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Politics : Formerly About Applied Materials -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Cary Salsberg who wrote (68658)	3/14/2003 4:49:26 AM
From: zonder	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 70976

Belgium is a European Christian country, that is why! Oh I get it. So a Belgium court is going to try Sharon for his part in the said massacre because... they are anti-Semites? Following this line of reasoning, would you say a Jewish person can never be judged outside of Israel because the court in question would never be impartial? I am sorry but I cannot take this comment seriously, unless you are willing to offer evidence that the individual judges have known prejudices against Jewish defendants and/or Belgium is currently run by a racist government that has a history of pressuring the courts to get biased verdicts. I don't believe there was any testimony before the Commission of Inquiry to support the idea that Sharon knew what was happening. You asked for the full text of the Commission's findings and I posted them. Take a look at the testimonies. Various people on the Israeli side DID know about the massacre as it was progressing, including General Yaron who was in charge of the operation, and reports were made. Now, you can choose to believe Sharon knew nothing about it, that he was fiddling his thumbs watching cartoons or nobody thought to tell him. It appears more likely to me that the reports made it to his ears. Do you recall what the verdict on General Yaron was? Not guilty, although I cannot see how, given that it is crystal clear from the findings of the commission that he KNEW about the massacre as it progressed and did zip about it: At about the same time or slightly earlier, at approximately 7:00 p.m., Lieutenant Elul, who was then serving as Chief of Bureau of the Divisional Commander, overheard another conversation that took place over the Phalangists' transmitter. According to Lt. Elul's testimony, while he was on the roof of the forward command post, next to the Phalangists' communications set, he heard a Phalangist officer from the force that had entered the camps tell Elie Hobeika (in Arabic) that there were 50 women and children, and what should he do. Elie Hobeika's reply over the radio was: "This is the last time you're going to ask me a question like that, you know exactly what to do;" and then raucous laughter broke out among the Phalangist personnel on the roof. Lieutenant Elul understood that what was involved was the murder of the women and children. According to his testimony, Brigadier General Yaron, who was also on the forward command post roof then, asked him what he had overheard on the radio; and after Lieutenant Elul told him the content of the conversation, Brigadier General Yaron went over to Hobeika and spoke with him in English for about five minutes (for Lt. Elul's testimony, see pp. 1209-1210a). Lt. Elul did not hear the conversation between Brigadier General Yaron and Hobeika. Brigadier General Yaron, who was on the roof of the forward command post, received from Lt. Elul a report of what he had heard. I am not party to any religion. But even if I were, I cannot imagine that I would be OK with letting free a man who has let such a massacre take place, or objecting to another court taking up the matter when courts of my country refuse to, just because he prays my way. Frankly, I find it especially unsettling that this should be the Jewish faith, whose believers suffered inhuman massacres themselves only two generations ago, and who should thereby be more sensitive to other people's collective suffering.