Last week, I was surprised that both Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch issued reports claiming that Israel unjustifiably killed civilians during Operation Cast Lead. (See a related posts at Media Backspin and at CAMERA.) But of course, it was no accident. Currently there is a “balanced war crimes” investigation going on in Gaza being run by the UN. No doubt Amnesty and HRW made their contributions with the hope of tilting the scales against Israel, just in case the UN doesn’t condemn Israel harshly enough when its report comes out.
Last month a conference called Hamas, the Gaza War and Accountability under International Law was held in Jerusalem. One of the participants was a British colonel, who served in Afghanistan, Richard Kemp. The following is an excerpt from Kemp’s remarks. First he presents an aspect of the fighting that the UN, Amnesty and HRW will ignore:
It is often overlooked in media and human rights groups’ frenzies to expose fault among military forces fighting in the toughest conditions. The fourth is preventing or minimising casualties among your own soldiers. There will frequently be times when a military commander must make a snap judgement between the safety of his own troops and that of other people.
Human nature dictates that he will often choose his own men. It is hard to see how it could be otherwise. And there is more to it even than the commander’s human nature and loyalty to his men. For soldiers to follow their commander into combat – at any level, but especially at the point of battle – they must trust him.
How many soldiers want to die, be blinded, burnt, or have their arms, legs or faces blown off? No soldier will trust, or follow, a commander who is profligate with his men’s lives.
Let us not forget that these calculations, judgements and decisions are not taken in an air conditioned office or from the safety of a rearward military headquarters. The commander must weigh these things up in altogether different circumstances.
But then he mentions some of the efforts Israel made to reduce civilian casualties even at risk to its troops:
It is the automatic, pavlovian presumption by many in the international media, and international human rights groups, that the IDF are in the wrong, that they are abusing human rights.
So what did the IDF do in Gaza to meet their obligation to operate within the laws of war? When possible the IDF gave at least four hours’ notice to civilians to leave areas targeted for attack.
Attack helicopter pilots, tasked with destroying Hamas mobile weapons platforms, had total discretion to abort a strike if there was too great a risk of civilian casualties in the area. Many missions that could have taken out Hamas military capability were cancelled because of this.
During the conflict, the IDF allowed huge amounts of humanitarian aid into Gaza. This sort of task is regarded by military tacticians as risky and dangerous at the best of times. To mount such operations, to deliver aid virtually into your enemy’s hands, is to the military tactician, normally quite unthinkable.
But the IDF took on those risks.
In the latter stages of Cast Lead the IDF unilaterally announced a daily three-hour cease fire. The IDF dropped over 900,000 leaflets warning the population of impending attacks to allow them to leave designated areas. A complete air squadron was dedicated to this task alone.
Leaflets also urged the people to phone in information to pinpoint Hamas fighters vital intelligence that could save innocent lives.
The IDF phoned over 30,000 Palestinian households in Gaza, urging them in Arabic to leave homes where Hamas might have stashed weapons or be preparing to fight. Similar messages were passed in Arabic on Israeli radio broadcasts warning the civilian population of forthcoming operations.
Despite Israel’s extraordinary measures, of course innocent civilians were killed and wounded. That was due to the frictions of war that I have spoken about, and even more was an inevitable consequence of Hamas’ way of fighting.
By taking these actions and many other significant measures during Operation Cast Lead the IDF did more to safeguard the rights of civilians in a combat zone than any other Army in the history of warfare.
UPDATE: Israelly Cool has an earlier video of Col. Kemp, speaking during the Gaza war.
UPDATE II: Barry Rubin quotes Jonathan Spyer:
“The interesting thing about Kemp is that at first glance you think that he’s extraordinary, and then you realise that he isnt. He’s just a sane, professional military man. Which makes you realize just how nuts the terms of debate in Britain and Europe have become.”
Elder of Ziyon addresses the UN investigating team directly. (Good luck with that. They’re not looking for the truth.)
The Hashmonean discusses what the UN Commission won’t be discussing:
We can talk about how Hamas seized the Gaza strip by force and violence and killings, persecutes Christians, instituted Sharia Laws, mutilated and murdered fellow Palestinians who resist them, stockpiled & launched thousands of rockets, stole humanitarian aid for their own use.. Then claimed they were being persecuted by Israel and were starving while the BBC and Jeremy ‘Bozo’ Bowen wept. We can talk about how we supply this population who swears our destruction with food, water, electricity, money and goods out of our kindness and sympathy for humanity’s sake day in & out.
Crossposted on Soccer Dad.
