[WCUSP] On arms to Israel: Willful Blindness:

[KATHARLOW at aol.com]

Willful Blindness

By Marjorie Cohn
submitted to portside July 24  by the author
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0725-20.htm

On  Friday morning, as I traveled north on Interstate 5,
I passed two  tractor-trailers heading south toward the
32nd Street Naval Station in  downtown San Diego. Each
vehicle carried about 10 unmarked bombs; each bomb  was
approximately 15 feet long. Two military helicopters
hovered low above  each tractor-trailer, providing
overhead escort.

I wondered where  these bombs were headed. They must
have been in a big hurry because they  usually ship
their bombs more covertly.

Israel had just put out an  S.O.S. to the United States
government to rush over several more bombs.  "The
decision to quickly ship the weapons to Israel was made
with  relatively little debate within the Bush
administration," according to the  New York Times.
Although always well-equipped with sophisticated US-
made  weapons, Israel was evidently running out of
munitions to drop on the  Lebanese people.

Washington loses no opportunity to scold Iran and  Syria
for providing weapons to Hezbollah.

Yet during the Bush  administration, from 2001 to 2005,
Israel received $10.5 billion in Foreign  Military
Financing - the Pentagon's biggest military aid program
- and  $6.3 billion in US arms deliveries. Israel is the
largest recipient of US  foreign military assistance.

It is a violation of the US Arms Export  Control Act to
provide weapons to foreign countries that are not used
for  defensive purposes or to maintain internal
security. During the last major  Israeli incursion into
Lebanon, in 1981, the Reagan administration cut off  US
military aid and arms deliveries for 10 weeks while it
investigated  whether Israel was using weapons for
"defensive purposes."

Last week,  both houses of Congress, mindful of the
importance of retaining Jewish votes  and campaign
contributions, passed resolutions stating that Israel
is  acting in self-defense. The vote in the Senate was
unanimous; the House vote  was 410 to 8.

Walking in lockstep with Bush, neither resolution  calls
for a ceasefire. The Senate resolution praises Israel
for its  "restraint" and the House resolution "welcomes
Israel's continued efforts to  prevent civilian
casualties."

US-provided Israeli bombs have killed  nearly 400
Lebanese, the overwhelming majority innocent civilians.
The  bombing has displaced half a million people and
caused an estimated $1  billion in damage.

After Israeli orders that people in southern  Lebanon
evacuate their homes, several vehicles filled with
evacuating  Lebanese civilians were bombed by the
Israeli military.

An Israeli  helicopter fired a missile at a white
minibus carrying 19 people fleeing  Tairi. Three people
were killed and several wounded.

A green Mercedes  with a family fleeing Mansuri was
struck by an Israeli missile. Three lay  dead, others
severely injured. Eight-year-old Mahmoud Srour's face
was  burned beyond recognition.

As Zein al-Abdin Zabit evacuated with his wife  and four
sons, his white Nissan was hit by an Israeli missile.
"It's  nothing more than revenge, revenge on civilians,"
Zabit said as he lay in bed  with broken ribs.

Human Rights Watch confirmed yesterday that Israel  is
using artillery-delivered cluster munitions in
populated areas of  Lebanon. "Cluster munitions are
unacceptably inaccurate and unreliable  weapons when
used around civilians," said Kenneth Roth, executive
director  of Human Rights Watch. "They should never be
used in populated  areas."

The use of cluster munitions in populated areas in Iraq
caused  more civilian casualties than any other factor
in the US-led coalition's  major military operations in
March and April 2003, killing and wounding more  than
1,000 Iraqi civilians, HRW reported.

HRW photographed  US-produced/US-supplied cluster bombs
among the arsenal of Israel Defense  Forces artillery
teams stationed on the Israeli-Lebanese border during  a
July 23 research visit.

Independent journalist Dahr Jamail reported  that the
Lebanese Ministry of Interior has confirmed the
Israelis have  used the incendiary white phosphorous
gas. This is a chemical weapon, much  like napalm, that
can burn right down to the bone. The US military  used
white phosphorous in Fallujah, Iraq.

Article 35 of Protocol I to  the Geneva Conventions
prohibits the use of weapons "of a nature to  cause
superfluous injury or unnecessary suffering." Cluster
bombs and  white phosphorous fall into this category.

