The wife of the United Nations observer killed in Lebanon is blaming Israel for the death of her husband:
Cynthia Hess-von Kruedener said Tuesday’s attack was not the first on her husband’s outpost.
It’s difficult to blame a grieving woman for choosing to misdirect her anger. But her late husband apparently did not agree with her assessment. In fact, he placed the blame squarely on Hezbollah for the attacks that occurred on the UN post:
Six days before he was killed in an Israel Air Force bombing of a United Nations post in southern Lebanon, Canadian observer Major Paeta Hess-von Kruendener sent an email to his former commander in the Canadian army, in which he said that Hizbullah fighters were “running around” near the UN post struck by the Israel Defense Forces and that they were using the post as a sort of “shield” against Israel’s strikes.
(Emphasis mine.)
So far, the grieving widow blames Israel story is getting all the headlines here in Canada, and the Hezbollah uses human shields story is getting zero notice. Let’s see if anyone bothers to report the truth in the coming days.
Update Jul 30: The Gazette published my letter to the editor on this topic today, albeit a heavily-edited version. The link requires registration, but it doesn’t really matter, as the argument is much better-worded here than there.
The former commander, Major-General Lewis MacKenzie, who served as a UN commander in Bosnia, spoke about the email in a Canadian radio show. He said that Hess-von Kruendener wrote that the IDF strikes near the post had “not been deliberate targeting, but rather due to tactical necessity.”
“That would mean Hizbullah was purposely setting up near the UN post,” he added. “It’s a tactic.”
“My information from him is weeks upon weeks they’ve been firing on there,” she said. “They’re UN soldiers, that should have been the safest place to be — they should not have bombed that site, period.” She accused Israel of not playing by the rules anymore.
“They’re fighting a whole different war, and it’s changing all the time. And now they’re choosing to, bomb, you know, UN sites. That’s unheard of.”
If it were getting zero notice, where did the story you quote come from?
Also, welcome back to blogging.
Thanks for the welcome back.
The story came from Ynet (Israeli news). Today’s Gazette contained another article about his wife’s belief that he may be still alive, and that Israel “deliberately” targeted the UN site. It also contained Harper’s statement that he doubted it was deliberate. Nothing about this story, thoug.