[Peace-discuss] Kidnapped in Israel or Captured in Lebanon?

[David Green]

July 25, 2006

Kidnapped in Israel or Captured in Lebanon?

Official justification for Israel's invasion on thin
ice

by Joshua Frank

As Lebanon continues to be pounded by Israeli bombs
and munitions, 
the justification for Israel's invasion is treading on
very thin ice. 
It has become general knowledge that it was Hezbollah
guerillas that 
first kidnapped two IDF soldiers inside Israel on July
12, prompting 
an immediate and violent response from the Israeli
government, which 
insists it is acting in the interest of national
defense. Israeli 
forces have gone on to kill over 370 innocent Lebanese
civilians 
(compared to 34 killed on Israel's side) while
displacing hundreds of 
thousands more. But numerous reports from
international and 
independent media, as well as the Associated Press,
raise questions 
about Israel's official version of the events that
sparked the 
conflict two weeks ago.

The original story, as most media tell it, goes
something like this: 
Hezbollah attacked an Israeli border patrol station,
killing six and 
taking two soldiers hostage. The incident happened on
the Lebanese/ 
Israel border in Israeli territory. The alternate
version, as 
explained by several news outlets, tells a bit of a
different tale: 
These sources contend that Israel sent a commando
force into southern 
Lebanon and was subsequently attacked by Hezbollah
near the village 
of Aitaa al-Chaab, well inside Lebanon's southern
territory. It was 
at this point that an Israel tank was struck by
Hezbollah fighters, 
which resulted in the capture of two Israeli soldiers
and the death 
of six.

As the AFP reported, "According to the Lebanese police
force, the two 
Israeli soldiers were captured in Lebanese territory,
in the area of 
Aitaa al-Chaab, near to the border with Israel, where
an Israeli unit 
had penetrated in middle of morning." And the French
news site 
www.VoltaireNet.org reiterated the same account on
June 18, "In a 
deliberated way, [Israel] sent a commando in the
Lebanese back- 
country to Aitaa al-Chaab. It was attacked by
Hezbollah, taking two 
prisoners."

The Associated Press departed from the official
version as well. "The 
militant group Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers
during clashes 
Wednesday across the border in southern Lebanon,
prompting a swift 
reaction from Israel, which sent ground forces into
its neighbor to 
look for them," reported Joseph Panossian for AP on
July 12. "The 
forces were trying to keep the soldiers' captors from
moving them 
deeper into Lebanon, Israeli government officials said
on condition 
of anonymity."

And the Hindustan Times on July 12 conveyed a similar
account:

"The Lebanese Shi'ite Hezbollah movement announced on
Wednesday that 
its guerrillas have captured two Israeli soldiers in
southern 
Lebanon. 'Implementing our promise to free Arab
prisoners in Israeli 
jails, our strugglers have captured two Israeli
soldiers in southern 
Lebanon,' a statement by Hezbollah said. 'The two
soldiers have 
already been moved to a safe place,' it added. The
Lebanese police 
said that the two soldiers were captured as they
'infiltrated' into 
the town of Aitaa al-Chaab inside the Lebanese
border."

Whether factual or not, these alternative accounts
should at the very 
least raise serious questions as to Israel's motives
and rationale 
for bombarding Lebanon.

MSNBC online first reported that Hezbollah had
captured Israeli 
soldiers "inside" Lebanon, only to change their story
hours later 
after the Israeli government gave an official
statement to the contrary.

A report from The National Council of Arab Americans,
based in 
Lebanon, also raised suspicion that Israel's official
story did not 
hold water and noted that Israel had yet to recover
the tank that was 
demolished during the initial attack in question.

"The Israelis so far have not been able to enter Aitaa
al-Chaab to 
recover the tank that was exploded by Hezbollah and
the bodies of the 
soldiers that were killed in the original operation
(this is a main 
indication that the operation did take place on
Lebanese soil, not 
that in my opinion it would ever be an illegitimate
operation, but 
still the media has been saying that it was inside
'Israel' thus an 
aggression first started by Hezbollah)."

Before independent observers could organize an
investigation of the 
incident, Israel had already mounted a grisly
offensive against 
Lebanese infrastructure and civilians, bombing
Beirut's international 
airport, along with numerous highways and
communication portals. 
Israel didn't need the truth of the matter to play out
before it 
invaded Lebanon. As with the United States'
illegitimate invasion of 
Iraq, Israel just needed the proper media cover to
wage a war with no 
genuine moral impetus.

http://www.antiwar.com/frank/?articleid=9401


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