The wife of missing UN peacekeeper Major Paeta Hess-von Kruedener in a live media scrum today begged the Canadian government to step up efforts to identify the three recovered bodies from the Israeli-bombed UN outpost, and called for a mission to search the remaining rubble and area surrounding the outpost in the hopes of finding her husband. Here’s hoping.
She also said that her husband had confided with her that he felt his outpost had been directly targetted by Israeli forces many times in the past.
Our Prime Minister, effecting the sharpest u-turn in Canada’s foreign policy in over half a decade, has effectively blessed Israel’s campaign against Lebanon. Stephen Harper said at the outset that Israel’s disproportionate use of force was, in his words, a “measured response”.
Israel uses the approbations of countries and leaders like Stephen Harper and George Bush as explicit permission to keep on bombing, no matter what the long term cost. Yesterday BBC News reported:
Israel says Wednesday’s decision by key world powers not to call for a halt to its Lebanon offensive has given it the green light to continue. Israeli Justice Minister Haim Ramon
Minister Ramon is fully distorting reality, since only a handful of nations have obligingly given Israel carte blanche, while the rest want both sides to stand down. Few nations actually approve of the use of disproportionate force, in part because it simply feels like the wrong thing to do, and in part because such lopsided war is against international law.
Thanks to The Independent, the following graphic makes it easy to see which nations – the few on the right – fully endorse Israel in its campaign of bombing homes, apartment buildings, civilian airports, civilian ports, milk factories, Red Cross ambulances and unarmed UN outposts.
On the left you have all the other nations who disapprove. Canada should be there, but is listed in error so I’ve fixed that. Don’t thank me, thank Stephen Harper.
The graphic reads Yes – Kofi Annan, speaking for the United Nations, said yesterday: “The collective punishment of the Lebanese people must stop. What is urgently needed is the immediate cessation of hostilities.”
Canada (with my edit) joins Israel, Britain and the United States in supporting Israel without reservation as it carries on its disproportionate attack on Lebanon, on the Lebanese Army (which Israel says in one breath they want to see Lebanon’s army engage against Hizbullah even as in the next moment they bomb Lebanon’s army) and on UN forces.
Graphic©The Independent, with the minor editorial revision from me.
An email from the Canadian peacekeeper, Major Paeta Hess-von Kruedener, who is missing and presumed dead in south eastern Lebanon, was published yesterday afternoon by CTV in A Canadian soldier’s report from South Lebanon. Its worth reading as it speaks to the situation at hand and the brave professionalism of the missing Major and his fallen comrades. At the conclusion of his email Major Hess-von Kruedener states:
This is all the information of a non-tactical nature that I can provide you. I cannot give you any info on Hezbollah position, proximity or the amount of or types of sorties the IAF is currently flying. Suffice to say that the activity levels and operational tempo of both parties is currently very high and continuous, with short breaks or pauses. Please understand the nature of my job here is to be impartial and to report violations from both sides without bias. As an Unarmed Military Observer, this is my raison d’etre.
What I can tell you is this: we have on a daily basis had numerous occasions where our position has come under direct or indirect fire from both artillery and aerial bombing. The closest artillery has landed within 2 meters of our position and the closest 1000 lb aerial bomb has landed 100 meters from our patrol base. This has not been deliberate targeting, but has rather been due to tactical necessity.
This suggests that Israeli forces were shelling the area to rid it of entrenched Hizbullah positions who were using the UN outpost as a shield, or to prevent them from taking up positions near the UN outpost.
The reality of the situation doesn’t absolve the IDF from blame, as reports indicate UN forces including a commanding general had made repeated contact with the IDF to have them back off, as their artillery, missiles and bombs reached closer and closer to the outpost. The unfolding picture looks less like intentional targeting of the UN outpost and more like an unrestrained zeal to attack Hizbullah, no matter who or what stands in the way. That picture is at least consistent with other events on the ground in this lopsided war.