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While it’s not historically unusual for Israel to be lambasted during the wars it fights, mostly out of self-defense against an Arab world that doesn’t tolerate its existence, the level to which much of the world has recently steeped to depict the Jewish state as utterly inhumane makes “fake news” an understatement.
In his annual “Urbi et Orbi” address, the Pope lamented the “appalling” loss of life in Gaza. Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan just compared his Israeli counterpart to Hitler, as if using derogatory Holocaust references to describe Jews is not as low as you can go.
The United Nations has issued all types of explosive warnings about the situation in Gaza, from “grave peril” to “rapid deterioration.” It even described the strip’s conditions as “apocalyptic.” Yes, you read that correctly.
Social media is flooded with heartbreaking scenes of Palestinian death and destruction, captured and shared by charismatic citizen journalists who have gained massive audiences with their eyewitness accounts of the war.
Much of the mainstream media has become less a reporter of this conflict and more of a supporting actor in it, entwined in a vicious circle of manipulation, myth-making, and self-interest. One recent BBC headline, a supposed firsthand account from a Gazan, says it all: “I walked my kids past explosions and rotting corpses.” But nowadays, journalists need to dramatize news to drive clicks and justify their jobs, so at least this keeps the unemployment rate low, right?
In many circles of reporters who regularly cover the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a distaste for Israel has become a justifiable prejudice, even a prerequisite for social acceptance. I don’t mean a critical approach to Israeli policies or to the hardline government currently running the country, but a devout belief that Israel is one obvious reason for the world’s ills.
The reality of Israel’s role in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and during the Israel-Hamas war, is far different — dare I say the polar opposite — than many are leading us to believe. I know this because I’ve lived in Israel since 2013, and I have many friends who have served and are currently serving in the IDF and Israeli government.
As a matter of fact, I could make the argument that, from Israel’s side, this is one of the most humane wars fought in recent memory on all of planet Earth. Here are just a few anecdotes:
A White House spokesperson suggested that the steps Israel’s military has taken to prevent civilian casualties in Gaza might go further than what the U.S. would have done if it was in Israel’s place.
“There are very few modern militaries in the world that would do that,” said John Kirby. “I don’t know that we would do that.”
To understand the sheer military gymnastics with which Israeli soldiers are confronted, you have to understand that the IDF is fighting within an environment incredibly unique to combat — both urban and underground — which in some ways is unprecedented. Even so, the ratio of combatant to non-combatant casualties (if we believe the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry) is believed to be one-to-two, meaning that for every terrorist there are two civilians killed.1
Every civilian life lost is unfortunate, for sure, but there is little doubt that when looking at the last 80 years of war, the way other militaries have fought (including the U.S.) and the way Hamas uses civilians as human shields and civilian infrastructure as its safe-havens, Israel’s ratio of combatant to non-combatant casualties is purely impressive.
International lawyer Marc Zell, who lives in Israel and has a son in the IDF, said Israeli soldiers in Gaza have expressed frustration that the ground campaign is painstakingly slow. They said, for example, that when they request an air strike against a terror target, it takes forever to get clearance. Why? Because the IDF insists on going out of their way to prevent innocent civilian deaths — even when it puts Israeli soldiers at risk.
“The soldiers I spoke with said they wouldn’t have it any other way,” according to Zell. “War is hell and innocents will be hurt, but Israel is doing the best it can to avoid needless carnage while at the same time ridding the world of bestial terror.”2
Israel does this with its army of military lawyers who are tasked with ensuring that proportionality balancing tests are adequately analyzed to determine whether a strike is legally permissible as “proportionate” under international law and the rules of war.
These lawyers are not easily manipulated to simply “rubber stamp” Israeli military requests. In fact, they work in complete independence of the IDF, outside the chain of command. They do not answer to anyone in the military, including generals. Plus, every military lawyer is personally accountable if they make wrong decisions based on evidence available at the time.
Another IDF unit has been tasked with managing hundreds of thousands of phone calls to Palestinians in Gaza, urging them to evacuate combat areas. They also issued some 12 million voice messages and 14 million text messages.3
When the IDF set up humanitarian corridors for Palestinians to evacuate from battle zones, Hamas operatives tried to prevent civilians from leaving, setting up roadblocks and even firing bullets on convoys. The IDF then put its soldiers and tanks on both sides of the corridors, to protect the fleeing civilians.
