Dear friends,
In case you did not see today's news...since it was much like everyday's news:
"Israel Defense Forces troops shot and killed a [13-year-old] Palestinian teenager in Bethlehem on Tuesday..." "...near Manger Square, the site of Jesus' birth in Bethlehem, south of Jerusalem." http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/761767.html
Then, one read the words of the IDF commander on how they used cluster bombs in Lebanon. I'm not sure to cry, scream, or barf!
Then, while struggling to remain with my wife and daughters, I read the words below of an Israeli Member of Knesset (Parliament) who HAS A SOLUTION TO THIS MADNESS. I wonder how would the world react if a Palestinian Legislative Council member said the same of Jews in Israel....which they haven't, but are still imprisoned in Israeli jails!
Praying in advance for the next Lebanese or Palestinian child to pick up or kick a cluster bomb in Lebanon while playing - - BASTARDS!,
Sam
P.S. VISA UPDATE: I sent my two senators letters yesterday and was advised today from their offices that, jointly, "[our] State Department Caseworker will be forwarding a congressional inquiry on your behalf this afternoon."
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Haaretz
Last update - 10:58 12/09/2006
IDF commander: We fired more than a million cluster bombs in Lebanon
By Meron Rappaport
"What we did was insane and monstrous, we covered entire towns in cluster bombs," the head of an IDF rocket unit in Lebanon said regarding the use of cluster bombs and phosphorous shells during the war.
Quoting his battalion commander, the rocket unit head stated that the IDF fired around 1,800 cluster bombs, containing over 1.2 million cluster bomblets.
In addition, soldiers in IDF artillery units testified that the army used phosphorous shells during the war, widely forbidden by international law. According to their claims, the vast majority of said explosive ordinance was fired in the final 10 days of the war.
The rocket unit commander stated that Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) platforms were heavily used in spite of the fact that they were known to be highly inaccurate.
MLRS is a track or tire carried mobile rocket launching platform, capable of firing a very high volume of mostly unguided munitions. The basic rocket fired by the platform is unguided and imprecise, with a range of about 32 kilometers. The rockets are designed to burst into sub- munitions at a planned altitude in order to blanket enemy army and personnel on the ground with smaller explosive rounds.
The use of such weaponry is controversial mainly due to its inaccuracy and ability to wreak great havoc against indeterminate targets over large areas of territory, with a margin of error of as much as 1,200 meters from the intended target to the area hit.
The cluster rounds which don't detonate on impact, believed by the United Nations to be around 40% of those fired by the IDF in Lebanon, remain on the ground as unexploded munitions, effectively littering the landscape with thousands of land mines which will continue to claim victims long after the war has ended.
Because of their high level of failure to detonate, it is believed that there are around 500,000 unexploded munitions on the ground in Lebanon. To date 12 Lebanese civilians have been killed by these mines since the end of the war.
According to the commander, in order to compensate for the inaccuracy of the rockets and the inability to strike individual targets precisely, units would "flood" the battlefield with munitions, accounting for the littered and explosive landscape of post-war Lebanon.
When his reserve duty came to a close, the commander in question sent a letter to Defense Minister Amir Peretz outlining the use of cluster munitions, a letter which has remained unanswered.
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Haaretz
Last update - 01:34 12/09/2006
Eitam: Kick Palestinians out of W. Bank, keep Israeli Arabs from entering politics
By Nadav Shragai, Gideon Alon and Jack Khoury
MK Effi Eitam (National Religious Party - National Union) raised a storm of outrage yesterday when he called for West Bank Arabs to be transferred and for Israeli Arabs to be ejected from politics.
Left-wing and Arab lawmakers reacted furiously to Eitam's statements and called for Attorney General Menachem Mazuz to open an investigation into the rightist lawmaker's comments on grounds of incitement to racism.
Eitam said that the great majority of Palestinians in the West Bank should be expelled, and that Arabs should be ousted from Israeli politics as a fifth column and "a league of traitors."
The remarks, broadcast yesterday on Army Radio, were made during a Sunday speech at a memorial service for a soldier killed in Lebanon during the recent war.
"We will have to expel the great majority of the Arabs of Judea and Samaria," Eitam said. "It's impossible with all those Arabs, and it's impossible to give up the territory. We've already seen what they're doing there," he said.
It was the first time that Eitam, who heads the Religious Zionism faction within the National Union, has publicly supported deportation of Palestinians.
Turning to the subject of Israeli Arabs, Eitam said, "We will have to take another decision, and that is to sweep the Israeli Arabs from the political system. Here, too, it's clear and simple. We've raised a fifth column, a league of traitors of the first rank. Therefore, we cannot continue to enable so large and so hostile a presence within the political system of Israel."
Yossi Beilin, the leader of the left-wing Meretz party, urged Attorney General Menachem Mazuz Monday to bring Eitam to trial on charges of incitement to racism.
Beilin's call was based on an amendment to the law that grants lawmakers immunity from prosecution. The amendment lifts the immunity from legislators who incite to racism or ethnic prejudice.
AG urged to probe comments
Earlier in the day, Meretz MK Avshalom Vilan called on Mazuz to open an investigation against Eitam, on suspicion of incitement and sedition.
Arab MKs and leaders of Arab social organizations yesterday urged Mazuz to open a criminal investigation against Eitam.
Arab MK Ahmed Tibi (Ra'am-Ta'al) said "Eitam's remarks would have been more authentic had they been delivered in German."
"These are irresponsible statements," Tibi told the radio, "directed at the lowest level of the racism surging within Israeli society.
"A long time ago the racists and fascists moved from the Israeli street to the Israeli government and the halls of power" added Tibi.
Arab MK Mohammed Barakeh said that the attack on the representatives of Arab citizens of Israel was an attempt to "delegitimize the Arab population entirely and to negate their right to voice their opinions and participate in the political process."
Barakeh said the measures proposed by Eitam are already being implemented, as the Palestinians "are witness to many steps to push them aside and expel them from their homeland, among them the security fence in Jerusalem and the West Bank. The policies of siege, starvation, and negation of the basic right of human dignity are a means of extremely dangerous ethnic expulsion.
Peace Now secretary-general Yariv Oppenheimer said that Eitam's words "show that the dogma of [slain extreme right-wing Rabbi Meir] Kahane is alive and well. In a moment of candor, the mask was removed from Eitam's face, exposing him as a leader of fantasy and racism."
The spokesman of the Justice Ministry said his office had received requests to open an investigation of Eitam, and they would receive the customary attention.
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