Ha-Ha-Haaretz Again

Received:

Sent: Wednesday, February 03, 2010 6:56 AM
Subject: Top IDF Soldiers did NOT admit using white phosphorous illegally

Dear All

The last two days have produced a flurry of attacks on Israel following the response released by Israel to the Goldstone report. One point was a mention in the Israeli report that two senior officers had been disciplined for unauthorized use of artillery shells on Jan 15th in an event at the UN compound.

Haaretz stated that this involved the use of white phosphorous, and soon it was headline news around the world that Israel admitted for the first time it had used white phosphorous in an illegal manner. Now two articles by Haaretz say explicitly that this case did NOT involve white phosphorous - in fact the officers were disciplined for using live artillery to protect their men instead of smoke projectiles (white phosphorous is used as a smoke projectile so ironically it seems they were ordered to use it but used live fire instead)

I don't know what is going on but it sounds like a self-inflicted PR disaster, and I think Haaretz is the main culprit.

Robin