a nation like any other. It has good people, and it has bad people. the government is not infallible. all these things mean that there will be, from time to time, unfortunate eventualities. When this is clearly the case, Israel owns up.
Mr. Hundall is but one case. there is the famous case of ISraeli border Police being charged with dozens of crimes perpertrated aginst Arabs, by several different personel. there are other cases involving IDF who have also abused Arabs. this happens in every army but I offer that on a per capita basis, the IDF has a much better record than any other armed force in an armed conflict.
