Amnesty Hits Israel on War Crimes--as Rudoren Goes Into Spin Mode

Jodi Rudoren, the NYT bureau chief in Jerusalem, operated as a virtual propaganda arm of the Israel IDF during the recent Gaza war, and is at it tonight, trying to spin a new Amnesty International report accusing Israel of war crimes.   Nearly half the story covers Israel's indefensible defense.  And the two photos at top show both Palestinians and Israelis under fire (to further "balance" message of report).  But she can't help but note:

During the 50-day war, six civilians, including a 4-year-old boy, were killed on the Israeli side, along with 67 soldiers. Nearly 2,200 Palestinians, including more than 500 children, were killed in Gaza, according to the United Nations; some 100,000 buildings were damaged or destroyed.

“The repeated, disproportionate attacks on homes indicate that Israel’s current military tactics are deeply flawed and fundamentally at odds with international humanitarian law,” said Philip Luther, director of Amnesty’s Middle East and North Africa program, said in a statement accompanying the report, which was released just after midnight.

Amnesty's report here. Revealing: Rudoren did not link to it in first version.  She also barely quotes it. So here:

Israeli officials have failed to give any justification for carrying out these attacks. In some of the cases in this report Amnesty International has not been able to identify any possible military target. In those cases it appears that the attacks directly and deliberately targeted civilians or civilian objects, which would constitute war crimes.

In all of the cases researched by Amnesty International no prior warning was given to residents of the homes which were attacked. If it had been given, excessive loss of civilian lives could clearly have been avoided....

Israel has so far failed to even acknowledge any of the attacks detailed in the report and has not responded to Amnesty International’s requests for explanations of why each of these attacks took place....

“Israeli forces have brazenly flouted the laws of war by carrying out a series of attacks on civilian homes, displaying callous indifference to the carnage caused,” said Philip Luther, Director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Amnesty International.

“The report exposes a pattern of attacks on civilian homes by Israeli forces which have shown a shocking disregard for the lives of Palestinian civilians, who were given no warning and had no chance to flee.”