12.6.06

É bom que se diga tudo.

Não existem verdades absolutas, isto é válido para todas as partes. Como as notícias internacionais, especialmente as veiculadas pela Reuters (que sem confirmação e num acesso de mau profissionalismo, avança com "takes" panfletários e propaganda grosseira), apenas mostram uma versão (altamente manipulada), aqui vai a visão do outro lado.
Tragedy On Gaza Beach.

"The media rushes to conclusions following a tragic incident in Gaza.The deaths of seven Palestinian civilians on a beach in Gaza on 9 June was a human tragedy irrespective of one's views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
At the time of writing, the IDF is still investigating the circumstances behind the event, ruling out any involvement by the Israeli Navy or Air Force, despite many in the international media rushing to conclusions in the immediate aftermath of the terrible incident.
For example, despite suggestions that a single artillery shell was responsible, the Guardian claimed: "a barrage of Israeli artillery shells rained down on a busy Gaza beach...", while the Independent, without waiting for confirmation or otherwise, attributed the incident to "Israeli naval gunboats".
In fact, while the most likely explanation is a single stray artillery shell, the possibility of a Qassam missile fired from Gaza itself has not yet been discounted and has been made more difficult to ascertain due to Palestinian refusals to cooperate with Israeli investigators.
As emotions run high, it is likely that Israel will come in for heavy criticism in the media from those genuinely horrified by recent events and those who do not need an excuse to accuse Israel of "war crimes" or to attack its morality and very existence.
Many of HonestReporting's most vehement critics accuse us of being a mouthpiece and cheerleader for Israeli policies. Criticism of Israeli policies in a reasonable and informed manner is legitimate and something that Israelis themselves do on a regular basis, as is the norm in a healthy democracy. Israel is certainly not infallible and makes mistakes - just as all other states have the capacity to do when confronted with the dilemmas that Israel faces in trying to protect its population from terrorist attacks.
What we do, however, call for is that Israel is treated by the same standards as any other country in the world and not singled out for special treatment at the hands of those who prefer to ignore genocide and human rights abuses in places such as Darfur, Tibet and any number of Arab states in the Mideast.NO MORAL EQUIVALENCEWhen examining the circumstances behind the Gaza beach incident, it is worth looking at the wider context. An editorial in the Jerusalem Post excellently summarizes the Israeli situation:
Firstly, Israel, while confronting an enemy publicly committed to maximizing civilian fatalities, seeks relentlessly to minimize such casualties even as it defends itself. Fatah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists deliberately aim to kill and maim civilians, both in disputed and purportedly non-disputed Israeli-controlled territory, and show little concern for any "collateral" damage such attacks may inflict on their own people. Israel, in absolute contrast, acts concertedly to thwart the terrorists, not to attack the civilians from whose residential areas the terror cells despicably operate. Secondly, in times of war and conflict, accidents happen. Israel is properly investigating Friday's incident; it genuinely wants to understand what happened to ensure that, if the IDF was responsible, lessons are learned and appropriate preventative steps taken. Thirdly, and of crucial importance in understanding our often bloody reality, it is a simple and undeniable fact, and one that should go without saying but evidently must be repeated, that Israel would have no interest in, nor any need to be firing artillery shells or any other weaponry into the Gaza Strip were sovereign Israeli territory not coming under incessant attack from Gaza.
Indeed, as Qassams have rained down on Sderot and other areas of the Negev, striking residential buildings and schools, it is only due to immense luck that Israel has not already suffered multiple deaths and injuries as a result of such attacks. In the latest missile attacks, carried out by Hamas, an Israeli suffered critical injuries as a Qassam struck a school campus. These attacks, despite their potential for mass casualties, are described by the BBC's Simon Wilson as "mainly symbolic".
While the IDF has not taken responsibility for the Palestinian deaths until the conclusion of an inquiry, Israel has offered assistance to the Palestinians, including evacuating the wounded to Israeli hospitals, where a number are now being treated.
As Palestinians have continued to encourage or turn a blind eye to terrorist attacks and murders of Israeli civilians, while celebrating the culture of "martyrdom", Israel genuinely values human life and deeply regrets the deaths of Palestinian civilians.
Israeli PM Ehud Olmert has stressed that "The IDF is the most moral army in the world... It does not and never has made a policy of targeting civilians." Whatever the outcome of the Israeli inquiry into this tragic event, these words will remain true.
HonestReporting calls on its subscribers to be vigilant in the face of attacks in the media on the morality of the IDF and the State of Israel itself."

