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Message: <br /><br /> If you are having trouble reading this email, you may view this article online at: http://www.jweekly.com/18197/full/18197/sharon-s-had-i-known-is-pathetic-embarrassing/ <br /><br /> <b>Sharon’s ‘had I known’ is pathetic, embarrassing</b> <br /> Friday, August 2, 2002 | by <p>Amid scathing international criticism of the Gaza air strike that killed the commander of the military wing of Hamas, Salah Sheh </p> <br /><br /><p>There is something terribly disingenuous, not to mention embarrassing, when our prime minister and all his government's spokespeople tell us our military intelligence must have been flawed.<br /><br /> Of course, this is no less disingenuous than President Bush's spokesperson, Ari Fleischer, telling us the president feels the attack was "heavy-handed" and "does not contribute to peace."<br /><br /> Having Fleischer make such an announcement the same day that The New York Times publishes a report of hundreds of civilian casualties resulting from U.S. military bombing raids in Afghanistan fills the classic definition of chutzpah.<br /><br /> Following the government line, Maj.-Gen. Dan Harel, Israeli chief of army operations, tells us: "Apparently some civilians were killed, and we are sorry about that. We did not expect such results. Had we known, we might have aborted the mission." Apparently? Has Israeli intelligence hit such a low point that it could not verify for Harel that civilians would be killed in the attack?<br /><br /> And sorry? For what—for the failure in intelligence reporting, or that nine children were killed?<br /><br /> Harel's expression of remorse was about as sincere as U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's lame apology for "accidentally" killing 48 Afghan civilians celebrating a wedding.<br /><br /> One does not have to be a rocket scientist to know that if you drop a bomb from an F-16 or B-52 warplane on a populated civilian area, innocent people are going to be killed. What was the Israel Defense Force thinking when it ordered one of its pilots to fire a rocket into an apartment building?<br /><br /> All expressions of sorrow ring hollow. No sane person really believes Sharon and the army were unaware of the potential results of such an attack, just as no sane individual really believes Bush and his army were unaware of the consequences of carpet-bombing.<br /><br /> A political decision is made, despite the known outcome, and is chalked up to "collateral damage," accompanied by the obligatory: "Had we known…" But for us Israelis, neither American hypocrisy nor Palestinian suicide bombings can disguise the fact that we have innocent blood on our hands.<br /><br /> When it is Sharon saying "Had I known…" every Israeli should recoil in cynicism. The Kahan Commission, investigating the events surrounding the Sabra and Shatilla massacre in Beirut during the Lebanon War, rejected Sharon's statement of "Had I known."<br /><br /> Sharon is elected and paid to know and to anticipate the outcome of his decisions, just as military intelligence is there to evaluate the cause and effect of every army action. But military intelligence has become an oxymoron.<br /><br /> There is no need to argue the practical side of this devastating "mistake." Again, anyone with the slightest bit of insight knows that Palestinian revenge in the form of suicide bombers will wend its perilous way to exact more Israeli lives.<br /><br /> It is the hypocrisy of the whole sorry incident that is so troubling, for it points to such moral lapses on the part of Israel that shame is the only emotion that can characterize what the average Israeli should feel about his or her country. We need to ask ourselves: Where is our sense of ethical behavior—once a prized Jewish possession? It has gone up in flames with our prime minister's pathetic mantra of "Had I known."<br /><br /> Every political and/or military decision has its moral side. If we adopt the tactics of our worst enemies, will we not soon look and act like them, at least in the eyes of others?<br /><br /> This latest act would seem to lend credibility to those who claim we have become a reflection of those we are fighting. We have thrown all moral caution to the wind. And if morality counts for nothing, we will surely lose this war. If we continue with such actions, devoid not of military intelligence but of moral behavior, what will hang in the balance is not the future of the territories or even the issue of war and peace, but the very face of Jewish civilization.<br /><br /> We are told: "Justice, justice, you shall pursue that you will live and inherit this land, which the Lord your God promised you" (Deuteronomy 16:20). Why does the word justice appear twice? Because we are commanded to pursue a just cause by just means.<br /><br /> Would that our prime minister knew this Jewish definition of who we should be as a people and a nation.<br /><br /> But if Sharon, Benjamin Ben-Eliezer and Harel continue to claim "Had I known," we will undermine our moral legitimacy as a Jewish people deserving to "inherit" a Jewish state.</p> <p> </p>

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