By now we all know that the death toll at Qana has been drastically reduced. Instead of the 57 or 54 deaths (initially I saw reports that claimed upwards of 60 and one or two that insisted it was in the hundreds -- but they've all disappeared now), the number of dead has been confirmed at 28. Confirmed by the Lebanese Red Cross. Confirmed by Human Rights Watch. Confirmed by Lebanese hospital officials in Tyre.
The news media is nonplussed. Some are reporting the "error" more or less prominently, together with all of the HRW caveats attached. The L.A. Times AP story is titled
Re-Examination Lowers Qana Death Toll
and includes explanations as to how the numbers became so inflated. But others just can't quite bear to rain so blatantly on the Israel bashing parade.
Toll in Lebanon bombing in dispute
reads today's headline at the Chicago Tribune. There's no dispute. See above.
Counting the Lebanon dead not so easy
is the banner at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Nevertheless, this one is a fairly balanced story with even more details about the earlier erroneous reports.
Are the deaths of 28 civilians, including 16 children, acceptable collateral damage then? Of course not. But the numbers were employed to fuel and incite outrage, and the numbers were wrong. They've been so employed before, and they were wrong then, too.
Israel was not out to kill innocents. She has apologized, expressed appropriate remorse for the tragic mistake and, foolishly I think, stated uncategorically that "the army would not have bombed a building if had known civilians were inside." This statement is no doubt true, but it strikes me as an open invitation to the use of even more human shields by Israel's enemies. Nevertheless, perhaps it was necessary.
Alan Dershowitz has summed it up well.
As Israelis wept in grief over the deaths of the Lebanese children, Hezbollah leaders celebrated its propaganda victory.
And as many others have pointed out, the eight Israeli civilians killed today by Hezbullah rockets were not a mistake. They were the result of the deliberate targeting of innocents. They were by no means the first and, sadly, more will undoubtedly follow. And no apology will be forthcoming.
Moral equivalence? I think not.
