'When you sleep with a missile...'

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
This is a horrible, sad and bloody Sunday. This is a day on which we mourn and grieve, together with the people of Lebanon, at the deaths of the innocents and civilians in Kafr Kana. Those people, including women and children, who were killed in this horrible, tragic incident may have been killed by Israeli fire, but they are the victims of Hizbullah: they are the victims of terror. If there were no Hizbullah, this would never have happened... And, while we mourn the deaths of those people, we must stress that Israel has never targeted - and in this particular case did not target - innocent people. Kafr Kana has been a hub for Hizbullah for a long time. Hizbullah has been launching missiles and rockets at Israel from Kafr Kana. We will make available to the Security Council a film that shows Hizbullah launching a rocket from right behind a three-story house: a civilian residence very similar to the one that was hit today in Kafr Qana. That is the sad reality. Israel has repeatedly beseeched the residents of Qana to leave. I would not be surprised if Hizbullah made them stay. We are dealing with a ruthless, cynical, cruel enemy, one of the most monstrous terror organizations that this world has ever known. They have no regard for Israeli life, and they have no regard for Lebanese life... And sometimes, tragically, as happened today, women and children get hurt, because they are used as human shields by Hizbullah. Hizbullah has homes in Lebanon that house missiles - in which the family sleeps with a missile. When you sleep with a missile, sometimes you do not wake up in the morning.... Today, we say that we are truly sorry for the people of Lebanon and for the people who were killed. I have never heard Hizbullah say that they are sorry for a single Israeli - woman, child, elderly person, civilian or innocent - who has been killed. Never. Why? Because they target us specifically. That is their declared aim, and that is what we are fighting. And while for us every dead Lebanese child is a horrible mistake and a tragedy, for them every dead Israeli child is a victory and a cause for celebration... And I must say that I feel that what is happening around this table today is exactly what they wanted to happen. Today, while there is mourning in Israel and in many other places around the world, there may very well be jubilation in Tehran, in Damascus and in the Hizbullah strongholds, because this is exactly what they want to happen. They want the Council to be called up to arms and to seize the fire. They want it to do exactly what it is being asked to do today. They want the Council to react the way in which it does. I know that these are harsh words, but I believe them with all my heart. I beseech members not to play into their hands, not to provide them with what they seek while they sacrifice their own people as human shields and as victims... We need to change the culture of hatred. We need to teach our children about hope. And we should not let what happened today - tragic and horrible as it is - change the facts and the truth. And that is that Hizbullah must be totally disarmed... Do not let Iran and Teheran, the sponsors of Hizbullah, have their day. Make it clear that this must end - not that hostilities and fire must end, but that terror and Hizbullah must end, because until they do, there will be hostilities and there will be fire, and more innocents will pay the price. - from Israeli Ambassador Dan Gillerman's statement to the UN Security Council on a resolution expressing shock at civilian deaths in Kana, Lebanon, July 30