IDF Tag

An argument which is being used against Israel and which is quite nonsensical is that the low Israeli casualty rate from over a thousand Hamas rockets somehow makes the higher Palestinian casualty rate a war crime or otherwise indefensible. It's true that the casualty rate is lopsided, but that has nothing to do with breach of law or intent to kill. Hamas, Islamic Jihad and others in Gaza fire rockets from civilian areas, and conceal their weapons and leadership in and under civilian buildings. The only way for Israel to defend itself is to target the source of the rocket fire and to seek out command and control structures located in civilian areas. Israel goes to extraordinary and unprecedented lengths not to kill civilians. From warnings via text message and telephone, to public announcements and leaflets, to roof tapping (use of inert warheads to shake a building as warning to get out, usually 15 minutes in advance), to calling off airstrikes. If any other military in the history of humankind has gone to such lengths, please tell me. As in every single military campaign in the history of modern warfare, sometimes mistakes are made. But to deny Israel's efforts is to deny reality. Hamas and the others have no such concerns. Their rockets are fired almost exclusively into heavily populated civilian areas, the one exception being targeting of the Dimona nuclear reactor. So when not trying to kill civilians directly, Hamas tries to create a nuclear leak to kill civilians indirectly. The low Israeli casualty rate is due to the extraordinary efforts of the Israeli government to protect its civilians -- including extensive bomb shelters and safe structures on streets. And of course, the Iron Dome system that shoots down rockets heading for populated areas. So on the one side we have homicidal Hamas maniacs targeting civilians and using civilians as human shields, and on the other side we have Israel trying to avoid killing Palestinian civilians and protecting its Israeli civilians. The result is an imbalance in civilian casualties in Israel's favor. But that imbalance is not proof of anything other than which side values civilian life. Israel's good behavior, however, does not go unpunished. Islamists and leftists accuse the party trying to avoid civilians casualties (Israel) of being the equivalent of Hitler, as they spew their Jew hatred openly around the world. But it's not just street mobs who play this perverse game. Some Western commentators use Israel's protection of its civilians as evidence that Israel is acting unjustly or even in violation of international law. Here are three examples: