Qana and Cease-fire

Israel going into a cease-fire at this moment strikes me as a definite mistake. There is little doubt that Hezbollah will continue to fire rockets into Israel irrespective of that action. Worse, it appears that the reason comes from Qana where Hezbollah was firing rockets while surrounded by civilian shields.

Hours after its warplanes killed dozens of women and children in a bombing raid on this southern Lebanese village, Israel agreed last night to halt its aerial war in Southern Lebanon for 48 hours, as international condemnation mounted over the heavy civilian death toll. The bombing yesterday morning was the deadliest single episode in 18 days of war. Some estimates put the death toll as high as 57. The United Nations Security Council last night unanimously adopted a statement expressing "extreme shock and distress" over the attack but stopping short of an appeal for an immediate cease-fire.

And

Most of the victims were women and children from two extended families who had taken refuge from weeks of Israeli attacks in the basement of a half-finished concrete house. The airstrike collapsed a house onto the shelter in this village at the center of Israel's air war against the Hezbollah, whose fighters have fired hundreds of rockets into northern Israel.

The international outrage is interesting, though I find it unlikely that any of the loudest countries wouldn't be doing the same thing if placed in Israel's shoes.

Of course, this is a coupe for Hezbollah. Not only did they get to use Qana to launch rockets at Israel, but they get a major piece of propaganda against Israel due to the collateral damage. The vast majority of the first reports of the attack pretty much ignored that Hezbollah was launching rockets from there, just as Koffi Annan continues to ignore that the UNIFIL base had been used to shield rocket attacks.

The civilian death toll brought public outrage to a boiling point in Lebanon and spurred United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan to call for a halt to violence. Annan told the UN Security Council in an emergency meeting last night it would be discredited if it failed to take meaningful action to halt the conflict.

You'd think that the Secretary General of the UN would be a bit more objective. But I'm certain that he believes that the higher civilian death toll in Lebanon is of more importance than the deaths in Israel.

The MSM, overall, is playing this very anti-Israeli. All the quotes in the article support the view that Hezbollah wasn't using the civilians for shields. It fascinating to note that there are no quotes holding Hezbollah to task for their actions. Go ahead and count the quotes supporting Hezbollah or condemning Israel and compare that to the number pointing out Hezbollah's responsibility.

As the psychological war goes, the terrorists have the press in their pocket.

UPDATE:
I made the mistake of reading this article out of Salon on the topic. It's fascinating on it's complete lack of logic or having any clue about how Hezbollah is fighting.

Throughout this now 16-day-old war, Israeli planes high above civilian areas make decisions on what to bomb. They send huge bombs capable of killing things for hundreds of meters around their targets, and then blame the inevitable civilian deaths -- the Lebanese government says 600 civilians have been killed so far -- on "terrorists" who callously use the civilian infrastructure for protection.

But this claim is almost always false. My own reporting and that of other journalists reveals that in fact Hezbollah fighters -- as opposed to the much more numerous Hezbollah political members, and the vastly more numerous Hezbollah sympathizers -- avoid civilians. Much smarter and better trained than the PLO and Hamas fighters, they know that if they mingle with civilians, they will sooner or later be betrayed by collaborators -- as so many Palestinian militants have been.

For their part, the Israelis seem to think that if they keep pounding civilians, they'll get some fighters, too. The almost nightly airstrikes on the southern suburbs of Beirut could be seen as making some sense, as the Israelis appear convinced there are command and control bunkers underneath the continually smoldering rubble. There were some civilian casualties the first few nights in places like Haret Hreik, but people quickly left the area to the Hezbollah fighters with their radios and motorbikes.

Yep. Someone seems to be missing that Hezbollah is firing rockets from mobile launchers. Typical tactics from guerrilla groups. Not to mention that in many cases they can just drive in and setup the launcher and fire their munitions without any local interference. No doubt there are launchers placed on buildings that draw attacks, but denying that the emplacements are there not only for attacking Israel, but also to draw fire into civilian areas is shockingly naive.

The Israelis are consistent: They bomb everyone and everything remotely associated with Hezbollah, including noncombatants. In effect, that means punishing Lebanon. The nation is 40 percent Shiite, and of that 40 percent, tens of thousands are employed by Hezbollah's social services, political operations, schools, and other nonmilitary functions. The "terrorist" organization Hezbollah is Lebanon's second-biggest employer.

Wouldn't be interesting to find out how this reporter would decide who in Hezbollah is a combatant and who isn't? There's that interesting part of terrorist groups that has been seen in the Palestinian territories. If terrorists start filtering money into communities, they start to become a supported part of the infrastructure, but when they start firing rockets at Israel, they are still humanitarian support groups.

Although Israel targets apartments and offices because they are considered "Hezbollah" installations, the group has a clear policy of keeping its fighters away from civilians as much as possible. This is not for humanitarian reasons -- they did, after all, take over an apartment building against the protests of the landlord, knowing full well it would be bombed -- but for military ones.

"You can be a member of Hezbollah your entire life and never see a military wing fighter with a weapon," a Lebanese military intelligence official, now retired, once told me. "They do not come out with their masks off and never operate around people if they can avoid it. They're completely afraid of collaborators. They know this is what breaks the Palestinians -- no discipline and too much showing off."

Nice that they go to such extremes to push that message. Problem I have is that I don't believe them. I also overwhelmingly see this as a further propaganda tool for Hezbollah. Who are we to believe? The Israeli missile camera shots showing large, mobile rocket launchers in the center of a civilian area, or the quotations from a "non-military" wing of a terrorist organization?

This also should be clear even to these dolts at Salon. If a group with a humanitarian wing choses to fight a war, they should expect all portions of their organization to be attacked. Especially when the terrorist portion of the group hides among civilians.

The cease-fire screaching by the UN proves the effectiveness of the presses influence on this situation. It also proves that Hezbollah's tactics are working.