The TRUTH about our IDF in Gaza

[AsheDina]

Bout dang time!

Truth About the IDF in Gaza
Colonel Richard Kemp (Ret. British Army )



The following short statement delivered by retired British Army Colonel Richard Kemp to the UN Human Rights Council 12th Special Session, 16 October 2009
debate on the Goldstone Report, is a long overdue breath of fresh air.

Politicians and the secular media seem automatically blame Israel and the soldiers of the IDF. If not passing on outright lies, they seldom report the situation from the Israeli perspective.

It was no different with the Operation Cast Lead war in the Gaza Strip earlier this year. The 10,000 rockets that rained down on Israel over the last seven years seemed ignored. What was mostly reported was the suffering of the "poor Palestinians" at the hands of the Israeli soldiers.

Then over the last few weeks the one-sided, inaccurate Goldstone Report confirmed the "crimes" of the IDF.

Now the real situation through the eyes of an independent military expert can be seen. You can watch his short statement below:

lease read Colonel Kemp's short statement below and pass it on to your family, friends, co-workers, church brethren and your local media.

As you fulfill Genesis 12:3 by blessing Israel in this way, you will truly see the blessings of The Lord showered upon you and all whom are precious to you.

Statement Text:

Thank you, Mr. President. I am the former commander of the British forces in Afghanistan. I served with NATO and the United Nations; commanded troops in Northern Ireland, Bosnia and Macedonia; and participated in the Gulf War. I spent considerable time in Iraq since the 2003 invasion, and worked on international terrorism for the UK Government's Joint Intelligence Committee.

Mr. President, based on my knowledge and experience, I can say this: During Operation Cast Lead, the Israeli Defense Forces did more to safeguard the rights of civilians in a combat zone than any other army in the history of warfare. Israel did so while facing an enemy that deliberately positioned its military capability behind the human shield of the civilian population.

Hamas, like Hizballah, are expert at driving the media agenda. Both will always have people ready to give interviews condemning Israeli forces for war crimes. They are adept at staging and distorting incidents. The IDF faces a challenge that we British do not have to face to the same extent. It is the automatic, Pavlovian presumption by many in the international media, and international human rights groups, that the IDF are in the wrong, that they are abusing human rights.

The truth is that the IDF took extraordinary measures to give Gaza civilians notice of targeted areas, dropping over 2 million leaflets, and making over 100,000 phone calls. Many missions that could have taken out Hamas military capability were aborted to prevent civilian casualties.

During the conflict, the IDF allowed huge amounts of humanitarian aid into Gaza. To deliver aid virtually into your enemy's hands is, to the military tactician, normally quite unthinkable. But the IDF took on those risks.

Despite all of this, of course innocent civilians were killed. War is chaos and full of mistakes. There have been mistakes by the British, American and other forces in Afghanistan and in Iraq, many of which can be put down to human error. But mistakes are not war crimes. More than anything, the civilian casualties were a consequence of Hamas' way of fighting. Hamas deliberately tried to sacrifice their own civilians.

Mr. President, Israel had no choice apart from defending its people, to stop Hamas from attacking them with rockets.

And I say this again: the IDF did more to safeguard the rights of civilians in a combat zone than any other army in the history of warfare.

Thank you, Mr. President.