See
"Printable" button below for "easy to print" format.
Israel
& the Real Enemy to Peace
by
Hal
Lindsey (2003 article)
This
week, following a deadly suicide-bombing attack, Israel decided to focus
its retaliatory strike at the source of the terror. Israeli Defense
Forces bombed what they claim was a terrorist training camp near
Damascus.
The camp was empty, and nobody was killed. The only damage was property
damage to a camp that the Syrians claim had long since been abandoned.
The Israeli cabinet was told by its intelligence services that the camp
was empty because the forces training there were out on maneuvers, but
it doesn't make much difference.
The central points to remember are these: 1) the camp belonged the
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, as they admitted; 2) no
other targets, either military or civilian were targeted or struck; and,
3) nobody was killed.
The raid was ordered by Vice Prime Minister Ehud Olmert after a family
restaurant was targeted by a Palestinian suicide-bomber during a Jewish
religious celebration. Twenty-three people were killed, and 40 others
were wounded. Among the dead were four children – three of them
toddlers – five Israeli-Arabs, and two entire Jewish families were
wiped from the earth. It is reported that the bomber, a Palestinian
woman and a lawyer, actually embraced a baby carriage just before
detonating her deadly payload.
It is important to keep in mind the 40 who were "wounded." I
can't stress often enough what "wounded" means in the context
of a suicide bombing in a crowded place like a restaurant. First comes
the flash fire of the explosion at several thousand degrees Fahrenheit.
Out of that burning hell flies thousands of nuts, bolts, nails and
jagged pieces of metal – each one traveling with the velocity of a
bullet. Those on the edges of the kill zone – the wounded – are
maimed for life. Israeli hospitals are filled with people in comas, on
life support, or permanently disabled.
Imagine someone losing both arms, both legs, their eyesight and being
burned beyond recognition, but somehow still alive. That is often what
it means to be listed as "wounded" in a suicide-bombing
attack.
The IDF attack did not target civilians, did no collateral damage, and
was surgically precise. The Syrians promptly demanded (and just as
promptly got) an emergency meeting with the United Nations Security
Council where the Syrians demanded a resolution condemning Israel.
Had not the United States threatened a veto, Syria would have gotten
one, too. The United Nations had not one word of condemnation for the
attack on Israeli families having dinner in a restaurant. Not a word
about the three dead babies, the bomber's dying act of hatred by pulling
a baby carriage to her bosom before setting off her explosives, not a
word about the 103 suicide bombings carried out against mostly Israeli
women and children since Arafat ordered the rebellion in September 2000.
In fact, that was the reason U.N. Ambassador John Negroponte gave for
squashing the resolution under the threatened weight of the U.S. veto.
Not a word about Israel's suffering – just an angry resolution
condemning Israel for targeting and blowing up an empty terrorist
training camp. Even the PFLP admitted it was a training camp – they
just said it was abandoned.
But apart from the United States, the global body was unanimous in its
condemnation, with everyone from the secretary-general of the United
Nations to China and Russia chiming in.
Statements were also made by the representatives of China, France,
Russian Federation, United Kingdom, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Guinea, Mexico,
Angola, Chile, Germany, Pakistan and Spain condemning Israel, but having
no words of condemnation for the terror attacks or the nations who
support them.
What was fascinating was the speed with which the world body jumped to
condemn the Israelis.
No investigation – not one of the diplomats calling for Israeli blood
had been to the scene to determine if it were a terrorist camp or not,
just the word of Bashar al Assad. But why would anybody want proof when
their mind is made up in advance? The U.N. diplomats didn't need proof
to pass the resolution, they only needed an excuse. An empty camp out in
the middle of a desert isn't much of an excuse, but it was enough for
them.
Just like they didn't need proof in Iraq. The United Nations' default
position then, as now, is that the dictator must be telling the truth
and the representative democracy must be lying, unless meticulously
proven beyond doubt. In that case, the United Nations' position is that
they failed to catch the democracies in that particular lie, not that
the dictator deserved the spanking he got.
The Security Council members know that Syria supports terrorism. At
least 10 Islamic terror groups have offices and headquarters in Syria
and are listed openly by name in the Damascus telephone book. But only
the U.S. veto prevented them from condemning Israel.
Syria's foreign minister told the United Nations today that if Israel
blows up any more deserted Syrian camps in retaliation for murdered
women and children, it will take the fight to Israel.
After three years of being attacked by brainwashed teen-aged Palestinian
zombies, the Israelis would like to have a real target to vent their
fury on. It would be a very short fight.
