My Own Side

With the recent Lebanon offensive, much is being said about Israel using “smart” bombs. Boiled down, the argument goes that since Israel is using sophisticated smart bombs, therefore any civilian casualties must have been deliberately targeted by Israel.

This is a simplistic view of a chaotic war. However, it has traction, especially when it confirms the stereotype of Israel as a brutal oppressor of an innocent Arab population. That Israel would deliberately target civilians is a claim that is to be expected from her enemies. They are militarily weak, and have become very adept at manipulating the media to use international opinion as a weapon against Israel. However, it is deeply offensive that the Secretary General of the U.N. would immediately blame Israel, as he did when a U.N. outpost was hit while surrounded by Hezbollah fighters and rocket launchers.

It should be unnecessary to even say it, but the policy of Israel, like America, is to NOT deliberately target civilians in a war. In contrast, it is the explicit policy of Hezbollah and Hamas to target civilians, even children. When asked about a machine gun attack on an Israeli school bus, a Hamas leader had a chillingly simple answer “Little Israelis grow up to be big Israelis.”

It should be noted that Hamas does have in it’s arsenal the ultimate smart bomb, and it has been used with devastating effectiveness against targets in Israel for years. They call them the Shaheed. In the West, it is known as the suicide bomber. The Shaheed are the ultimate smart bombs. They are stealthy and able to evade interception on their way to their intended target. They control the exact time and position of their detonation to produce the maximum effect, even intelligently changing the parameters of their own mission on the fly if necessary.

And they have been deployed almost exclusively against the innocent.

When an Israeli smart bomb is dropped on a building, it is based on the best intelligence that Israel has that it is a military target, but they cannot see through walls. The Hamas/Hezbollah smart bomb doesn’t have to see through walls. When it detonates, it can see the faces of it’s targets.

On Friday, July 28th 2006, Naveed Afzal Haq pushed his way into the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle building, said “I am a Muslim-American, angry at Israel” and shot six women, including one who was pregnant. One woman died at the scene, three of the others were critically injured. The woman who died was a member of B’nai Torah in Bellevue, according to a Rabbi that I spoke to at the scene.

The pregnant woman was shot in the arm, however, she may have saved her child’s life by covering her belly with her arm when she saw Naveed point the gun at her.

You can see the security, including a camera in the upper left corner. Below is a picture of the security pad. The early reports are conflicting. Some say a women had just entered the code when Naveed pushed past her and others say that he held a gun to the head of a 13 year old girl to gain access.

Daniel, a Christian, was there with Israeli and American flags showing his support for the Jewish community.

Unfortunately, not everyone was supportive. A young woman had left her anti-Israeli message on cardboard next to the flowers. She was mad at the idea that all this media attention might cause some to feel sympathy for Israel. How sweet.

As nasty as that was, it was topped by this guy, out for a stroll with a little girl that I assume is his daughter.

As he walked by and saw Daniel with the flags, he yelled down the street “F**k Israel! Burn that flag!” while flipping us off. She looked a little scared, but if you want to train your kids up for Jihad, you have to start training them early to hate Jews, I guess. How disgusting of an example.

I have some more pictures in my gallery here.

Washington Times story.

Seattle Times here, here and here.

King County Journal here.

Seattle Post Intelligencer here.

Also, check out the photo gallery here, pictures 6-9. There are reports that Naveed had left his Muslim faith and converted to Christianity last year, causing a fallout with his Muslim family.

Here are a couple political cartoons that have been making the rounds.

Also, check this one out. I’m not going to add a lot of commentary, any reasonable person should be able to get it.