The killing of the unarmed military observers resulted from 14 rounds of fire on the same area. This event led the UN to protest the attack. It’s interesting that UN General Secretary Kofi Annan learned of the four observers’ death during a talk with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and he said he was “shocked” by this last minute information. Just as the Lebanon Conference was taking place and authorities from all over the world were gathering in Rome, the Israeli artillery men’s attack threw the conference atmosphere into confusion.
Annan said, “Israel Prime Minister Ehud Olmert assured me that UN points would not be attacked.” Apparently due to this guarantee, Olmert said that the attack was not intentional and that he didn’t know what the UN General Secretary meant. Meanwhile, Jean Mrac de La Sabliere, permanent representative of France, who is acting as current chairman of the Security Council, criticized the attack that resulted in the death of four people.
In the military operation that Israel has pursued since June 28th, there have been close to 400 deaths and more than 1,500 casualties. Approximately 500 thousand people have been forced to flee from their homes and country. In the attacks civil targets have been bombed and children killed. The reaction shown for the UN military observers was not shown for the civilians.
In order to better understand the news related to the Lebanon operation, it’s helpful to look at BBC broadcasts. BBC presents good examples of probing journalism. For example, the words of the father of Noam Shalit, the kidnapped corporal, were interesting. The grieving father said, “There have been events like this between Israel and Hezbollah for some time. Israel’s giving this harsh a response this time must carry some other meanings. I don’t believe that this war is being fought for my son.”
Another scene reflected on BBC: The US ambassador to Lebanon is speaking at a ceremony for humane aid to the Lebanese. The BBC reporter asks him this interesting question during the speech: “On the one hand, you’re sending humane aid to the Lebanese, but, on the other hand, you’re supplying intelligent arms to Israel...” and the press conference ends on this note.
The scene is this: As the Middle East - in fact many regions in the world – is interfered with, the prestige of “developed countries” and “international organizations” is shaken. As events reflecting a double standard cause tension in inter-society relations, it causes an accumulation of great rage. Some countries’ behaving like spoiled children who don’t listen not only negatively affects the irresponsible administrators of that country, but it also negatively affects all power centers that play an influential role in world balances.
It’s only possible to establish world peace with the establishment of justice and equity. Preparing a documentary film when the Bosnian War was raging at its worst and always courageously speaking his views on every platform, Bernard Henry Levi said, “The West died in Bosnia.” He was right. Because Europe could have said no to the massacres from the outset of the Bosnian War. It remained silent, displayed its helplessness and sufficed with watching the events. Many European countries, France in particular, lost prestige by remaining a spectator to the bloody war. The was the EU’s greatest loss of prestige. It’s possible to say that a similar situation is occurring today in the Middle East via Lebanon. If countries and international organizations that could stop the war do not take on a more effective and peace-seeking role, the loss of prestige will become more profound. In order for more troubling tableaus not to appear where peace is expected, many power centers, the US, UN and EU, in particular, must approach this event more seriously and more sensitively. It’s obvious from the unsuccessful Rome Conference that the parties are not very aware of the matter...
July 27, 2006
