The scoreboard tells the story.

Israeli civilians killed: 18
Lebanese civilians killed: 360

I was thinking the same thing Lev.

For those who are concerned with biased reporting, perhaps to make it “fair” they should allocate the a certain amount of media time for each civilian killed. That way the Israel:Lebanon ratio would be about 20 : 400 or, for every one minute covering Israeli deaths there should be 20 minutes covering Lebanese deaths.

Or perhaps it could be allocated according to the number of people displaced – Lebanon 800,000 : Israel ??

Or perhaps by the number of missile strikes in Lebanon/Gaza as opposed to those in Israel.

Or the number of TV stations demolished.

Or the number of Airports demolished.

Or the number of power stations demolished.

The number of ambulances demolished.

The number of UN observers murdered.

What do you think guys? Good idea?

I tried to go into the Human Rights Watch website http://www.hrw.org , but it seems to have fallen over. Has anyone had any luck checking out the offending content? Google threw a few article titles at me eg "Lebanon: Hezbollah Rocket Attacks on Haifa Designed to Kill Civilians", but not enough to really judge.

I decided to have a look at Amnesty International as well. And guess what? The lead story on the front page is entitled Israel-Lebanon: Stop killings of civilians http://web.amnesty.org/pages/lbn-210706-action-eng . "Amnesty International has called on the UN Security Council to adopt urgent measures to address such blatant violations of international law, which include war crimes, and to protect the civilians – as it is they, mostly Lebanese but also Israeli civilians, who are paying the heaviest price."

This article seems a little disingenuous to me. People are getting killed and this article puts the blame on Human Rights Watch "HRW will continue to fuel the conflict that it condemns with such vigour". I'd suggest anyone inclined to take this guff seriously should have a look at http://www.ngo-monitor.org, where Sarah Mandel hails from.

Geez, Louise, the grotesquely named 'logic' is at it again. Let's deconstruct:

"Islamofascists": Anyone who happens to be Muslim & has an issue with Israel. Alternatively, anyone who just happens to be a Muslim.

"Islamofascists hide among civilians": Just like every Israeli civilian is in and out of the army on a regular basis & the army acts as finishing school for Israeli polliewaffles.

Hezbollah's missiles? Israel is armed to the teeth with 250, 450, 900, 2000+ kg aerial bombs and 200-400 nukes. Does 'logic' expect Hezbollah to stand by and do nothing?

"Lebanese civilians enduring Israeli bombardments"? Do they have any choice?

"Hezbollah fanatics...destroying Israel": Note the psychological phenomenon of projection at work here. Whenever the Israeli Offence Forces are destroying other people and laying waste their homes and property, Zionist 'logic' has it that the victims of aggression are destroying the perpetrators of aggression.

Notice too this classic piece of Zionist 'logic': Israeli ubermenschen are committing war crime after war crime to save us all from the dreaded burkah.

Strewth

Your arguments are classic ones. Firstly use the term Zionist to denigrate anything you disagree with. May I not use the term Islamofascist? In any case it was not my term. Marilyn Shephard used it and I was replying to her letter.

The Israelis do have a citizen army. So do the Swiss. Neither nation hides cruise missiles and missile launchers amongst civilian populations.

This is what was crticised by the UNITED Nations aid chief Jan Egeland. I quote more of his statement.

"However, consistently from Hezbollah heartlands my message was: 'Hezbollah, stop this cowardly blending in among women and children'.

"I heard there was a statement they were proud they had lost very few fighters, and that it was the civilians bearing the brunt of this. I don't think you want to be proud of having many more children and women than armed men (killed)."

Yes there are Jewish fanatics who set up the infamous settlements. and some horrid behaviour from some sections of Israel. But Egypt denied almost a half of a million Jews from having passports even though they had lived in Egypt for up to a thousand years before the Arabs arrived. And the Jews in Iraq were persecuted many with trumped up death sentences. That is why at least half the Jews in Israel are not from Europe at all but from other parts of the the middle east where their houses were stolen by the Arab population. Do you think they are wanting to destroy Egypt or Iraq? They are making a new life.

And as for body count perhaps the Israelis are just more careful with their citizens. This was indicated by the comments of the UNITED Nations aid chief.

The Israeli's have suffered war before and are better prepared by building safe places for their citizens. They do not place weapons among civillian houses. This however is a deliberate strategy by Hizbollah to gain international sympathy as civillians are killed by Israels attempt to disable weapons launching sites.