The Weaponizing of Casualty Data
And Why Some Things Just Don't Add Up
Here’s something that in a rational world makes no sense.
Israel is consistently condemned for conducting “indiscriminate bombing” in Gaza in pursuit of its mission of eliminating the threat of Hamas. The result, the story goes, is the needless deaths of innocent Gazans. This is the basis of the cry from the so-called humanitarians, fed by Hamas, who are calling for a permanent ceasefire. According to them, over 15,000 people have been killed in the Israeli response, so clearly Israel has no concern for the lives of Palestinians. It must stop!
So, what’s not to understand?
Is that “humanitarian” claim justified?
Or is something else going on?
[Spoiler alert: something else is definitely going on—the attacks are part of a propaganda campaign designed to lay the foundation for destroying Israel. But let’s look at the facts anyway]:
1. If everyone is so concerned about “indiscriminate bombing” campaigns, why are those same people not criticizing the “indiscriminate bombing” [rockets primarily] campaigns that have been conducted for years by Hamas and Hezbollah? Those rocket attacks don’t even pretend to have military targets. They are directed at Tel Aviv and other cities and communities in Israel, without any concern for who is killed.
There have been over 10,000 such bombings from Hamas alone beginning October 7th and several thousand by Hezbollah. What gives?
Are they not condemned because they don’t result in killing a lot of people because of Israel’s successful use of the Iron Dome?
Or is it the argument that there are no innocent civilians in the colonial settler state of Israel and so any target is considered a military target?
2. Is there a collective amnesia that forgets Hamas deliberately and brutally murdered 1,200 innocent civilians in Israel on October 7th? Butchered, raped, and mutilated them in fact. And has declared that they will do the same thing every chance they get. Has that been forgotten?
Is Israel not entitled to pursue Hamas to eliminate the threat to its people? Hamas has declared a total war on Israel. Is Israel not entitled to fight back?
I get that such a war is also brutal in its results. But did everyone forget that Hamas deliberately fled back into the densely populated Gaza, with 240 hostages, and hid among innocent Gazans? And that they spent the last decade or so building a somewhat ingenious network of underground tunnels beneath hospitals, schools, and private homes to make it difficult for the Israeli Defense Force to root them out without bombing their locations and going into Gaza to find them?
And why is Israel being held responsible for that, when it was Hamas who made the cruel calculation that forcing Israel to kill civilians was good for their cause? In fact, they brag about the necessary martyrdom of the Gazan people in pursuit of their cause of killing all the Jews.
Did everyone somehow forget that Israel, in an act of humanity, warned Gazan citizens that this was going to happen and told them to flee and that it was Hamas, and Egypt, and Jordan that prevented their leaving? And isn’t it better to displace people from their homes than have them dying unnecessarily?
And, by the way, over 200,000 Israelis from the South and North are themselves displaced due to the war. Oh, and the 1,200 innocent civilians who were butchered on October 7? They received no warning from Hamas.None.
3. Why is it that every other country in history has the right to attack civilian centers if they are housing military infrastructure in pursuit of winning its war. Did everyone somehow forget about what the U.S. did to Berlin in World War II as part of our total war against the Nazi regime there?
4. And by the way it should be noted that Israel has launched thousands of attacks in Gaza. If these were indiscriminate there would have been far more people killed. Moreover, it should be noted that the 15,000 plus figure is itself misleading. Not the number, but who is counted in that number. The IDF will soon come out with an accounting that will sort out just how many of those killed were Hamas fighters. And when Hamas talks about children, they are counting anyone 18 years old or younger. And as we all know, Hamas has fighters who are as young as 12.
This is not to say that the deaths and injuries of any significant numbers of civilians in Gaza is not heartbreaking, because it is. But numbers matter. As does identifying who is responsible. Is it Israel who put them harm’s way, or is it Hamas which has no respect for human life?
Given all this it is obvious that much of the world, certainly those people vociferously criticizing Israel, are holding Israel to a different standard than just about anyone else. None of the humanitarian organizations are criticizing Hamas. Nor is the United Nations. Nor are the so-called “progressives” in the Democrat Party.
So why go after Israel? Why is Israel different in their eyes?
The answer is right in front of our eyes.
Because they believe Israel shouldn’t exist. They believe the Jewish people don’t have a right to a homeland, despite what occurred in the Holocaust. They don’t believe that Jews have the right to defend themselves or have the same rights as everyone else. And by supporting Hamas they believe that not only Israel, but Jews should be eliminated—just as is called for in the Hamas charter.
This is not just antisemitism. This is anti-Judaism. This is a call for genocide against the Jewish people. That is the hard reality we are facing. And one that we won’t let happen!
Am Yisrael Chai
