Other nagging questions

Submitted by Salomon Benzimra (Canada), Jul 21, 2008 at 15:21

In addition to the very valid points raised by Daniel Pipes, I would add the following two issues which shows the lopsided attitude of the international community when dealing with Israel.

1. In the past 2 years, no Red Cross inspector has been allowed to visit the 2 Israeli soldiers held in Lebanon, while Hezbollah never hinted they were dead. Red Cross inspectors routinely visit Israeli prisons to enquire about the health of Palestinian prisoners but in the case of the 2 Israeli soldiers, they never protested for not being allowed to visit them in Lebanon. We should remember that the Red Cross is responsible for upholding the Geneva Conventions.

Ten years ago, they called an emergency meeting of the Geneva Conventions Contracting Parties (something unheard of in their then 50 year existence) to blast Israel for some presumed infraction in the "occupied territories". But when it comes to fulfill their obligations of visiting Israeli prisoners, they don't show the same urgency.

2. UNSC Resolution 1701 of August 2006, which put an end to the Second War of Lebanon, specifically calls in its preamble for the "unconditional return of the abducted Israeli soldiers." Everyone believed they were alive then, but this clause, together with most of Resolution 1701 (disarming Hezbollah, curtailing the flow of arms from Syria, taking full control of southern Lebanon by UNIFIL, etc.) were ignored. So, when UNIFIL soldiers shamefully salute the coffins of terrorists returned by Israel, there is nothing surprising: it is actually Hezbollah which controls UNIFIL and not the other way around. This also is an outrage.

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