We hear a lot about the “war crimes of Israel and the IDF”; in fact, that’s about all we hear on campus regarding the war. And it is these “war crimes” that have brought the world’s opprobrium down on Israel, even though they are not war crimes. Yes, an odd IDF soldier might commit a war crime occasionally (I know of none), but I take issue with the claim that Israel is guilty of war crimes in general.
In contrast, there is no doubt that Hamas and other Palestinian terror groups are guilty of multiple war crimes. Yet we don’t hear about them much, and the world certainly isn’t outraged by them. That is a curious situation.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has formalized the possibility that Israel could be committing genocide, and though it hasn’t yet concluded it is, even the possibility seems ludicrous to me, for Israel is certainly not bent on eliminating all Palestinians—just Hamas. The care that the IDF takes to avoid killing civilians when possible, Israel’s provision of humanitarian aid to non-combatant Gazans, and the warnings and “safe areas” that the IDF provides to non0-combatants—all of this argues against the claim of genocide, as has the big population increase in Gaza in recent years. And yet how often do we hear that among all armies of the world, the IDF is the most careful to avoid harming civilians?
Israel’s “war crimes” are also the basis of the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) pending indictment against Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defense Minister Gallant, who will be charged with crimes against humanity. To be sure, though, the ICC has said that there are reasonable grounds for charging three Hamas leaders (Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri, and Ismail Haniyeh) with the following war crimes (Mohammed Diab, known as Mohammed Deif, was just subject to an attack by the IDF, but we don’t know if he’s alive):
- Extermination as a crime against humanity, contrary to article 7(1)(b) of the Rome Statute;
- Murder as a crime against humanity, contrary to article 7(1)(a), and as a war crime, contrary to article 8(2)(c)(i);
- Taking hostages as a war crime, contrary to article 8(2)(c)(iii);
- Rape and other acts of sexual violence as crimes against humanity, contrary to article 7(1)(g), and also as war crimes pursuant to article 8(2)(e)(vi) in the context of captivity;
- Torture as a crime against humanity, contrary to article 7(1)(f), and also as a war crime, contrary to article 8(2)(c)(i), in the context of captivity;
- Other inhumane acts as a crime against humanity, contrary to article 7(l)(k), in the context of captivity;
- Cruel treatment as a war crime contrary to article 8(2)(c)(i), in the context of captivity; and
- Outrages upon personal dignity as a war crime, contrary to article 8(2)(c)(ii), in the context of captivity.
I will add a few more war crimes committed by Hamas, some of which were described (but NOT identified as war crimes, by a recent piece in the New York Times, as noted by the Elder of Ziyon):
- Hiding among civilians while acting as a combatant
- Dressing as civilians while fighting
- Using civilian homes for military purposes
- Purposefully hiding among civilians and firing rockets from civilian neighborhoods
- Recruiting children to do military activities
- Hiding soldiers in hospitals
In fact it was the NYT article that described Hamas’s war crimes—without labeling them as such—that angered me to the point that I had to write this post. But of course this post may be superfluous since everyone seems to ignore Hamas’s war crimes; and the world is certainly neither emphasizing these crimes nor coming down on Hamas for committing them.
And here are two more violations by Hamas:
- Firing missiles at civilian populations in Israel
- Using terrorism as an act of war: attacks in Israel on civilians
These are palpable and arrant war crimes of Hamas, and one can’t deny that they were committed. In fact, these are the usual tactics of Hamas. My question is this: why does the world ignore them? You don’t see encampments by Jewish or non-Palestinian students protesting Hamas’s war crimes; you hear very little about them as war crimes in the media; and the NYT article is one example about how Hamas’s normal battle tactics are completely ignored as genuine war crimes. As the Elder of Ziyon says about this article:
While the NYT describes all of these violations of the laws of war, the only time it mentions that fact is saying more than 50 paragraphs into the report that “International law requires combatants to avoid using ‘civilian objects,’ which include homes, schools, hospitals and mosques, for military objectives.”The article should have been written many months ago, and it should have emphasized that Hamas’ actions are not only illegal but also the cause of so much suffering of the innocent in Gaza.
This is one example, but perhaps the most blatant one, about how a double standard is applied to Hamas and the IDF in the war. Hostage-taking alone should enrage the world.
I’ll leave it to readers to hypothesize why this double standard exists.
Hamas is a terror organization and evil. They are indeed guilty of the things you cite and no one should defend them. Killing 70 Palestinian innocents because there is a Hamas leader among them is also evil. They are not worthy of your defense.
Sorry, pal, but the reports are that those “70 Palestinian innocents” were in a fenced Hamas compound and it’s almost certain that nearly all of them were Hamas members. Sorry, but you don’t know what you’re talking about.
Have you ever read the Roolz?
And even if some were “innocent” Palestinians herded into the fenced compound to be visible to Israeli intelligence as human shields, they were legitimate collateral damage given the military value of the guys they must surely have got.
