Israeli general pledges to commit war crimes; world yawns

In 2006, Israel responded to the kidnapping of two if its soldiers by Hezbollah militants by promptly carpet bombing all of Lebanon, killing over a 1,000 people -- largely unarmed, innocent civilians -- and littering the country with unexploded cluster bombs (relatedly, both Israel and the United States recently refused to join with the civilized world in banning the use of the children's limb-exploding munition).

Now Israeli Major General Gadi Eisenkot is pledging to commit further war crimes against innocent civilians if Hezbollah launches rocket attacks against Israel from Lebanese towns. As this AFP article notes:

"What happened in Beirut in 2006 will occur in every village that fires on Israel," Major General Gadi Eisenkot, the top commander in northern Israel, said in an interview with Israel's mass-selling Yediot Aharonot newspaper.

"Firing from the villages of Lebanon would cause a disaster, and (Hezbollah chief Hassan) Nasrallah has an interest in thinking 30 times before giving such an order," he added.

"We will use disproportionate force against these villages and cause enormous destruction because from our point of view these are not villages but military bases."

He added that the policy of massive retaliation would be employed against other regional foes should they carry out a first strike on Israel, saying "what applies to Hezbollah applies even more to Syria."

On top of Israel's threats to preemptively attack Iran, a country which -- despite what the media/political propagandists would have you believe -- has never threatened to use military force against Israel (and if it did, I'm pretty sure Israel -- with the help of its 200 or so undeclared nuclear weapons -- could fend for itself), consider this latest outburst in barbarous chest-thumping further evidence that there are few differences between a nation-state and a terrorist group when it comes to showing a callous disregard for innocent life.

When it comes down to it, the primary distinction between the Israeli government (and almost all other states, for that matter) and Hezbollah is that the latter doesn't have an air force.

(via Democracy Now)