Soccer Dad

Even Paranoiacs have Enemies

My first college roommate had a poster (appropriately) hanging in his closet with the punchline "Just because you're not paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you."
It's funny how, over the years, Israel's detractors and critics in the media will write about the "alleged" terrorist or the collateral damage caused by Israeli responses to terror as if the bystanders are obvious victims of Israeli negligence.
But the Israeli claims have merit. Two stories last week underline that yes, Israel is killing the right people and when the wrong people die it's because the fighters are firing from among non-combatants. I'm sure it's happened many more times than just these two cases.

First there was the killing of Jihad Hassan. Israel apparently sold him a booby trapped weapon. Guess who posted obituary notices for this paragon of virtue? Why none other than Tawfiq Tirawi.

An obituary notice published by the General Intelligence Force, headed by Gen. Tawfik Tirawi, revealed that the Aqsa Martyrs Brigades commander also served in the force with the rank of lieutenant.

(I'm not suggesting that Tirawi's hands are clean. They're not. But he is ostensibly a non-criminal member of the PA.) It's inconceivable that Tirawi was unaware of the extracurricular activities of is Lieutenant.
(And let's not forget that the Palestinian PM himself thinks that the Al Aqsa Martyr's Brigade need a little understanding from Israel and needs to be absorbed into Fatah.)
Then there was this admission from a member of Martyr's Brigade from "Losing Faith in the Intifada":

From the beginning, civilians were caught squarely in the middle by the tactics of Palestinian militants. Abu Fahdi described the use of thickly populated areas as cover when staging attacks.

"It made me uneasy when we would use someone's house to fire at [Jewish targets] and know that the army would shoot back at the families in the area or destroy the home," he said. "But we thought it was something that had to be done in the short term, in order to inflict blows."

Mind you the reporter simply takes her subject's "uneasiness" in stride. It doesn't appear to have made her re-think whether Israeli soldiers were justified in firing back in such circumstances.

So yes in this case a fellow Israel called a terrorist really was one. And yes this fellow fired at soldier from among crowds. The question is how many more were like them that aren't documented or that the media does not care one whit about.
Crossposted on Israpundit and Soccer Dad.

Posted by SoccerDad at October 4, 2004 1:27 AM