Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) taking up position around Arafat’s Mukata in Ramallah, West Bank back in 2002.
As I watch from home on my TV, the various news channels challenging for clickbait over the dreadful scenario going on today with Hamas versus the Israeli Government and their use of their own IDF, no matter the channel, I’m continuously hearing the wording “collateral damage” when it comes to the bombardment of Gaza City and the Gaza Strip in general.
Of course with Hamas, there is no collateral damage…everything to their front is a target, whether it’s Israeli civilians who they are intent on wiping off of the face of the Earth, to their Palestinian civilians who are caught out when the rockets fall short inside of Gaza for example.
However, a country like Israel, made up of many people originally from European countries and the likes of the United States (and still holding their home passports as well as Israeli ones) should uphold the rule of law for conflict…always.
No matter the country, there will always be rogue soldiers who break the rules, but if that happens they should be held to account. But when it’s the leadership from the seat of Government to Generals leading their men and women from their Army, Navy and Air Force, then the rule of law should come down on them like a ton of bricks…pardon the pun.
Right now as I write this, the Israeli response to Hamas’s heinous terrorist crimes is to blitz Gaza and tell the International community and their own citizens that they’re targeting Hamas. Then when civilian men, women and children are killed, wounded and displaced by that targeting, it is described as “collateral damage!”
In my view that doesn’t wear with me. It never has, even way back when I was a soldier, and it never will. A country like Israel, if it wants to earn respect around the world, needs to comply with International law…yesterday, today and tomorrow.
No human being ever should be labeled collateral damage by a “respected” democratic government.
They’ve been getting away with it time and time again. The USA is supposed to be the strongest pillar of democracy. Yet when it sends the President’s right hand man to Israel to ensure blanket support for all they are doing under the guise of the right to defend itself, then in my view it’s actually sending the wrong message to the world.
I live in the USA, and I’ve been here for 10 years now. I’ve tackled school/college/workplace security as a project since I arrived here and saw that my child’s school was teaching lockdown only as opposed to the run, hide or fight options based method to survive a mass school shooting. Talking to police, journalists, and friends around the country, I was horrified to hear that if the police assault a school building to take out a shooter, and they shoot an innocent student crossing their line of fire, then it’s put down as yes you’ve guessed it…collateral damage! To me, it’s amateur, unprofessional and negligent…all down to perhaps a lack of training, or the wrong individual in the uniform armed. Yet it must be answerable, which so far it isn’t, and it must be answerable all the way to the very top.
The very same today in Gaza. It’s been happening now for decades, Hamas fire rockets, Israel’s response is a huge loss of innocent Palestinian lives.
I’m still waiting for the mass media in the USA and on the BBC (for clickbait) to dig into just where this dreadful wording of collateral damage actually fits within International law.
Israel has the best US made and US taxpayer paid for weapon systems on the market, they have (as they and the US would admit to) many of the best intelligence units and special forces operators in the world…therefore there is no need to blanket bomb areas of the Gaza strip and especially inside the city of Gaza. Use your specialists in the manner that they’re trained for.
Twenty years ago, I put this analogy to taking out the Taliban by the US and it’s Allies…well I’ll do the same thing with taking out Hamas. Like the Taliban, Like AQ, Like ISIS…they can all blend back into the population or disperse through border crossings. Therefore trying to take them out one by one is tantamount to eradicating malaria by swatting each mosquito that lands on your arm…it will never work…and the proof of that is with the Taliban back running Afghanistan after 20 odd years.
The only way to eradicate Hamas, is to kill or capture the top tier (right now sitting securely in Qatar), cut off it’s funding, recruiting ability, and by giving the good and innocent people of Gaza their dignity and livelihoods back.
The operation against Hamas right now is an operation against every individual inside the Gaza Strip. And as I said in my last post on the subject of Hamas v Israel, you kill one innocent civilian and you’ve immediately recruited 5 Hamas terrorists.
Bob Shepherd 
Just what Hamas want, it won’t be long before the media and the local Arab nations turn against Israel and quite rightly the way they are handling this situation. They must show themselves as being better than their enemies.