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How the PA Blamed Israel for the Deaths on the Beach 13:44 Jun 12, '06 / 16 Sivan 5766by Hillel Fendel

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) released a report on Saturday full of inaccuracies about the incident - and has not yet released a correction or apology.
The organization, whose reports are widely relied upon by the United Nations and other organizations, announced the following:
"PCHR’s preliminary investigation indicates that the attack which killed seven members of the same family took place at approximately 16:40 on Friday, 9 June 2006. An Israeli naval boat stationed off the coast of Beit Lahya fired seven successive artillery shells at civilians on the beach in the Waha area, north of Beit Lahya. The shells landed on the beach, which had been crowded with civilian men, women and children at the time. Seven civilians from the same family (father, mother and five children) were killed. A sixth child from the same family escaped death but was seen on television crying hysterically beside her father’s body. A further 32 civilians, including 13 children, were injured... Israeli television Channel 2 broadcast footage of the Israeli boat firing the shells at the beach, with one of the navy soldiers scanning the beach with binoculars; thus indicating that the crime had been perpetrated with a premeditated intent to kill."An indication of PCHR's bias is the fact that it consistently refers to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) as the IOF - the Israeli Occupation Forces. The organization gathered data that led to the issuing of an arrest warrant in Great Britain against Gen. (ret.) Doron Almog in 2005 for "war crimes." He was to be charged with overseeing the dropping of a one-ton bomb in Gaza that killed Hamas arch-murderer Salah Shehadeh and several children in July 2002.Despite the PCHR claim that the explosion occurred at 16:40, the IDF investigation showed that the explosion did not occur before 16:58. IDF Southern Command O.C. Gen. Yoav Galant said that the IDF artillery in the area stopped firing at 16:51, and that at 16:58, "the IDF's electronic surveillance did not show any unusual activity on the beach."Arab affairs expert Yonatan D. HaLevy writes, "The PCHR version has turned rumors into 'facts' which then become 'proof' for PCHR to determine that Israeli naval soldiers 'meant to kill' the family."Writing for the NFC Hebrew news site, HaLevy adds, "The IDF fires 155mm artillery shells towards open areas in order to thwart the Kassam launchers, and often warns the locals not to be there. In the present case, it is very doubtful as to whether the family was hit by a 155mm shell. I carefully reviewed the video clips disseminated by the PA television, and the documentation of [Channel Two], and I did not find the large hole that a 155mm shell [would have made]."HaLevy said that for their part, the Arabs of the PA "made sure to exhibit the bodies of the dead, but refrained from showing the crater and the shrapnel as proof of their claims."Gen. (ret.) Yom Tov Samiyeh said, "It is almost certain that the incident [in which seven members of one family on a Gaza beach were killed in an explosion] was an accident caused by the Palestinians, and that the Palestinians took advantage of the situation to besmirch Israel.""I can imagine," Samiyeh said, "that there was some sort of mine, or at worst, even a set-up that the Palestinians arranged." He added that during his years of army service as IDF Southern District Commander, he experienced a number of incidents in which the Arabs set up attacks on citizens.The IDF investigation has so far shown that Israeli Navy ships definitely did not fire towards the beach at that time, based on the type of wounds and other evidence. HaLevy notes that video clips of navy sailors firing and scanning the beach were photographed at an earlier hour. HonestReporting.com, in a detailed review of the topic, notes that "many in the international media [rushed] to conclusions in the immediate aftermath of the terrible incident. For example, despite suggestions that a single artillery shell was responsible, the Guardian claimed that "a barrage of Israeli artillery shells rained down on a busy Gaza beach...", while the Independent, without waiting for confirmation or otherwise, attributed the incident to "Israeli naval gunboats". In fact, while the most likely explanation is a single stray artillery shell, the possibility of a Qassam missile fired from Gaza itself has not yet been discounted and has been made more difficult to ascertain due to Palestinian refusals to cooperate with Israeli investigators."

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