C047. Civilian Casualties in Gaza
The rioters committing violence on American campuses such as Columbia are supposedly motivated, among many other things, by the aim of preventing "civilian" casualties in Gaze. There have been no civilians in Gaza, as I will show.
Hamas has been recognized by the US as a foreign terrorist organization since 1997, ten years before it ousted the Palestinian Authority there. Hamas made a terrorist attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing civilians including babies intentionally and indiscriminately, raping women, and taking hostages including Americans. Israel soon declared war on Hamas.
This war can end as soon as Hamas surrenders. Hamas had, at that time, around 30,000 fighters in Gaza. They dress like civilians. They have occupied hospitals, schools and the land under them. They have built tunnel system under civilian residential areas. It is reasonable to surmise that Israel seeks to go on killing the Hamas fighters until they surrender. Since Hamas disguises its forces as civilians (and at least 90% of Gazans support Hamas), it would be entirely appropriate and proportional for Israel to kill all Gaza adults that they can.
But instead, Israel has taken extraordinary measures to protect civilians. The Chair of Urban Warfare at the Modern Warfare Institute at West Point, John Spencer, who fought two infantry tours in Iraq, says this: "Israel implemented more measures to prevent civilian casualties than any other nation in history." He says that Israel "has taken precautionary measures even the United States did not do during its recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan."
One of these was Israel's extensive use of Precision Guided Missiles, which the US used very little during the Gulf War. (That war, not involving Jews, didn't generate campus rioting!) Furthermore, Israel has provided systematic warning of its strikes and called for civilian evacuation before its air and ground attacks in Gaza. The US did not do this before attacking Iraq in 2003, or Fallujah in 2004.
Israel has provided almost six million prerecorded phone calls to civilians, additional SMS messages, and over 500,000 pamphlets as well as maps, to encourage and direct timely evacuation--as well as radio and social media messaging. According to Spencer, "no military has ever implemented any of these measures in war before." Israel also has provided four-hour pauses on multiple days to facilitate evacuation.
Biden's efforts to appease illegal (and maybe even some legal) Muslims in Michigan and elsewhere were a conscious attempt to support a black-and-white false narrative of Israeli mistreatment of civilians. That was the same narrative pushed also by the rioters.