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29 Nissan 5762 - April 11, 2002 | Mordecai Plaut, director Published Weekly
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Home and Family
Analysis
Words and Facts do Not Match in the Middle East

by Mordecai Plaut

Even as Palestinian officials report facts that are pretty consistent with official Israeli reports, their general descriptions of what is going on are flights of fantasy.

It is pretty widely accepted that there have been about 200 Palestinians killed in the current Israeli offensive and Palestinian spokesman concede that almost all the dead are young men in their 20s and 30s. This fact indicates that those killed were fighters attacking Israeli soldiers.

Yet this does not stop the Palestinian spokesmen from ranting about widespread attacks on civilians and the killing of women and children. European leaders also accuse Israel of waging war against the civilian Palestinian population, with no basis in fact.

In the course of the IDF operations throughout Judea and Samaria, fierce fighting has been taking place between IDF forces and Palestinian terrorist fighters. Moreover, the terrorists deliberately operate from within large Palestinian population centers and therefore cause innocent civilians to be drawn into the line of fire. Nonetheless the IDF is doing all it can to prevent harming innocent civilians, with considerable success, and to provide them with necessary humanitarian assistance.

Given the situation they must deal with, the performance of the Israeli army is quite amazing. When the US fought in Afghanistan it "tolerated" the civilian casualties that it caused when it bombed civilian installations through human or mechanical error. Israel has so far caused much fewer civilian deaths and injuries in a much more difficult situation.

An IDF spokesperson denied recent claims that the IDF hinders the movement of ambulances in combat zones. Israeli soldiers are explicitly instructed to allow the free passage of humanitarian assistance. It is important to note, however, that the Palestinians have brazenly used rescue and emergency vehicles for terrorist purposes. If the passage of patients in Palestinian emergency vehicles is delayed, the responsibility must be lain at the feet of those who have transported explosives under the stretchers of sick children in ambulances.

The IDF makes a clear distinction between Palestinian terrorists, against whom Israel is fighting, and the Palestinian civilian population that does not take part in terrorist activity.

The IDF has supplied food, water, medicine and other provisions to cities in which combat is taking place. The IDF always facilitates the supply of humanitarian aid to the Palestinian population by international organizations, when circumstances allow.

The IDF allowed the delivery of 8000 liters of diesel fuel to a hospital in Ramallah, as well as the delivery of 60 cubic meters of oxygen to a hospital in Jenin.

In the Gaza Strip, the passage of trucks carrying essential supplies sent by international aid organizations to the Palestinian population was coordinated.

Despite this, Palestinian spokesmen, the world press and even most world political leaders speak of Israeli atrocities and attacks against civilians. It is accepted that Israel is committing extreme acts against innocent Palestinians, and that the only question is if this is justified by the need to stop the suicide bombers.

In fact, Palestinian civilians are not being targeted and are largely not being killed or hurt. The Israeli army is hunting out and finding terrorists who deliberately operate among innocent civilians to provoke casualties of their own. And it is doing so with remarkably little loss to civilian life and limb.

 

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