Israel purposely allowing Hezbollah to send rockets into Israel

2006-08-07

Richard Moore

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From: •••@••.•••
Date: Sun, 6 Aug 2006 21:45:49 EDT
Subject: Israel purposely allowing Hezbollah to send rockets into Israel


SHOW: CNN RELIABLE SOURCES
August 6, 2006 Sunday
TRANSCRIPT EXCERPT

Host: Howard Kurtz, media critic, Washington Post
Guest: Thomas Ricks,  Washington Post

KURTZ: And joining us now here Thomas Ricks, Pentagon reporter for 
"The Washington Post" and author of the new book "Fiasco: The 
American Military Adventure in Iraq."  Tom Ricks, you've covered a 
number of military conflicts, including Iraq, as I just mentioned. Is 
civilian casualties increasingly going to be a major media issue? In 
conflicts where you don't have two standing armies shooting at each 
other?

THOMAS RICKS: I think it will be. But I think civilian casualties are 
also part of the battlefield play for both sides here. One of the 
things that is going on, according to some U.S. military analysts, is 
that Israel purposely has left pockets of Hezbollah rockets in 
Lebanon, because as long as they're being rocketed, they can continue 
to have a sort of moral equivalency in their operations in Lebanon.

KURTZ: Hold on, you're suggesting that Israel has deliberately 
allowed Hezbollah to retain some of it's fire power, essentially for 
PR purposes, because having Israeli civilians killed helps them in 
the public relations war here?

RICKS: Yes, that's what military analysts have told me.

KURTZ: That's an extraordinary testament to the notion that having 
people on your own side killed actually works to your benefit in that 
nobody wants to see your own citizens killed but it works to your 
benefit in terms of the battle of perceptions here.

RICKS: Exactly. It helps you with the moral high ground problem, 
because you know your operations in Lebanon are going to be killing 
civilians as well.
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