The Why comes after the How (part I)

In Mustapha's blog Beirut spring we initially discussed another topic, but somehow the Israeli-Palestinian conflict showed up. Abdul Karim told me to read Edward Said to understand the conflict and was annoyed because I had mentioned Qana. As a matter of fact I've been reading quite an ammount of books and publications from all three sides (Palestinians, Israelis and biased/unbiased others) about this particular conflict for years. The only thing I noticed, that has developed over the years of the ongoing conflict was not the 'why', not the causes, but the 'how'. Here is my answer to Abdul:

Yes, Qana. Unlike others I've followed the story until the end. Look at the picture. The official death toll in Qana is 28. 29 were burried. How many Hezbollah-coffins do you see?

Hezbollah doesn't deny using children 'martyrs', they're proud of it. Have you seen Nasrallah celebrating the death of his son? Unfortunatly the video isn't online anymore. (Google took over youtube, I'll google for it later).

Edward Said, Finkelstein, Chomsky et al - I've read them all. But that's not my point.

After WWI, the world was shocked: no one would have imagined so many soldiers dying in such inhuman conditions. After WWII the world was shocked again - no one would have imagined so many civilians dying.

A very wise man drew a conclusion that became the Geneva Conventions. Their spirit is to install a set of rules regardless of the cause the parties are fighting for. The answer was terrorism and now we see children dying. The point is: you cannot ask one conflict party to respect the conventions while its enemy does everything to brake the rules.

This year a boy from my hometown returned from his holliday trip in a coffin. A news-speaker described his death as 'unfortunate circumstances'. I had to explain him that suicide bombers chose their targets. A ten-year-old and a baby are easily recognisable as children, no? It was the ugliest conversation I can imagine.

I see what's going on in Gaza right now, without any IDF involved. I'm aware that besides Hezbollah there's another group that no one dares disarming in Lebanon. I'm aware that the number of Palestinians killed by Palestinians in the OTF is nearly as high as Israli civilians killed by Palestinians since outbreak of the second Intifada.

I don't want to see more children deliberately being killed. That's my main issue. I read a correspondance nearly 100 years old. The man said: "For every innocent deliberately killed we should refuse them one acre of negociated territory."

This year I've decided that a cause for which children are deliberatly killed has no right to claim any justice. As long as they don't refrain from these barbaric methods, my ears will be deaf.

That rule applies for the Sri Lankan Tamil Tigers, for the few remaining IRA terrorists (Irland) as well as Hamas or Hezbollah, Tchetchens or Al-Kaida.