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The Israeli Way of War

(Pajamas Media) Michael J. Totten - Abe Lapson, an IDF director of combat engineering, hosted me at the urban warfare training center in the northern Negev. They built a scale-model city out there in the desert where Israeli soldiers engage in sophisticated combat exercises. There are mannequins representing civilians and peacekeepers who aren't to be touched, as well as enemy soldiers and terrorists. "We take extra precautions, even when it puts our own troops in danger," says Lapson. I've never been to a Hizbullah training camp (they blacklisted me for "writing against the party"). Still, I'm certain they don't have dummies representing civilians who aren't to be touched. Israel, like the U.S., follows the Law of Armed Conflict. No one else in the Middle East does, especially not the likes of Hamas or Hizbullah. I met with one of the Judge Advocate General officers at the Israel Ministry of Defense. Part of her job entails launching investigations and bringing criminal charges against her fellow soldiers. Can you imagine Hamas or Hizbullah investigating their fighters and punishing them if they harmed Israeli civilians? The very idea is absurd. The whole point of firing missiles at cities and sending suicide bombers into restaurants and onto buses is to murder as many civilians as possible. These are war crimes.
2011-01-14 08:44:06
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