NIT response

'Hamas rocket attacks 'war crimes'

The firing of rockets into Israel by Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip amounts to a war crime, a prominent human rights group has said.

Human Right Watch (HRW) said Hamas should "publicly renounce" the attacks and hold those responsible to account.'

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/8187446.stm

You might have heard of JIT. Its a business strategy where you do something 'Just in Time' rather than way beforehand. There is a downside to JIT, which is NIT, 'Not in Time'. When implementing JIT, too many NITs will bring the whole system to a grinding halt. Human Rights Watch have sat around on their arses for the last four years not condemning Hamas for the constant drizzle of mortars and rockets into Israel, presumably because they didn't think it was a big deal.

But just a few weeks back, Human Rights Watch came under enormous scrutiny by the media in the US when it was revealed that HRW was trawling for funds in Saudi Arabia. Most Americans don't think much of human rights in Saudi Arabia. But as a result of the sudden glare of the spotlight on HRW, a number of other facts came to light which shocked many observers. The woman who is Middle East and North Africa Director, Sarah Leah Whitson was an active member of the New York chapter of the American-Arab Antidiscrimination Committee, which actively militates against Israel. She served on its Steering Committee and was a member of its Board of Directors when she was hired by Human Rights Watch. Conflict of interest? I leave that to your judgement.

Anyway, lots of journalists have been going back over the output of HRW just to see if there is a pro-palestinian slant. And guess what? There is! How surprising. And there have been lots of pieces in the press questioning whether HRW is what it claims to be- against the abuse of human rights wherever and by whomever they are perpetrated.

And thats why HRW have put out this press release about Hamas. Since September 2005, the rockets and mortars have been thumping into southern Israel, and since then HRW have ignored them. But TODAY, they've discovered that these may be war crimes. What a coincidence. Thats not a JIT response. Thats a NIT response if there ever was one.