Bilal Masri, assistant  director of the Beirut
Government University Hospital, told Jamail,  "The
Israelis are using new kinds of bombs, and these bombs
can penetrate  bomb shelters," Masri added. "They are
bombing the refugees in the bomb  shelters!"

Masri also said that 55 percent of the casualties  are
children under 15 years of age.

It is a violation of the laws of  war to target
civilians. "A fundamental rule of international
humanitarian  law is the obligation to distinguish
between civilians and civilian property  on one hand and
military targets on the other," Nada Doumani, Middle
East  spokesperson for the International Committee of
the Red Cross told  Aljazeera.net. "Under no
circumstances, can civilians and public and  private
property be deliberately attacked. All parties in the
conflict  have to abide by these rules."

Doumani quoted ICRC Director of Operations  Pierre
Krahenbuhl, who said: "The high number of civilian
casualties and  the extent of damage to essential public
infrastructure raise serious  questions regarding
respect for the principle of proportionality in  the
conduct of hostilities."

Nearly every report from the corporate  media seeks to
find symmetry in this war. When an outlet covers  the
massive devastation in Lebanon and increasing numbers
of Lebanese  civilians killed by Israeli bombs, it is
careful to juxtapose reports of  Hezbollah rockets fired
into Israel.

Jan Egeland, the United Nations  emergency relief chief,
however, called the "disproportionate response"  by
Israel to Hezbollah's actions "a violation of
international  humanitarian law." Egeland, who
characterized the devastated areas of Lebanon  as
"horrific," said Israel is denying access to  relief
operations.

At least 384 people have been killed in  Lebanon,
including 20 soldiers and 11 Hezbollah fighters.
Israel's death  toll is at least 40, with 17 people
killed by Hezbollah rockets and 23  soldiers killed in
the fighting.

On Monday, a high-ranking Israeli Air  Force officer
told reporters that Israeli Defense Forces Chief of
Staff  Lt.-Gen. Dan Halutz had ordered the military to
destroy 10 buildings in  Beirut in retaliation for every
Katyusha rocket strike on Haifa by  Hezbollah.

Last week, several Jewish organizations and  Christian
Zionists lobbied the White House to support Israel.

Bush  complied, giving Israel at least another week to
continue slaughtering the  Lebanese people.

While Bush stood by and watched the  humanitarian
catastrophe Israel is wreaking in Lebanon, Condoleezza
Rice  traveled there and met with Fuad Siniora, the
Lebanese prime  minister.

Rice's visit was an "important show of support for  the
Lebanese public and the Siniora government," a US
official said  Monday. The official told reporters
traveling with Rice, "The fact we are  going to go right
into Beirut after all that has happened is a  pretty
dramatic signal to Lebanon and their government."

It would be  much more dramatic for Bush-Rice to call a
halt to the carnage. When Helen  Thomas asked White
House spokesman Tony Snow why the President opposed  a
ceasefire, he rudely thanked her for her "Hezbollah
view."

Bush  could stop Israel in its tracks with a snap of his
fingers. But why would he?  Israel is doing Bush's
bidding - redrawing the map of the Middle East  to
facilitate US domination.  Bush began that task with
Iraq; Israel  is following suit with Palestine and
Lebanon.

Indeed, Bush is hoping  Israel's next stop will be Iran
or Syria. A July 21 list of talking points  from the
White House Office of the Press Secretary referred to a
Los  Angeles Times op-ed by Max Boot titled, "It's Time
to Let The Israelis Take  Off the Gloves."

The White House release contained this quote  from
Boot's piece: "Our best response is exactly what Bush
has done so far  - reject premature calls for a cease-
fire and let Israel finish the  job."

That quote was preceded by this language: "Iran may be
too far  away for much Israeli retaliation beyond a
single strike on its nuclear  weapons complex. (Now
wouldn't be a bad time.) But Syria is weak and  next
door. To secure its borders, Israel needs to hit the
Assad regime.  Hard. If it does, it will be doing
Washington's dirty work."

We turn a  blind eye at our peril.

[Marjorie Cohn, professor at Thomas Jefferson  School of
Law, is president-elect of the National Lawyers Guild,
and the  US representative to the executive committee of
the American Association of  Jurists.]



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