Stop expecting Israel's army to be perfect.
People across the world manipulated an episode from earlier this week to smear the Jewish state, in what can be described as yet another blood libel against the Jews. Enough is enough.
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On Tuesday, the tragic news broke about what appeared to be an accidental Israeli airstrike in Gaza that killed seven humanitarian aid workers, including one American, for the nonprofit group World Central Kitchen.
This was truly an unfortunate and tragic episode, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu immediately said as much in a video published on social media also on Tuesday. Multiple Israeli politicians and IDF commanders also expressed their apologies soon after.
But we all know that Israel — and by extension, the IDF (the Jewish army) — is held to a standard that no other country or army is expected to even remotely uphold.
And that is not even the craziest part of this story.
A range of Jewish organizations’ even chimed in on the unfortunate event, and a few had harsh words for Israel. For example, Rabbi Jill Jacobs, CEO of the liberal rabbinic human rights group T’ruah, criticized “Israel’s failure to protect civilians including deconflicted humanitarian organizations.”
Jacobs added: “While the incident must be fully investigated, it’s clear that this is one more example of Israel failing to take proper measures to protect civilians, including humanitarian workers, too many of whom have already been killed in this war.”
I am reminded of something I saw on social media at the start of the war, which went like this:
First they came for the Jews who are politically conservative, and I did not speak up, because I am not a conservative.
Then they came for the Jews who are politically centrist, and I did not speak up, because I am not a centrist.
Then they came for the Jews who are Zionists, and I did not speak up, because I am not a Zionist.
Then they came for the Jews who are “progressives,” and I said, “But I did and said everything you wanted.” And they replied: “Yeah, but you are still a Jew.”
The extreme Left-leaning Israel lobbyist organization J Street commented that it was “utterly horrified” by the bombing and cited figures saying that almost 200 aid workers have been killed in the war. Mind you, these figures include “aid workers” who double as bonafide Palestinian terrorists, or are forced to be Palestinian terrorists’ human shields.
But sure, keep blaming Israel for every single death in Gaza — regardless of context, reason, intention, or any other reasonable premise.
And then there was the response from Israel’s “best friend” and “greatest supporter.” I am talking about U.S. President Joe Biden, who released a statement that says:
“I am outraged and heartbroken by the deaths … Even more tragically, this is not a stand-alone incident. This conflict has been one of the worst in recent memory in terms of how many aid workers have been killed. This is a major reason why distributing humanitarian aid in Gaza has been so difficult — because Israel has not done enough to protect aid workers trying to deliver desperately needed help to civilians.”
“Incidents like yesterday’s simply should not happen. Israel has also not done enough to protect civilians. The United States has repeatedly urged Israel to deconflict their military operations against Hamas with humanitarian operations, in order to avoid civilian casualties.”
Let me be clear about something: The Israelis screwed this one up. And I am not making excuses for Israel’s “grave mistake” (which are the State of Israel’s words, in fact, hence the quotation marks).
But to manipulate this episode into smearing the Jewish state with words like “Israel has also not done enough” without mentioning the despicable, cowardly Palestinian terrorists who (a) started this war and (b) habitually create near-impossible humanitarian circumstances on a daily basis, is so disgustingly antisemitic.
In other words, the U.S. president’s statements have serious, potentially life-threatening consequences for Israeli hostages, Israeli soldiers, Israeli civilians, and Jews across the world, including in the United States of America. You know, where there are some 6 million Jews — the second-largest Jewish population on planet Earth, and a population that, on the whole, has been pretty darn beneficial to the U.S. and Biden’s Democratic party, spanning decades.
This is what makes Biden’s statement incredibly bewildering, especially when we know that “pro-Palestinian” (really, Jew-hating) mobsters will hear Biden’s two-faced words and become even more encouraged to intimidate, bully, harass, and attack Jewish targets.
And when Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad leaders hear Biden’s two-faced words, they sleep well knowing that they can easily harden their negotiating positions with regard to the 100-plus hostages in their hands, including six Americans!
The message is pretty damn clear from this president: If you are an American who gets kidnapped overseas, well, good luck!
And we all know by now why Biden promoted such obnoxious and misplaced outrage: The Democrats are desperately losing Arab, Muslim, and “progressive” voters (who make up a small fraction of the overall American electorate) in “swing” states. These voters are threatening to sit out the upcoming presidential election if the Biden administration does not stop Israel from winning this completely justified, noble, and existential war against Hamas, Hezbollah, and other Iranian proxies.
