New York – The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has condemned the European Union (EU) for criticism of Israel made by its foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, for allegedly using “disproportionate” force in its response to assaults upon Israel from Lebanon by the Islamist terrorist group, Hezbollah (Associated Press, July 13). Solana stated, “The European Union is greatly concerned about the disproportionate use of force by Israel in Lebanon in response to attacks by Hezbollah on Israel … The presidency deplores the loss of civilian lives and the destruction of civilian infrastructure. The imposition of an air and sea blockade on Lebanon cannot be justified” (New York Times, July 13). Hezbollah attacks in the past 48 hours have resulted in the deaths of eight Israeli soldiers, the kidnapping of two more, and a barrage of rockets upon Haifa, Nahariyah, Safed, Karmiel, Hatzor and Majd el-Kurum, resulting in the death of one civilian and the wounding of 122 more (Jerusalem Post, July 13).
ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said, “We condemn Javier Solana for his criticisms of Israel, a democratic nation under unprovoked, simultaneous attack on its sovereign territory within internationally recognized borders by Lebanese Arab and Palestinian Arab terrorist groups. Both Hezbollah and Hamas have killed and kidnapped Israeli soldiers and rained rockets upon Israeli cities, deliberately targeting Israeli civilians, which is a war crime. Solana, however, has little to say about the original, unprovoked criminal aggression of these groups and instead spends time criticizing Israel’s response, which has not targeted civilians. It also appears from the report of his words that Solana had nothing to say deploring the loss of innocent Israeli lives in these attacks, or the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers, but quite a bit to say deploring the loss of lives in Lebanon.
“In this type of war, Israel has every right and obligation to protect its citizens and it is simply absurd for Solana to imply that Israel may return fire with only one bullet for every bullet fired at her and only one rocket for each rocket fired at her, and only one artillery shell for each artillery shell fired at her.”
“In Iraq, the US does not measure how many bullets or rockets or artillery shells are fired at it before it determines how many it may use against the enemy. The US will use whatever amount of materiel or force necessary to defeat the terrorists. In fact, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Colin Powell, regularly stated his military doctrine as one involving the use of ‘overwhelming force’ to punish aggressors with such severity that they will be deterred from continuing their assault or resistance. Certainly during World War Two, America didn’t base the amount of force or weaponry it used by the amount of force the enemy was using against the US. Solana and other’s false doctrine of the only using proportionate force in war has never been applied in any war, whether the Civil War, Spanish-American War, World War One, World War Two or the Korean War. It seems Solana and his like-minded theorists only reserve this theory of proportionality for the Jews of Israel.
“In using a more pedestrian analogy — if someone walked up to Javier Solana on the street and punched him in the face, he would be well within his rights to return numerous blows until his assailant came off much worse and was thereby deterred from ever thinking of repeating his attack. This is precisely what the EU, in its hypocrisy, tries to deny Israel.
“In my several meetings with Solana in the past, I have recognized a clear bias against Israel and an equally clear favoritism for the Arab regimes. Once again, Solana has made this strong anti-Israel, pro-Arab bias clear. With Solana’s latest statement, the EU has simply reconfirmed its long-standing unprincipled bias against Israel. If the EU was concerned with human rights it would remorselessly hold Hezbollah and the Hamas/PA, as the aggressors, responsible for all civilian deaths resulting from their original, unprovoked assaults on Israel . If Hamas and Hezbollah did not want a major military confrontation with Israel, they should not have kidnapped Israeli soldiers or murdered Israeli soldiers or civilians. If they had not taken these outrageous actions, Israel wouldn’t be forced to defend itself.”