Al Jazeera Host Asks Why Can’t Arab Armies Be More Humane, Like Israel? (VIDEO)

JANUARY 17, 2014 2:08 PM

Al Jazeera Arabic asks why the Arab world's armies can't learn to respect civilians, like the Israeli Army does? Photo: Screenshot / Al Jazeera.

An Al Jazeera 

Arabic anchor 

recently asked 

his audience 

why Arab 

armies, and, 

in 

particular, the 

regime of 

Bashar al-Assad, in Syria, can’t behave more humanely towards civilians, 

like the Israeli and French armies do?

In a clip uploaded to YouTube this week and flagged by

Mideast Media Analyst Tom Gross, the anchor  asks, “Why don’t they 

learn from the Israeli army which tries, through great efforts, to avoid 

shelling areas populated by civilians in Lebanon and Palestine? Didn’t 

Hezbollah take shelter in areas populated by civilians because it knows 

that Israeli Air Force doesn’t bomb those areas? Why doesn’t the Syrian 

army respect premises of universities, schools or inhabited

neighborhoods? 

Why does it shell even the areas of its supporters?”

“I will also give you the example of France. All Syrians remember that 

the French forces, when they occupied Syria tried to avoid, when rebels 

entered mosques or schools, they stopped. The people would prefer that 

France come back! For God’s sake, if a referendum were to be held… if 

people were to be asked, who would you prefer the current regime or the 

French, I swear by God they would have preferred the French.

“The Israeli army, if it wanted to break up a demonstration, would have 

used water cannons or rubber bullets, not rockets or explosive barrels as 

happens in Aleppo today.

“You mustn’t compare the Syrian army with French or Israeli… The

Israeli army didn’t shell Aleppo University and students there. They 

didn’t shell the university with rockets killing dozens of students… 

The Israelis or the French didn’t kill their people. Please tell me how 

many of their people did the French army kill?”

Watch a clip of the Al Jazeera program below: