The PenOpticon

With an apparent lull in Afghanistan reportage, Canadian media have again stuck out their tongues to taste the fetid winds emanating from the Liberal leadership race. That air was particularly thick yesterday after Liberal front-runner, Michael Ignatieff told a Radio-Canada interviewer that Israel committed a war crime in Qana after they massacred 28 Lebanese civilians last July. I’m not a big fan of Ignatieff, but I was both surprised and impressed to hear him make such an unequivocal statement. Harper’s response was more predictable, however. Putting on his best paternal, Judeo-Christian, sour game face, our sociopath Prime Minister droned: “This is consistent with the anti-Israeli position that has been taken by virtually all of the candidates for the Liberal leadership.” And predictably, every one of Ignatieff’s leadership rivals has since walked a well-worn Liberal tightrope by distancing themselves from Ignatieff’s “anti-Israel” stance, while lashing out at Harper’s “classically thoughtless” remarks.

And so the winds blow. And so another issue dissipates into the upper strata of the atmosphere — well out of range of public discourse. So the question remains? Did Israel commit war crimes in Lebanon? And did Hezbollah commit war crimes in Israel?

Yes and yes, according to Amnesty International. On August 23rd, the group reported:

“Israel’s assertion that the attacks on the infrastructure were lawful is manifestly wrong. Many of the violations identified in our report are war crimes, including indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks. The evidence strongly suggests that the extensive destruction of power and water plants, as well as the transport infrastructure vital for food and other humanitarian relief, was deliberate and an integral part of a military strategy,” said Kate Gilmore, Executive Deputy Secretary General of Amnesty International.

The report includes evidence of the following:

• Massive destruction by Israeli forces of whole civilian neighbourhoods and villages;
• Attacks on bridges in areas of no apparent strategic importance;
• Attacks on water pumping stations, water treatment plants and supermarkets despite the prohibition against targeting objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population;
• Statements by Israeli military officials indicating that the destruction of civilian infrastructure was indeed a goal of Israel’s military campaign designed to press the Lebanese government and the civilian population to turn against Hizbullah.

Add to this the widespread ecological damage caused by this war, including a massive oil spill that threatens much of Lebanon’s coastline and wildlife. Of course, AI also rightly takes umbrage at Hezbollah’s rocket attacks against Israeli civilians. But this was an all out asymmetrical war, in which Israel threw everything it had into it — thousands of troops, billions of American dollars, bunker busters and cluster bombs, all sanctioned by the questionable moral support of Bush, Blair, Harper and the rest. It was a monstrous — and criminal — confrontation between stupidity and madness.

It’s a pity the Liberals can’t offer substantive debate on this issue.