Let’s Talk About Civilian Casualities
For some reason, the distinction between intentionally harming civilians, as Hamas does, and unintentionally harming civilians, as Israel does, is lost on progressives. In every other situation we consider intentional harm to be more culpable than accidental harm. If I hurt you on purpose, you will likely be more upset than if I do so by accident. When it comes to Israel, however, a dead child is a dead child whether it was decapitated or died in an airstrike that also killed a Hamas leader.
Civilian casualties in Gaza are a function of Hamas embedding itself among civilians and using them as shields. They build their tunnels in residential areas, fire rockets from playgrounds, use ambulances to transport their fighters and build their compounds underneath hospitals. Moreover, no combatant in the history of warfare has gone to the lengths that Israel has to warn a civilian population to flee in advance of hostilities. Nevertheless, Hamas is preventing civilians from fleeing and they are being harmed as a result. So, how many civilian casualties are acceptable in such a conflict?
Anyone who says none is not living in the real world. Every war results in civilian casualties. The Allied bombing of Dresden killed as many as 25,000 civilians. In the aftermath of 9/11, the US toppled the Taliban in Afghanistan, resulting in the deaths of 70,000 civilians. No one accused the US of genocide or war crimes for doing so. But Israel’s campaign to eliminate Hamas, which is as legitimate as any military operation in history, is being called an act of genocide. It seems as if the entire world is calling for a ceasefire. There were no protests in cities around the world calling for a ceasefire after 9/11. Any country in Israel’s position would do what Israel is doing. Only Israel is expected to submit to its own destruction.
What about proportionality? Mustn’t Israel’s response be proportional to the events it is responding to? This concept is incoherent. Does it mean that Israel has a right to kill 1400 Palestinian civilians and abduct 240? Of course not. Israel has a moral right to eliminate the terrorist threat on its border so long as it takes all reasonable measures to minimize civilian casualties.
It is impossible to know how many civilian casualties there are in Gaza because the Gaza health ministry is run by Hamas and their calculations are not credible. Why don’t Hamas fighters wear uniforms? It is so that when they are killed there is no way to distinguish them from civilians. How many of the 13,000 claimed casualties are Hamas fighters? According to the Gaza health ministry that number is zero. Israel releases the names of its fallen soldiers but not one Hamas casualty has been aknowledged by the Gaza health ministry. We have no way of knowing how many actual civilian casualties there are but we do know it’s a small fraction of what Hamas is reporting. When the media parrots these figures it carries water for terrorists.
A ceasefire because of “too many civilian casualties” would essentially reward Hamas for using civilians as human shields. Why should combatants not embed themselves among civilians if it gives them an advantage and enables them to fire without being fired upon? Rewarding Hamas with an opportunity to regroup, move the hostages to a more secure location, and consolidate their grip on Gaza would incentivize them to continue the practice of using civilians as shields.
Those calling for a ceasefire are only calling on Israel to do so. Will Hamas abide by a ceasefire? Of course not. They will continue to fire rockets indiscriminately into Israel. They will continue to hold their hostages at gunpoint as they have for a month now. A ceasefire without the immediate release of hostages is not a ceasefire. A ceasefire with rockets being fired into Israel at civilians is not a ceasefire. Such a unilateral ceasefire is calling on Israel to surrender to their slaughter. Anyone calling for a ceasefire at this point is calling on Israel to let Hamas remain in power so that it can repeat 10/7. It has been said before but it bears repeating that there was a ceasefire in place on 10/6 before Hamas waged a war against Israeli civilians. Hamas started this war and Israel will finish it.
