[Elder of Ziyon] Amnesty hypocrisy: French try to avoid civilian casualties, Israelis don't

From AlertNet:

"With the current intervention of the French, we are, of course, very afraid that the humanitarian situation will worsen very quickly," said Salvatore Saguès, West Africa researcher at Amnesty International.

He said civilian casualties were virtually unavoidable - despite France's best efforts to target rebel fighters in its bombing campaign - because rebels were living among civilians.

"It is simply impossible to really separate the armed groups and the population because the armed groups (are) in towns, in civilian buildings," Saguès told AlertNet in a phone interview.

Did Amnesty show any similar understanding of Israel's attempts to only target terrorists and avoid civilian casualties? Did Amnesty notice the difference between a Western state and the Islamist terrorist group it was fighting as it does in Mali, a nation that cannot possibly directly threaten France with rockets? Did it ever refer to "Israel's best efforts" to avoid civilian casualties when the terrorists were hiding among civilians?

Of course not. To Amnesty, Israel and terror groups are interchangeable.

As the conflict escalates between Israel and Palestinian armed groups in Gaza, Amnesty International is calling for an international arms embargo and for the immediate deployment of international monitors.

"International monitors with the ability to investigate human rights violations and violations of international humanitarian law need to be on the ground as soon as possible in both Gaza and Israel to carry out independent, impartial assessments of violations by both sides," said Ann Harrison, Amnesty International's Middle East and North Africa Deputy Director.

"The UN Security Council should meet urgently to impose an international arms embargo on Israel, Hamas, and Palestinian armed groups in Gaza."

Pending such an embargo, all states should immediately suspend transfers of weapons, munitions and related equipment to Israel, the Hamas de facto administration, and Palestinian armed groups in Gaza.

There is no doubt that the French are justified in helping fight terrorists in Mali. However, the hypocrisy of how human rights organizations give France the benefit of the doubt while slamming Israel for doing the same thing is disgusting.



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Posted By Elder of Ziyon to Elder of Ziyon at 1/16/2013 11:15:00 AM