Lebanon, Israel and Discrimination

Dahr Jamail on Lebanon and “terrorism”:

Then we can just look at the coverage of the casualties; I bring up Hizbollah being referred to as a terrorist organization over and over in the corporate media. When we simply look at the statistics. We have over 1,300 Lebanese killed by the Israeli war of aggression, over 90% of those civilians. And then we look at the other side where roughly 150 Israelis died; over 50% of those were soldiers. So just looking at that statistic alone, who is the terrorist organization, or more specifically who is the terrorist state?

Recently on his weblog Jamail has been focusing on Israel.

Jonathan Cook on Israeli’s discriminatory marriage laws:

According to Rubinstein’s recommendations, Palestinians and inhabitants of “hostile” (read Arab) states who marry Israelis (read Israel’s Palestinian citizens) will be banned from rights to either citizenship or residency in Israel.

Other non-Jewish spouses (read mainly Europeans and Americans) will face age and income requirements and be expected to affirm a loyalty oath — not to Israel, but to Israel as a Jewish and democratic state. In keeping with current policy, non-Jews are unlikely to receive citizenship but may be eligible for residency rights.


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2 responses to “Lebanon, Israel and Discrimination”

  1. joelsk44039 Avatar
    joelsk44039

    Hezbullah fired over 4,000 rockets indiscriminately into Northern Israel during the month long fighting this summer. Many of them were loaded with ball bearings, screws and nails. Fortunately for the Israelis, most were able to find safety in bomb shelters or with family or friends away from the fighting.

    The statistics reported in this blog regarding Lebanese casualties, while very unfortunate, cannot be independently verified as Hezbullah and the so-called “Lebanese government” allow reporters only limited access to verify such information.

    It’s a pity that the blogger can’t tell the difference between terrorists who purposely fire katyusha rockets at civilian population centers and a professional army that is trying to protect its people from those rockets.

  2. rjnagle Avatar
    rjnagle

    Joelsk: Check the UNDP Report of Civilian Casualties (PDF). Not only does it list 1187 civilian casualties, it reports an estimate of 102,000 cluster bombs left in Lebanon.

    I seem to recall reading similar reports elsewhere.

    Two remarks:
    1)effects, not motives. We need to abandon the notion that because a government does not INTEND to cause civilian casualties, they should not be responsible for it.
    2)Proportionality. The response should be proportionate to the wrong that precipitated it. The recent attack failed this test. (Let me also mention that the US fails this test also in Kosovo and Iraq).

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