(I actually believe the IDF would have used more discrimination than eight 2000-lb bombs to get those guys if the other people in there were in fact innocent non-combatants, or if the other people in the refugee camp were closer to ground zero.). My point is that proportionality justifies the action without any further evidence about who was in the compound. The heavy loss of life just complicates the task of DNA analysis to verify that the bad guys were hit, is all.)
War is hell. Don’t start one.
This was about double standards. Killing 70 innocents (if that were true) for one major military target is below Israel’s previous standards, but certainly not below the standards of Hamas. It’s also not below the standards of the US supported war of the Saudis in Yemen, or of the war against ISIS in Mosul by the Iraqi regime and its western partners, and the major western press outlets hardly said a word about those, nor did Arab activists, or I didn’t hear them.
Going back a little further in time, the bombing of Belgrade by NATO was terror bombing more than anything else, as no target they bombed there was truly militarily engaged in Kosovo, and they did hit lots of clearly civilian targets with very lame excuses (https://www.theguardian.com/world/1999/may/21/richardnortontaylor.martinwalker). Not even mentioning the current cruel wars in Sudan and Kongo here, with enormous humanitarian costs, about which we hardly hear a word.
Putin would (and does) get called out for modest numbers of civilian deaths by the western media, and he has been indicted as a war criminal, which if you ask me was a very unwise thing to do. I think the closeness in time here works to Israel’s detriment, as comparisons get made.
Hamas of course knew exactly what was in store for the civilian population in Gaza when they attacked. They love the propaganda it affords them.
Putin was indicted for kidnapping Ukrainian children to bring up as Russians, not for his attacks on civilians.
Yes. It’s Hamas. It’s Hamas that ended the October 6 cease fire with the attack on October 7. It’s Hamas that uses its own citizens as armaments. After all, dead Gazans are Hamas’s most valuable weapon. Hamas can end the war instantly by surrendering and returning the hostages. In lieu of that, the fastest way to end the war is for Israel to eliminate Hamas’s capacity to wage war and to govern. That means getting rid of Hamas leadership, which will necessarily entail collateral deaths. Hamas can end this at any time.
Please excuse my language, but the ICJ “formalizing the possibility that Israel could be committing genocide” is utterly bullsh*t, given what we know about how Israel is conducting the war and considering the actual genocides and massive crimes against humanity being committed by countries like Iran, China, and Russia, which seem to garner no serious condemnation from the court. For example, China has culturally decimated its Western Chinese Muslims through cultural and religious suppression and the “Hanification” of Xinjiang. Russia is aggressively attacking its neighbor, trying to annex its land, and has committed and is continuing to commit an untold number of atrocities against Ukraine. In fact I would say that every false accusation of war crime leveled against Israel actually applies to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. And if anyone wants to talk about apartheid, look no further than Iran, where half the population lives under gender apartheid. Give me a break.
The court is very much interested in Russia’s war crimes, even though these are relatively low key as wars go. https://www.icc-cpi.int/news/situation-ukraine-icc-judges-issue-arrest-warrants-against-vladimir-vladimirovich-putin-and
Hello, Prof.
As to the way the world seems to ignore Hamas’s war crimes, I would think that it’s the concept that what Hamas did on October 7th was an “act of resistance” against an occupying power that carries the day for so many otherwise reasonable people. This is not my idea; I’m sure I’ve seen it laid out here before but it riles me today as much as it did about a week after October 7th when an old friend (no longer so) castigated me for defending Israel’s right to defend itself (this even before Israel had gone into Gaza) by stating this act of resistance nonsense. That left me spluttering, astounded and shocked.
The people of the French resistance have been, and are, rightly lauded for their actions against the Nazis and their soldiery so it follows for the simple minded, those whose minds are ideologically blinkered, and assorted anti-semites that Hamas’s “resistance” must be similarly applauded and any thought of calling what they do a war crime must be denied, derided and ignored.
It’s antisemitism, plain and simple. I wouldn’t need more justification to say this than to say that the sky is blue. One can see it for itself, as much as you deny it it’s still true.
But ok. Israel is subjected very strict standards which are not applied to any other state or armed group, being the differentiating factor that It’s a Jewish ant sionist state. Even sionism is just directly painted as an evil ideology (when It isn’t) without reason.
The thing is the story about Israel conflicts is build by it’s detractors on the unfounded premise that Israel is guilty (I am sure there’s some name for this as a fallacy) and from that point, any argument that comes across can only be construed as incriminating Israel, thus making imposible, in any case, proving Israel’s innocence.
Sure, there are other factors like simpathy for the “weak” and poor, and some political traditions from the Cold War, but this is the core of IT.
I for one will never ignore or forget the crimes of Hamas and I still believe that I am not in a minority. The hatred toward Israel is driven by extremists and a completely biased industry of misinformation funded by individuals and societies with a hatred of Jews. Religion predominantly in the form of Islam also plays a huge part in this global hatred.
It remains for those of us who recognize the truth to keep fighting against this hatred and support Israel in every way possible.
