The Israeli Brief--It's Quite Convincing

There has been any amount of hand-wringing and tooth gnashing over the IDF's Operation Cast Lead. To all too many in the human rights community, the progressive wing of politics, and the entire cast of those impatient with Israel, the general view has been that the IDF went after civilians in an almost barbaric way.

There have been allegations almost without end that the IDF violated the Laws of Land Warfare. That the IDF used indiscriminate means, targeted civilians, used "illegal" weapons such as white phosphorus, shot women and children while grinning, and similar acts of a wanton and abandoned nature. At the same time, the responsibility of Hamas for intentional attacks on civilian targets using weapons of inherently low accuracy was overlooked or downplayed. Similarly, the responsibility of Hamas as the de facto government of the Gaza Strip to take all appropriate measures to remove civilians under their control from areas of impending or actual military operations was pooh-poohed.

Finally the Israelis have released their brief for the defense. It is 164 pages of densely argued, intensively documented evidence and argument countering all the myriad accusations made by Hamas, its Arab supporters, and apologists worldwide. Proceeding from the Doctrine of Inherent Military Probability as the Geek often does, the brief for the defense is sufficient to mark Operation Cast Lead as "Case Closed."

There can be no doubt in the mind of any reader who is not possessed of an anti-Israel predilection that the government of Israel (GOI) and IDF made every effort possible to conduct military operations so as to both follow the assorted international conventions and customs of land warfare and minimise civilian death and destruction. In parallel, the brief gives no room to doubt the contention that Hamas intentionally and repeatedly violated the same laws and customs on a level which boggles the mind.

The Geek, as has been demonstrated in numerous posts, is not a reflexive supporter of GOI and the IDF. Quite the contrary, he has levelled historically valid criticisms at both. Repeatedly.

This time Israel was and is in the right. Period. Balancing this, Hamas was and is in the wrong. Absolutely and completely.

The IDF fought a war within the boundaries of both custom and convention. Yes, civilians were killed and injured. Their property was destroyed and damaged. That is the way war goes. All the relevant international conventions recognise this brutal ground truth concerning war. The mere fact that civilians died, were injured, or became terrified is too bad, but it does not and never has constituted a war crime or a crime against humanity.

The Geek must applaud the IDF and the government which controls it for the restraint shown, care taken, means used to limit and lower the inevitable harm which befell civilians in the Strip. At the same time he must condemn Hamas for its intentional, wanton, and cynically self-serving placement of the civilians under their control at risk, great risk, deadly risk.

Hamas, in common with other Islamist jihadist entities, is a criminal conspiracy which dons the colors of religiously inspired, ethnically based identity politics. There is nothing political in the intentional, repeated placing in hazard of the civilians unfortunate enough to exist under Hamas' sway. Nor is this conduct sanctioned by the Quran except by the most tortured, artificial, tendentious interpretations of clerics who are actually ideologues.

It is time for the tender hearted, the human rights activists, the progressives to get a grip on reality. It is time for these folks and all others who have an interest in both truth and the reduction of the unnecessary civilian butcher's bill in the Mideast to tell it like it is. Hamas is a collection of war criminals, violators of the basic laws seeking to make war something other than the mere slaughter of any and all.

It is time to put the real offender in the dock. The name of that perpetrator is Hamas.