Long-Term IDF Plans to “Kill and Maim”?

While its neighbors such as Syria demonstrate a particular malevolent disregard for human life, why is it that Israel continues to be singled out with uniquely evil attributes?

By Simon Plosker August 16, 2011

While its neighbors such as Syria demonstrate a particular malevolent disregard for human life, why is it that Israel continues to be singled out with uniquely evil attributes?

Take The Independent, which has published a series of front page articles exposing how some banks have invested in companies that produce cluster bombs. Ignoring any other examples of cluster bomb usage, Chris Atkins inserts the following into his comment piece:

The really awful thing about cluster bombs is their longevity. They kill and maim decades after they were dropped, which is presumably why Israel deposited millions of them in the last three days of its Lebanon invasion in 2006.

The fact that unexploded cluster munitions can cause damage long after they have been dropped is not in dispute and it is legitimate to debate the efficacy of using such weapons (which are legal under international law) to begin with.

Atkin’s assertion, however, that Israel dropped cluster bombs on Lebanon with the specific intent of causing indiscriminate deaths and injuries for decades after the event, is a view that attibutes demonic qualities to Israel that has no basis in reality or logic. Israel takes extreme measures to avoid civilian casualties even when its enemy, in this case Hezbollah, operates from within civilian areas.

But then in the minds of some, Israel is just an evil killing machine.

Send your considered comments to The Independent – [email protected]. Remember – letters for publication in the newspaper must include the sender’s name, postal address and daytime telephone number.

 

 

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Simon Plosker

Simon Plosker

With over two decades of experience in various non-governmental organizations in the UK and Israel, Simon Plosker returned to HonestReporting in October 2022 as Editorial Director having previously been part of the organization’s management team from 2005 to 2020.

Prior to his first spell at HonestReporting, Simon worked in Israel for NGO Monitor, BICOM, and served for a short period in the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit. He was Managing Editor of the Geneva-based NGO United Nations Watch for two years before moving back to the frontline defending Israel from media bias.

Simon has a BSoc.Sc in International Studies and Political Science from the University of Birmingham and an MSc in History of International Relations from the London School of Economics. He immigrated to Israel in 2001 from London.

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