Here is the Eleventh edition of the Newspeak dictionary, courtesy of the government of Israel.
“Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer said Thursday that Hamas military commander Salah Shehada, killed in the IAF’s Gaza strike on Monday, was in the midst of preparing ‘a mega terror attack.’”
“Speaking at a meeting at the Labor Speaking at a meeting at the Labor Party’s central headquarters in Beit Berl, Ben-Eliezer said that Shehada planned to infiltrate one ton of explosives into Israel ‘which could shock the whole nation or kill hundreds.’”
So instead, Ben Eliezer ordered one ton of explosives to be be dropped from an F16. Only 17 were killed and hundreds wounded. But he did manage to shock the whole nation, indeed the whole world.
Of course, unlike Shehadeh’s one ton of explosives which could kill hundreds, Israel’s one ton of explosives are relatively harmless:
“The Israel Defense Forces wrongly believed the bomb that killed Hamas leader Salah Shehadeh on Monday night would cause only minor injuries to residents in the surrounding buildings, according to a preliminary investigation of the disaster.”
The Israelis, unlike the ruthless Palestinian terrorists, use the most modern means to investigate the power of their explosives to avoid unnecessary civilian deaths. In vast backyard lots in the Negev, the IDF has built models of Gaza neighborhoods, on which trial runs of bombings are played out. Sophisticated computer simulations are run before each bombing attack to assure the most accurate possible results. How do I know this, you ask? It was hinted at in the following statements by the IDF:
“The airforce expected that Shehadeh’s building would be completely destroyed and everyone in it would be killed. But it predicted that residents of the nearby buildings, if there were any, would suffer nothing more than shrapnel wounds, shock or cuts from broken glass. In reality, 13 of the 17 dead came from these surrounding buildings.”
“There were conflicting assessments from Shin Bet officers who argued that the bombing would cause too much damage to the rest of the neighborhood. But Shin Bet chief Avi Dichter accepted the army’s assessment – based on various scientific tests performed by the Air Force to determine the impact of a one-ton bomb – and so did Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer. It was on the basis of this assessment that the two ministers approved the operation.”
Well there you go. Scientific proof that Israeli (sorry, American) bombs are precise instruments that kill only their targets. Who can argue with that? Not even the crack minds in Israeli intelligence. Of course, those crack minds are claiming to be right on one thing, while the scientists at the Air Force, too busy running simulations on the bomb’s effect, didn’t have time to analyze other, less important data:
“Shin Bet officials, who had been tracking Shehadeh since Hamas bought him the apartment in question as a hideout several weeks ago, say they also passed on the assessment that the neighboring buildings were probably inhabited. IDF officers say their assessment was that these buildings were probably empty. But an analysis of aerial photographs of the area – an analysis performed by the IDF only after the fact – would have made it clear that some of these buildings were inhabited.”
“Probably inhabited” “Some were inhabited” Ever cautious, these crack analysts would never venture an unequivical statement. Everything needs scientific proof. The fact that Gaza is the most densely inhabited place on the planet, and the odds that the buildings were uninhabited were close to zero, do not sway these scientific minds from sticking to their scientific methods of analysis.
Of course, while it is too bad that a couple of kids got killed in the process, we did manage to kill Shehadeh and prevent Hamas’ mega-attack? Right?
“Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said Israelis and Palestinians alike must brace for more violence following the air strike, in which he said Israel had made mistakes.”
“‘I know that this is a serious escalation and I am really afraid that innocent people on both sides will pay a high price,’ Peres told Israel’s Army Radio.”
Tags: Hamas, Hypocrisy, Israeli Army, Shehada, War Crimes