-Caveat Lector- Extracts from a Ha'aretz Feature article by Akiva Eldar dated Tuesday, August 07, 2001. Sami ---- http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=61011&contrassID=2&subContrassID=5&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y [....] Explain the killing of a child ============================== What does the "public relations framework" do when two Palestinian children are killed by a missile that was aimed at a Hamas office in Nablus? Sharon made do with an expression of sorrow, with no apologies. War's war - if we don't take the chance that their children are hurt by our assassinations, our children will be hurt by theirs. Chief of Staff Shaul Mofaz thought that didn't sound so humane. He announced that if he had known the missiles aimed at the Hamas offices would hit children, he would have foregone the operation. That kind of public relations should win the chief of staff a medal of valor from the IDF Spokesman's office for outstanding propagandist. Mofaz' comments echoed throughout the country. Who has the strength, in the middle of summer, to deal with incidental details like the fact the Hamas offices were on the third floor of a seven-storey office building. You don't have to be chief of staff to know that midday, when the missiles were fired, there would be children or women or just plain ordinary civilians in the building. All you have to do is read about the American smart bombs that killed civilians in Baghdad and the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade. Every Apache pilot knows that a bomb, no matter how smart, fired into the heart of a city, is not immune to misses. The professional spokespeople in the Foreign Ministry and the Prime Minister's Office knew the foreign correspondents wouldn't buy the self-righteous, defensive version. So, they went on the offensive. They said the Hamas deliberately chooses to put its headquarters in the heart of civilian populations, and there's no way to expect that would grant it immunity. (And where exactly is the office of the Israeli chief of staff? The Negev plains?) Ra'anan Gissin, who represents the government vis-?-vis the foreign press, hinted to reporters that Hamas was using children as "live shields." Gissin said that Hamas has always drafted children for battle. By implication, the official spokesman appeared to be saying, a Palestinian mother sent her 10-year-old son and his eight-year-old brother to serve as bodyguards for Sheikh Mansour and his associates. (According to the Palestinian version, the children were accompanying their mother to a physiotherapist's office in the building.) That leaves only two alternatives: either Palestinian mothers send their children to die for the expressed purpose of giving Israel a bad name or they know that the IDF is the most moral army in the world, as Mofaz said after the "successful attack," and he won't endanger the lives of children. In either case, if Hamas leaders believe Mofaz, they won't leave home without a kid or two. [....] __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Make international calls for as low as $.04/minute with Yahoo! Messenger http://phonecard.yahoo.com/ ================================================================= http://al-awda.org Sign the online petition to US Secretary of State Colin Powell at: http://al-awda.org/terminate_aid_petition.htm ================================================================= Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition's listserve, is a forum for individuals active in the Palestine right to return campaign regardless of organizational affiliation if any. Al-Awda develops, coordinates, supports and guides, as needed, global and local grassroots initiatives for action related to the Palestine refugee right to return campaigns. 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