Soccer Dad

Terrorist tool

View from a Height characterizes Human Rights Watch: Watchdog? No, scared puppy. He notes that when HRW wanted to publicize its report on Hezbollah it had to cancel its press conference due to intimidation by Hezbollah, though it was able to publicize its report critical of Israel with no pressure from the Israeli government. But of course.

When concluding, as it does that Israel killed many more civilians than terrorists HRW claimed that it scoured graveyards.

The "vast majority" of the at least 1,109 Lebanese killed in the war were civilians, including many women and children, the report concluded. The Israeli military has said it killed 600 Hezbollah fighters during the war. But the rights group said the number, based on its count of fighters' graves in Lebanon and other evidence, was closer to 250.

Unfortunately, the Post's reporter Samuel Sockol doesn't provide us with a clue as to how Israel arrived at its figure. Gen Yaacov Amidror did.

A few months ago he wrote We have identified by name and address 440 members of Hizballah who were killed during the war. From my experience, this figure is between half and two-thirds of the actual casualties, which were not less than 500 and may have reached 700 - a figure greater than all the casualties Hizballah has suffered during the last twenty years. It will take Hizballah at least two years to rebuild its capabilities and to recruit and train new people. This is why Hizballah is keeping the cease-fire.

I'm reasonably certain that Israeli intelligence got more complete results than a combination of touring cemeteries and interview eyewitnesses. After all, surely at least some of the witnesses were intimidated into giving HRW the answers that Hezbollah demanded.

When the report about Hezbollah was released, HRW mentioned that it was going to go after Israel next. Its report is typically dishonest, denying that Hezbollah - the terrorist organization that cowed them into silence - used human shields or intimidated the population of Lebanon during last year's war. That requires ignoring photographic evidence.

Human Rights Watch continues to be a tool for terror organization falling far short of its noble sounding name.

human rights watch, israel, hezbollah.

Posted by SoccerDad at September 7, 2007 3:21 AM