Heck, if the Biden administration is so outraged by the death of one American aid worker being tragically and accidentally killed, why are they not doing more to release the six American hostages who Palestinians are still holding for 180-plus days in Gaza?
Apparently, Biden “made clear” to Netanyahu in a phone call on Thursday “the need for Israel to announce and implement a series of specific, concrete, and measurable steps to address civilian harm, humanitarian suffering and the safety of aid workers.”1
Fine, that is fair — so where are the Biden administration’s series of specific, concrete, and measurable steps to release the 130-plus hostages, including six who hold American citizenship? We are now six months into these hostages living in the most horrific, inhumane conditions, including torture, physical and sexual assault, starvation, and fears of young female hostages being impregnated — impregnated!!! — in captivity by Palestinian terrorists.
In this regard, Biden has miserably failed both Israel and the American hostages and their families. M-I-S-E-R-A-B-L-Y. Don’t you find it at least a little odd that the so-called most powerful person in this world (the U.S. president) seemingly refuses to seriously pressure America’s “great ally” Qatar to put pressure on Hamas, a great friend of the Qataris, to release the hostages?
Meanwhile, Israel has demonstrated during the last 180-plus days of war, as well as in several conflicts prior, that the Israelis are the most humanitarian military on this planet. But don’t take it from me. Biden’s fellow Americans have admitted so themselves.
When he was Barack Obama’s vice president, Obama sent U.S. military officials to Israel to learn how the Israelis keep civilian casualties exceptionally low, as the Obama administration was concerned about rising civilian deaths in the Syrian civil war.
More recently, John Spencer (who spent more than 25 years in the U.S. military, including two combat tours during the Iraq War) said:
“In my long career studying and advising on urban warfare for the U.S. military, I've never known an army to take such measures to attend to the enemy’s civilian population, especially while simultaneously combating the enemy in the very same buildings.”
“In fact, by my analysis, Israel has implemented more precautions to prevent civilian harm than any military in history—above and beyond what international law requires and more than the U.S. did in its wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.”2
In 2015 — while Biden was Vice President — U.S. airstrikes destroyed a Doctors Without Borders trauma hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, killing 42 people — six times as many as the IDF accidentally killed on Monday.3
I am not saying that two wrongs make a right. Rather, I am reasonably supposing that a man whose own military has killed vast numbers of people in error would understand that these things unfortunately happen in the fog of war, no matter how many respectable people hope that mishaps like these will not take place.
Yet Biden’s administration is acting like the IDF must be more than perfect to continue receiving America’s support.
“We will make sure Israel is never left without an ability to defend itself,” said U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris yesterday. “At the same time, if there are not changes to their approach, it’s very likely we’re going to change our approach.”4
What is “their approach” exactly? Or is she really just saying that Israel is the only American friend who cannot make mistakes without manipulative ramifications that the U.S. would not apply to any other American ally?
With all of this said, I have no doubt that the IDF has some “bad apple” soldiers who do not follow IDF protocol, sometimes accidentally and sometimes purposefully — just like every other army in the world, the U.S. notwithstanding.
But you know what else is true? Israeli soldiers are human beings after all, not robots, which means they (like the rest of us) make imperfect decisions, calculations, and judgments — some that come with terrible consequences.
And being a soldier is freakin’ insane. You do not sleep well for weeks on end, which naturally affects your perceptions and decision-making. If you are a reservist, and there are many in this war, you probably have a wife and children who are worried endlessly about you and you about them. Not to mention your parents, siblings, relatives, family, and colleagues.
I did not even get to the part in which you are facing — on an hourly basis, every single day — the cruelest of enemies in Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists who deliberately try to maximize as much death and destruction as humanly possible, because they know the world will blame Israel, while the IDF works both in theory and practice to minimize death and destruction on all sides.
That is not my opinion. Israel’s unworldly civilian-to-combatant ratio in this war is 1.5-to-one. And that is using Hamas’ mathematically impossible numbers. This suggests that the IDF is doing an impeccable job, especially when you consider that the international average of civilian-to-combatant ratios, according to the United Nations, is nine-to-one.
You see, it is easy for people to sit in their comfy, air-conditioned homes, offices, and media studios while they offer oversimplified judgments and opinions about the IDF. It is a whole other thing to be on the front lines of this horrific war that Israel was effectively forced to fight.