I see this double standard for Israel/Hamas as part of a larger heuristic coming out of a rising victimhood culture in which a toxic mixture of oppressor/oppressed divisions, black and white thinking, and a therapeutic mindset based on authoritarian adult and stifled child excuses whichever individual or group of “victims” lash out.
The idea is that can’t help themselves and this primal urge towards rebellion is exactly what it takes to fix what’s broken. We don’t just see it with Palestinians getting away with war crimes. The BLM looters who have such good reasons because of slavery; the environmentalist vandals who are forced to push their message to the indifferent; the January 6th insurrectionists who were only trying to take their country back. The same people who accuse Professor Kathleen Stock of “trans genocide” turn a blind eye to mainstream websites like Etsy selling merchandise with “Fuck TERFS.”
In a sense, their perceived victimhood may have recategorized them as wise children following their instincts and expressing a healthy, healing anger towards what the sophisticated, reasonable adults have allowed.
This sympathy for Pal – the result of a concerted Soviet campaign in the 60s and 70s brainwashed academia and slid terrorists into the folder of “oppressed.”
I watched all this studying M.E. pol at lefty (prestigious) unis in Australia and the US in the late 80s/early 90s. Today’s senior journalists learned this idiocy then and it has been handed down like congenital syphilis ever since.
Most of the media have B.A.s etc from universities that teach this nonsense.
Even back then Palestinian nationalism/terrorism was taught as fact.
Nothing about the other side AT ALL.
And in the Arab world THIS is what they teach even the little kids:
https://themoderatevoice.com/kindergarten-jihad-who-plays-the-beheaded/
(reposted from the other day)
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I was so happy to hear of “the Guest’s”/Deif’s final demise (hopefully) yesterday.
Onwards Israeli heroes.
D.A.
NYC
What surprises me is that the Jewish community has not taken to the streets to demand that the Biden administration support Israel, which is under attack by Hezbollah, Hamas, and Iran. What’s the point in letting the enemy win the streets?
The Biden administration seems to be of two minds: support Israel but worry about the American Arab vote.
There are also a few Jews on the pro-Pal side (usually ones with no interest in Judaism or Israel).
The Jews in the Biden administration don’t too interested in the problem.
The IDF independently described the strike site as follows:
“The location of the strike was an open area surrounded by trees, several buildings, and sheds.” (Link below.)
Contemporaneous footage in the immediate aftermath clearly shows hundreds of tents in the area.
As has been confirmed by Reuters and many other outlets, “Al-Mawasi is a designated humanitarian area that the Israeli army has repeatedly urged Palestinians to head to after issuing evacuation orders from other areas.”
Here’s the IDF’s post: https://x.com/IDF/status/1812093008319267038?t=XsuwwlFo3VyvNffM8ZOWVQ&s=19
As I said before, the attack by the IDF took place in a fenced-off compound that was used by Hamas. Once such a compound is constructed, even in a “humanitarian” area, it becomes a legal and legitimate military target. UYou seem to be neglecting that part, which was also reported by the IDF.
I just chanced on an interview with one Paul Craig Roberts who apparently has impeccable credentials and yet seems to be advancing a view most would consider outrageous, namely that deaths in Gaza are “at least half a million”. Is this a case of anti-semitism or senility? Surely someone should expose this as it must be affecting peoples’ views? Or did I somehow misunderstand?
https://youtu.be/Z6gcW2ue41k?t=1609
President Reagan appointed Dr. Roberts Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy and he was confirmed in office by the U.S. Senate. From 1975 to 1978, Dr. Roberts served on the congressional staff where he drafted the Kemp-Roth bill and played a leading role in developing bipartisan support for a supply-side economic policy. After leaving the Treasury, he served as a consultant to the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Department of Commerce.
Dr. Roberts has held academic appointments at Virginia Tech, Tulane University, University of New Mexico, Stanford University where he was Senior Research Fellow in the Hoover Institution, George Mason University where he had a joint appointment as professor of economics and professor of business administration, and Georgetown University where he held the William E. Simon Chair in Political Economy in the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
He has contributed chapters to numerous books and has published many articles in journals of scholarship, including the Journal of Political Economy, Oxford Economic Papers, Journal of Law and Economics, Studies in Banking and Finance, Journal of Monetary Economics, Public Choice, Classica et Mediaevalia, Ethics, Slavic Review, Soviet Studies, Cardoza Law Review, Rivista de Political Economica, and Zeitschrift fur Wirtschafspolitik. He has entries in the McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Economics and the New Palgrave Dictionary of Money and Finance.
He has contributed to Commentary, The Public Interest, The National Interest, Policy Review, National Review, The Independent Review, Harper’s, the New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, Fortune, London Times, The Financial Times, TLS, The Spectator, The International Economy, Il Sole 24 Ore, Le Figaro, Liberation, and the Nihon Keizai Shimbun. He has testified before committees of Congress on 30 occasions.