Israel the Rogue State

I'm sorry, but Israel is a rogue state. Unfortunately, their supporters in America (the Israeli Lobby, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, and those in Congress whom they control) just keep lying and lying about Israel's assualt on the children in the mid-East.

Israel has a poor reputation for telling the truth about its use of weapons in Lebanon. In 1982, it denied using phosphorous munitions on civilian areas - until journalists discovered dying and dead civilians whose wounds caught fire when exposed to air.

I saw two dead babies who, when taken from a mortuary drawer in West Beirut during the Israeli siege of the city, suddenly burst back into flames. Israel officially denied using phosphorous again in Lebanon during the summer - except for "marking" targets - even after civilians were photographed in Lebanese hospitals with burn wounds consistent with phosphorous munitions.

Then on Sunday, Israel suddenly admitted that it had not been telling the truth. Jacob Edery, the Israeli minister in charge of government-parliament relations, confirmed that phosphorous shells were used in direct attacks against Hizbollah, adding that "according to international law, the use of phosphorous munitions is authorised and the (Israeli) army keeps to the rules of international norms". (my emphasis)

This is a lie. Protocol III of the Chemical Weapons Conventions states:

It is prohibited in all circumstances to make any military objective located within a concentration of civilians the object of attack by air-delivered incendiary weapons.”

Sounds pretty straightforward, doesn't it. Oops, Israel and the United States didn't sign this protocol. So, maybe this asshole is technically correct, just like Dick Cheney didn't say "water boarding" even though he meant it, as even a school child could have figured out.

And then when someone with real credentials, Jimmy Carter, writes a book about the situation (or Queen Noor, for that matter), in order to keep the support of the vile AIPAC lobby, leading Democrats resort to denial:

Top Democrats are rushing to repudiate former President Carter’s controversial new book on the Middle East, in which he accuses the Israeli government of maintaining an apartheid system.

Two key party leaders — Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean, party chairman, and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi — and several congressmen issued statements Monday saying that the book, “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid,” does not represent their views on the Jewish state.

“It is wrong to suggest that the Jewish people would support a government in Israel or anywhere else that institutionalizes ethnically based oppression, and Democrats reject that allegation vigorously,” Pelosi wrote in a statement. “With all due respect to former President Carter, he does not speak for the Democratic Party on Israel.” (my emphasis)

Sorry, Pelosi, you don't represent me in this opinion. Why didn't you and Dean just shut your jabbers on this issue.

All this having been said, I realize that not all Israelis support their government just as not all Americans are supporters of the Cheney administration. So, my comdemnation is of those in power in both countries who kill and maim children. Any children.