“Those who do say the strikes were obviously intended to kill the World Central Kitchen workers because of the prominent vehicle markings have presumably never observed drone optics at night. Indeed the IDF Chief of Staff, Herzi Halevi, has said that a preliminary assessment shows the incident occurred as a result of ‘misidentification,’” wrote Colonel Richard Kemp, a retired British Army officer who served from 1977 to 2006. “Unfortunately, nightmares like this occur frequently in the fog of war, with its confusion, chaos, danger, death, destruction, mental overload, human pressure, and technical failure.”5
Six months into this thing, I still have not heard a realistic, pragmatic alternative to Israel’s response, yet I remain open to hearing one if it exists.
What I have heard is that many Israeli soldiers are exhausted, traumatized, stressed out of their minds, and scared to death while bravely fighting this existential war that the other side ruthlessly started — and a war that in some ways has been prolonged by people like Biden and those in his administration who have implicitly forced Israelis to fight with one hand behind their backs because, as a matter of fact, his party is overly and obsessively preoccupied with a few hundred thousand Muslim and Arab voters and their few million “progressive” friends in a country of 330 million people.
Biden and his Democrats’ populist politics does not mean the IDF is free from fair, honest, nuanced, and respectful criticism. But for those who expect Israelis to essentially be perfect, they are actually a part of the problem in this war, and they too have innocents’ blood on their hands, no matter how far away they may be from the Middle East.
“Biden to Netanyahu: Immediate ceasefire needed to stabilize humanitarian situation, protect civilians.” The Times of Israel.
“Israel Has Created a New Standard for Urban Warfare. Why Will No One Admit It? | Opinion.” Newsweek.
“On 3 October 2015, US airstrikes destroyed our trauma hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, killing 42 people.” Médecins Sans Frontières.
“Kamala Harris: If Israel doesn’t change approach in Gaza, ‘it’s very likely we’re going to’.” The Times of Israel.
“Civilian casualties occur in fog of war as in killing of WCK staff.” Ynet News.
After the very sad incident that happened the other day, I knew the Jew hating news media, politicians, and public comments would be running strong, and I was not disappointed. This article points out the absolute ignorance, stupidity, and lack of logic when criticizing the IDF. They seem to have forgotten Israel is fighting a war. As you have stated, no other country has been held to this unrealistic standard, and yet, despite this accident, the IDF have done an impeccable job. I believe therein lives the problem. The Western leaders have thrown one directive after another to thwart the success of the IDF and have failed. They know they could never conduct a war in the same way the IDF has, but they keep hammering away. From what I understand, the World Central Kitchen was traveling at midnight. If true, why would Jose Andres, a known anti-Semite, feel comfortable sending these trucks out at midnight in a war zone? Again, because it's Israel, Andres makes bold statements about how the IDF "deliberately" targeted his people. So now everyone is "outraged." The new buzzword for Karine Jean-Pierre, Joe Biden, Jill Biden, Lloyd Austin, etc. They can add it to their repertoire of vocabulary that they use over and over again. And as for me, Joe Biden gets no pass. A man who can barely run his own country giving instruction to a country that deals with an enemy every day on how to conduct a war. Where's the outrage for the 1200 Israelis killed, the outrage for 96,000 Israelis that were forced to abandon their homes in the north because of Hezbollah, the survivors of October 7th whose homes were destroyed, and the hostages who may be living or not. Where's the outrage? Nowhere to be found. What is outrageous is that Biden and his admin claim Israel must do better and have a plan to do so. Well, the "geniuses" in the WH could surely come up with a plan that Israel would love to hear, except they don't have one. They can't even solve the US's domestic problems, and yet so delusional that they believe they can advise Israel. If Biden truly thinks he will get the Muslim vote because of this, he will be very mistaken and is choosing the wrong strategy.
First of all, can someone remind me of a war that ended with civilian deaths?
Secondly, have those states whose citizens died as a result of the unintentional attack done anything to end the conflict? I don’t mean calls like “let’s stop fighting,” but actions towards the release of Israeli hostages and the surrender of terrorists. After all, this is what will end the war.
Why is all the blame now being shifted to Israel? (I know why, I'm just emphasizing the situation).
Israel is at war with violent maniacs on a level most anti-Israel loudmouths cannot imagine. These are people who kill without pity, sell bodies and body parts, and take pride in killing children and women.
It costs them nothing to hide behind employees of international organizations, to use employees of international organizations in their activities and to be part of international organizations.
At the same time, when destroying terrorists, the IDF cannot distinguish terrorists from strangers if they are in the same car or in the same column.
I am very sorry for the people who died from the unintentional strike, but this is not a reason to blame Israel.