The exorcism of the ghosts of Qana
Anshel Pfeffer, THE JERUSALEM POST Jul. 30, 2006

"Of course I realize that one mistake by me can change the entire course of this war," said Col. A, an pilot at Ramat David IAF base, when asked whether he was worried that a badly aimed bomb from his F-16 might cause a repetition of the mistaken bombing of a refugee area at Qana in April 1996 that left 102 civilians killed and forced the government of Shimon Peres to end Operation "Grapes of Wrath." But this time around, ten years later, same place and ostensibly same circumstances, Ehud Olmert's government is set on changing the precedent.

Unlike the hapless Peres a decade ago, worried about the effect the bombing would have on Israeli Arabs on the elections only two months away (and who ironically this time was on his way to present Israel's case in the US as the incident took place) Ehud Olmert is determined not to allow Sunday morning's bombing of a building packed with refugees in Qana, causing about 50 deaths, to reaffirm the last Qana precedent. Olmert and the rest of Israel's leadership were prepared this time around to ward of the ghosts of Qana, the assumption was that a disaster of similar proportions was probably just a matter of time and as a result his reaction was swift. There was no mistake here, Olmert emphasized at the weekly cabinet meeting, the building had been targeted as a shelter of Hizbullah Katyusha launchers and civilians had been warned to leave days ago, and there was no question of agreeing to a premature ceasefire and ending the military offensive earlier because of the incident.

But Olmert's determination might not be enough now. The bottom line that had seemed to emerge from his meeting with Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, the previous night, was that Israel had another week or so to attack Hizbullah while the details of the ceasefire and multinational force supposed to implement were cobbled together at the United Nations in New York. Meanwhile the US and also Britain was to have continued shielding Israel from international pressure to end the fighting. The Qana bombing might change all that now. Rice's first reaction while still in Jerusalem was to cancel what would have probably been a pointless visit to Beirut, under the present circumstances and say that "we want a cease-fire as soon as possible."

I hate to say this when their are dead children. How it possible is that Qana was the site in 1996 and now in 2006 that such a thing could happen.

I am willing to bet that Israel was set up.

Hizballah packs the building with women and children and then fires a whole bunch of rockets from the location.

Israel responds and in the blink of an eye here we are in the same situation as we were in 1996.

Again I now have a worry that the west due to our over powering goodness and the power of the modern media has lost the ability to fight a war.

This is while the horde is at the gates.