Mr. Taoutel (April 2 letter, “Sharon targeted civilians in Lebanon”), say what you will about my personal biases, but my claims are backed up by respected news sources and historical facts. I don’t know what “private Web sites” you are talking about, but the article which lists the number of victims in Sabra and Shatila, news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/ world/middle_east/1779713.stm, comes from BBC News, a well known and respected international news agency, which is by far not in the business of making Israel look good.

Whether you like it or not, it is a historical fact that Sharon is not the one who killed the people in Sabra and Shatila. The killings were carried out by the Elie Hobeika’s Phalangists. Sharon is guilty of not stepping in and stopping violence, something that is very much deserving of scorn. For this he was reprimanded by his government, something that has never happened to his Lebanese counterparts and probably never will. In fact, most in the international community don’t even like to mention the involvement of the Phalangists in the massacre because it diminishes the case against Israel.

This is hardly surprising since the anti-Israel lobby speaks with at least 22 voices and Israel with only one. The only reason why the bar is set so high for Israel is because it is a Jewish state. Indeed, a lot of traditional anti-Semites are now using the guise of legitimate criticism of the Israeli government’s policies to cosmeticize their blatant hatred for the Jewish people.

Kofi Annan recently admitted, in no uncertain terms, that he did not do enough to stop the 1994 Rwandan genocide, which claimed more than 800,000 lives.

Where is Human Rights Watch? Where is the Amnesty International? Where is their “official and impartial” request?

Indeed nothing like that will ever come to pass because these groups and the international community could care less about Kofi Annan’s degree of responsibility in the slaughter of 800,000 Rwandans. Instead they would rather focus on the “great Satan,” Israel.

Opinions differ, but facts don’t lie, Mr. Taoutel. And just as you are right to point out that Israel has had a connection to the Phalangist party since 1975, it is also right to say that it is only natural for Israel to be supportive of a movement that at the time was thought to be friendly to Israel.

In 1978 Israel had no choice but to conduct defensive military operations from March to June in southern Lebanon, aimed at destroying the PLO terrorist base camps. This operation did not go past the Litani River, much less anywhere close to Beirut.

Yet then, just as now, the international community did not recognize Israel’s right to self-defense and put pressure for Israel to withdraw. Israel was forced to re-enter Lebanon in 1982, as the PLO was only emboldened by the fact that the international community was holding Israel by the arms as it was being savagely attacked.

This time Israel was determined to get the job done right and pursued the PLO and their Syrian partners in crime all the way to Beirut.

And just as you are right to say that Israel shelled Beirut in August and (unintentionally) killed many civilians in the process, it is also right to say that the PLO and the Syrians were shelling right back and were only too happy to use the population of Beirut as human shields. The shelling stopped as soon as the PLO fled Beirut in early September, and no more civilians were harmed.

So yes I am fully serious when I say Sharon did not intentionally target civilians because this is a historical fact backed up by evidence.

Vlad Pogre

Sophomore

Genetics