To minimize the incidental effects of strikes on the terrorists in Gaza, the IDF announced the creation of “humanitarian zones” — which were subsequently abused by Hamas terrorists to fire more than 100 rockets at Israel from these zones.4
Aid agencies and Palestinians who have arrived to these humanitarian zones describe them as a cruel “mirage” amid Israel’s military response to Hamas’ massacre on October 7th.5 But unlike European and other countries which readily welcomed Ukrainian refugees after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, not a single one of the dozens of Arab and Muslim-majority countries offered to temporarily host Palestinian refugees. But hey, there’s nothing like the one big Arab and Muslim family, right?
For now, the least bad of all the bad options is to keep displaced Gazans in Gaza, providing protection and humanitarian assistance where they are. The only problem is that Hamas steals their humanitarian aid and abandons them. In one video circulated on the platform X (formerly Twitter), an Israeli Druze soldier brought food to civilians after Hamas raided the stocks of aid.
In another video, an IDF officer asked a Gaza resident if Hamas operatives are taking supplies from the humanitarian services. The resident replied: “Of course, of course, wherever Hamas goes, total destructions follows. The administration workers in the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees are Hamas operatives.”
Recently, more than 10,000 parents of IDF soldiers signed a letter to Israel’s prime minister demanding that he end the humanitarian aid to Gaza, claiming that the aid is endangering their children since it ends up in Hamas’ hands. Instead, Israel’s war cabinet voted to approve the reopening of Israel’s Kerem Shalom Crossing for additional entry of humanitarian aid.
Egypt’s Rafah crossing, which before then was the only one open for entry of aid, has only been able to keep up with 100 trucks per day, even after Israel began using Kerem Shalom for inspections in addition to its Nitzana Crossing.
The IDF also provided substantial humanitarian aid to the notorious Shifa Hospital, while also assisting in evacuation efforts. According to the army spokesman, the IDF supplied over 6,000 liters of water and more than 2,300 kilograms of food, including essentials like fish, canned food, bread, spreads, and dates.
Several media outlets reported that the IDF gave a one-hour notice to leave, and there were also false claims that more than 7,000 people were forced to flee. Contrary to this fake news, the IDF did not mandate the evacuation of patients or medical staff. Instead, it offered to support any medical evacuation requests.6
What’s more, a Hamas terrorist wounded in fighting in Gaza was taken for treatment to an Israeli hospital in Petach Tikva, some 80 kilometers from the strip. The move was in apparent contravention to an Israeli Health Ministry decision, made in the immediate aftermath of Hamas’ October 7th onslaught, that captured terrorists would only be treated in IDF or prison service medical facilities. But the terrorist was so seriously injured in fighting that they transferred him to the central Israel hospital.
With all this said, there’s no question that Israel’s military campaign in Hamas-infested Gaza hasn’t been flawless — naturally an extraordinary letdown to all those who believe Israel should be the only country in the history of the world that’s expected to be perfect at all times, in any situation, at every point in time, notwithstanding the current Israel-Hamas war.
All facetiousness aside, Israeli soldiers have made many mistakes during this conflict, ranging from unintentional to irresponsible, idiotic, and unprofessional — just like soldiers in every army, ever. Some of these mistakes shouldn’t have happened in the first place and from what we’re told, these soldiers are reprimanded, but many of these mistakes are in intense human (i.e. emotional, psychological) response to the uncanny evil of Palestinian terrorism, which knows no bounds.
In one story, a 4-year-old Palestinian girl was found by IDF soldiers wandering alone in Gaza. They took care of her, gave her something to eat and drink, and returned her to the locals through the International Red Cross. Later it came out that she was not an innocent lost child. Rather, she had been sent by Palestinian terrorists to scout the whereabouts of IDF troops and report back, so that the terrorists could attack Israeli soldiers.7
In another astonishing story, a Palestinian terrorist hid out under the wheelchair of an elderly woman. When the IDF soldiers approached, the terrorist opened fire.
It really doesn’t matter whether all Palestinians support or tolerate Hamas, or whether they’re just scared to act against it for fear of retribution. But it does illustrate the exorbitant challenges that Israeli soldiers face as they work to eradicate Palestinian terror in Gaza and create the reasonable conditions for sustainable safety on Israel’s borders.
