Israel Matzav

The Washington Post's Lethal Harvest

Today's Washington Post has a 31-paragraph story entitled 'Lebanon's Lethal Harvest,' which enumerates Israel's alleged sins in dropping cluster bombs over Lebanon. Without offering a shred of evidence, the Post parrots an 'estimate' of "U.N. officials" that 90% of the munitions were fired during the last 72 hours of the conflict. And we all know how unbiased "U.N. officials" are when it comes to Israel....

But even if one accepts the assertion that the cluster bombs were dropped during the last 72 hours of the conflict, what's more appalling about this story is the complete lack of context. For it is only in the 26th paragraph of the 31-paragraph story that we are given even the smallest hint of why Israel might have dropped cluster munitions in southern Lebanon. And even then, the hint is just a hint and it lasts for one sentence - less than the entire paragraph:

Ali and some of his neighbors acknowledged that there were Hezbollah fighters in the town.

And just what were the Hezbullah 'fighters' doing hiding among civilians in violation of the 4th Geneva Convention? The Post apparently feels that question can be ignored.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 3:30 PM