One of the tenets of the rabid Jew-hate that is currently masquerading as a peace movement across the globe is the idea that Israel is uniquely brutal in its conduct of its war against Hamas in Gaza.
The facts show a slightly different reality, as demonstrated by the hundreds of thousands of civilians who have been killed or driven out of their homes in Syria, Sudan, Yemen, and Lebanon. The UN reported in 2021 that more than 350,000 Syrians had been killed since 2014, and that is probably on the low end of the estimates. And if you think that hospitals are off limits? Think again!
And of course the United States has attacked hospitals that were being used as military installations, and that is entirely appropriate during the conduct of a war.
US Military Admits: We Deliberately Bombed a Hospital in Iraq
The U.S. military said Thursday that it intentionally bombed a hospital in Mosul, Iraq as part of its efforts to “eradicate” Islamic State (ISIS) fighters.
The attack on the Al Salam hospital complex took place Wednesday at the request of Iraqi forces, with coalition aircraft using “precision-guided munitions,” Air Force Col. John Dorrian, spokesperson for the U.S.-led coalition against ISIS, told reporters.
He said “it’s very difficult to ascertain with full and total fidelity” that there were no civilian casualties, whether in the building targeted or elsewhere within the hospital complex.
ISIS fighters, Dorrian said, “were using the facility to fire heavy machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades at the Iraqi security forces in the area.” The strike on the “normally protected facility” allowed the Iraqi forces “to fall back to a more defensible position,” he said.
The “protection of civilians,” he said later in the press conference, “has been a centerpiece, a foundational element of the campaign to liberate Mosul.”
The military is not carrying out an investigation but rather an “assessment” of the strike, the spokesperson added.
The battle to reclaim Mosul from ISIS fighters, which began in October, has left civilians, including roughly 600,000 children, trapped and facing a worsening humanitarian situation.
It is obvious that when civilians and their infrastructure are used as shields by the opposing force, that there will be casualties among the innocents. But that is a necessity of war, otherwise terrorist groups such as Hamas could operate with impunity. Is that an acceptable outcome? Of course not! It is indeed idiotic. Only by channeling anti-Western zealots such as Howard Zinn can one arrive at that conclusion.
Israel is an ethical country…a moral country, and its armed forces mirror that society. The extent to which the IDF goes to minimize civilian casualties is a testament to the highest and best goals of Western culture and Judeo-Christian philosophy with regard to the sanctity of life.
Notice the word “minimize.” That is vital, because if Israel (or any country) fought its enemies with the goal of zero civilian casualties…they would lose.
War is cruelty. There is no use trying to reform it. The crueler it is, the sooner it will be over.
— William Tecumseh Sherman
I hope that Israel has internalized Sherman’s message. The efforts against Hamas and the other terror groups surrounding Israel have for the past 20 years been a testament to failure. Israel has tried to calibrate their military responses to terrorism to such a degree that they have done very little damage to their existential enemies and have merely shown them the way to defeat a hyper-moral country.
The quicker Israel destroys Hamas, the fewer civilians will be killed. A fast and brutal effort will prevent Hamas from coordinating its defense, manipulating civilians to become shields against Israeli power, and rearming.
Every call for a ceasefire is in reality a call to level the battlefield by giving Hamas time to reorganize. That is a recipe for more deaths, and it should be dismissed out of hand, unless Israeli planners believe that a temporary ceasefire will be productive in its search for the hostages (then it becomes a military decision). But if it is allowed to become a political decision, then Israel will be weakened by it.