At the same time, no one in Israel is denying the ugly reality in Gaza. But it’s not the ugliest of realities.
It’s not the methodical use of human shields and civilian infrastructure to shelter terrorists and their weapons. It’s not the redirection of humanitarian aid to build hundreds of kilometers of underground tunnels for the purpose of smuggling and protecting these terrorists.
It’s not beheading babies, raping and mutilating women, and disgracefully kidnapping dozens of children (including a nine-month-old baby) and elderly people. It’s not calling these behaviors mere acts of “resistance” and “liberation.”
It’s not bullying the United Nations and International Red Cross into being servants for Islamic jihadists. It’s not the genocidal, eliminationist ideology inspired by Islam. It’s not constructing an entire sociopolitical architecture of antisemitism that spans academia, religion, politics, and culture. It’s not the countless Muslim preachers who regularly encourage intolerance, hate, and terrorism.
It’s not making outrageous claims, such as the historical distortion that Jesus Christ was a “Palestinian prophet,” in an effort to deny Jewish indigenousness to the Levant way before Arabs from Arabia migrated to and Arabicized it. It’s not leaders who don’t just oppose Israel, but call the Jewish state a “sinister, unclean rabid dog of the region” whose leaders “look like beasts and cannot be called human.”8
It’s not throwing people off the top of a building for having dissimilar political beliefs. It’s not carrying out public executions of LGBTQ+ people. It’s not inviting hundreds of spectators, including children, to watch firing squads kill “criminals.”
It’s not purging Gaza’s Christian community, part of a broader vanishing of Christians from the Middle East, and firebombing (twice) Gaza’s last Christian bookstore, while kidnapping, torturing, and murdering its Christian owner.
It’s not using an outpatient clinic at a hospital to interrogate, torture, and kill dissidents in an operation known as “Strangling Necks.” It’s not “summer camps” that teach kids how to fire automatic weapons and kidnap Israelis.
As investigative journalist David Collier put it: “Israel did not steal aid meant for Palestinians and build rockets with it. Israel did not take the concrete meant for infrastructure and use it to build tunnels to protect terrorists. Israel did not invest in teaching hate rather than science in schools. This is all on Hamas.”9
Yaakov Katz on X
Marc Zell on X
“IDF intel unit’s calls with Gazans reveal cracks of dissent against Hamas rule.” The Times of Israel.
“IDF says Hamas has fired 116 rockets from designated humanitarian zone in Gaza.” The Times of Israel.
“IDF instructions on Gaza refuge zones cruel ‘mirage’, say aid agencies.” The Guardian.
“IDF Enables Evacuees From Shifa Hospital To Leave Safely, Contrary to False Media Reports.” The Media Line.
Marc Zell on X
“How to Fight Anti-Semitism.” The New York Times.
David Collier on X
There are refugees, in numerous areas doe a variety of reasons, yet the Palestinians are the only ones with hereditary refugee status, given by the UN. Why is this? The label seems to hold people as political pawns for Hamas, existing without hope of a better life.
Excellent analysis, Joshua. Your best yet.
You know, whatever empathy I had for poor palestinians died on October 7th when my mother called me in the early hours of the attack thinking that hamas terrorists will soon be at their door to murder them, as images of their barbarism were already making the rounds on social media and I could do nothing but wait and had no words of comfort for her because I had no idea wtf was happening. I don’t care who in gaza knows, cares or supports hamas, or doesn’t. Not anymore. I don’t give a damn. The world’s clear support of hamas, to include Biden’s pathetic and at best tentative support, is telling Israel in no uncertain terms that it stands alone in this fight- fine. I just saw Mark Regev speak on this and using the strongest, most resolute language yet, including that over Syria and Lebanon- good. Israel cannot stop now or at any point prior to the total elimination of hamas, or at least a beating that would take them generations to recover. I also saw that South Africa is filing a genocide case against Israel- this from a country that learned to behave ‘normally’ to ALL its citizens just at the end of the 20th century and before that still didn’t face the intense level of scrutiny and condemnation that Israel faces today for its just war. I’m so sick of the hypocrisy that I’m becoming numb to it. Bring it on. F’k everybody who doesn’t wholeheartedly support Israel’s war against hamas and against terrorism. I just don’t care anymore.