Is Ha’aretz is pulling a Scott Thomas on us?

Remember Scott Thomas? The New Republic’s crack reporter who wrote about supposed atrocities in Iraq? The one who was utterly disgraced and proven to be a liar?

This Melanie Phillips article on Ha’aretz’s claims of IDF abuse in Gaza makes me think of nothing so much as the Scott Thomas affair.

Of course Hague was careful to say the truth of this evidence was not yet known. But there is no evidence. So far, there is simply nothing to prove or disprove from these reports of the soldiers’ discussion carried in Ha’aretz last week, here and here — just innuendo, rumour and hearsay, demonstrably (read the second account) wrenched out of context and refracted through the patent prejudice of the soldiers’ instructor Danny Zamir, an ultra-leftist who had previously been jailed for refusing to guard settlers at a religious ceremony and who said of the soldiers who spoke at the meeting in question that they reflected an atmosphere inside the army of ‘contempt for, and forcefulness against, the Palestinians.’

Phillips does a pretty good job of getting to the core of the matter, and that core is that Ha’aretz has dubious sources being reported by someone with a known agenda. Yes, that sounds very familiar, indeed.

There are precisely two charges of gratuitous killing of Palestinian civilians under allegedly explicit orders to do so. One is what even Ha’aretz made clear was an accidental killing, when two women misunderstood the evacuation route the Israeli soldiers had given them and walked into a sniper’s gunsights as a result. Moreover, the soldier who said this has subsequently admitted he didn’t see this incident – he wasn’t even in Gaza at the time – and had merely reported rumour and hearsay.

The second charge is based on a supposedly real incident in which, when an elderly woman came close to an IDF unit, an officer ordered that they shoot her because she was approaching the line and might have been a suicide bomber. The soldier relating this story did not say whether or not the woman in this story actually was shot. Indeed, since he says ‘from the description of what happened’ it would appear this was merely hearsay once again.

This was not, of course, a problem for the New York Times, which put the story on page one. And Ha’aretz keeps on rolling out what it says is misconduct.

Further testimonies emerged this weekend of army units adopting lax rules of engagement during Operation Cast Lead. The reports followed Thursday’s publication in Haaretz of soldiers’ accounts of ethical violations in the Gaza offensive.

On Saturday, Channel 10 showed a documentary that included a security briefing by a company commander on the eve of the Gaza invasion.

“We’re going to war,” he told his soldiers. “We’re not doing routine security work or anything like that. I want aggressiveness – if there’s someone suspicious on the upper floor of a house, we’ll shell it. If we have suspicions about a house, we’ll take it down.”

“There will be no hesitation,” the commander continued. “If it’s us or them, it’ll be them. If someone approaches us unarmed, shoot in the air. If he keeps going, that man is dead. Nobody will deliberate – let the mistakes be over their lives, not ours.”

Excuse me, but where is the testimony here? How is that a war crime? Where is even the accusation that this is a war crime? I’m sorry, but publishing the text of a commander’s speech to the IDF that their lives are more important than Palestinians in a war zone is just not reaching the level of violating the Geneva Conventions by, say, dressing up as IDF soldiers to attack the IDF.

It seems to me that if Ha’aretz is going to accuse the IDF of misconduct, they could at least give evidence of misconduct. Because all I’m seeing here is a more modern version of this:

“From time to time there will be some complaints that we are pushing our people too hard. I don’t give a good Goddamn about such complaints. I believe in the old and sound rule that an ounce of sweat will save a gallon of blood. The harder WE push, the more Germans we will kill. The more Germans we kill, the fewer of our men will be killed. Pushing means fewer casualties. I want you all to remember that.”

That was General George S. Patton’s speech to the Third Army—the most printable part of it.

So in spite of all the brouhaha over these supposed testimonies (it would seem to me that if you’re repeating something you heard, then you’re simply passing along hearsay, not testimony), there is no actual evidence of misconduct. There isn’t any fire. There isn’t even any smoke.

And yet, the anti-Israel media is picking up this story right and left.

Did any stories of Hamas’s human rights violations make the front page of the New York Times? Or perhaps this war crime—the one where Hamas threw a Fatah member off a 15-story building?

Did I really have to ask?

Of course those weren’t on the front page. Because Israel didn’t commit them.

Your unbiased media in action.