One of the special features of the IDF's (Israeli Defense Force) Gaza operation is the minimal damage to civilian human life. Constant care is taken to spare the civilian Palestine population.
This interview in the Jerusalem Post with Israel Air Force chief Maj.-Gen. Eliezer Shkedy explains the ethics behind the Israeli operations:
Q: If they (the terrorists) are making themselves ever harder to hit, the chances of hitting only them...
A: Are becoming ever more complicated.
Q: So, are we relaxing our limitations in determining when to fire? When we see his son in the car with him, that's it, we don't fire? Or do we say, "His son's always with him." And he's firing at us every day.
A: The question is very appropriate and no, we're not relaxing our limitations.
Q: Instead, we're improving our accuracy?
A: Our answer is to create a situation where you hit within a meter, a meter and a half. If we know that [the terrorist] is holding his son's hand, we do not fire. Even if the terrorist is in the midst of firing a Kassam, and the Kassam is aimed to kill. We do not fire. You should know that. And that's a fearsome thing.
Q: So we open the door to him to keep firing at us?
A: Yes. And that is the kind of dilemma we live with every day and I'm very pleased you asked me about it.
I'm very proud of what we do. I think it is unprecedented. I'm proud of our morals. I'm proud of our operational capabilities.
Q: Maybe in the end we'll kill more people because we weren't ruthless enough at the start, because we encouraged them to become bolder? Maybe we're too moral, for our own good and theirs?
A: That's a very interesting philosophical question, with practical consequences. And yet I'll tell you something...
(Shkedy pauses here for a full 20 seconds.) Ultimately our strength is not solely our military power. That's part of our strength. The strength of the Jewish people in the State of Israel and the Land of Israel is first and foremost our profound moral strength. Everything stems from that.
If we were to lower our standards, not to find a solution that meets the highest ethical standards, that would be a mistake with far more, immense significance for us as a nation and a state and as people than the operational error.
That's the great strength that I believe in. That's how I educate the people [in the IAF], and that's what the air force does. And, still, I'm aware that this is war, with live fire, and things will happen that I don't want to happen. Because to protect your child and my child, that can happen. (emphasis added)
Shkedy's explanation shows how inappropriate it is to equalize the Hamas terrorists' actions with those of Israel. There is no moral equivalence: the terrorists deliberately target civilians, while Israel takes great care to avoid actions even against terrorists if civilians are around. (For example, the IDF informed civilians in the Gaza strip about forthcoming air attacks.) That's why it is grossly misleading to talk of a "cycle of violence" between two brutal military powers, as for instance Joerg Bremer, Israel correspondent of the FAZ, and scores of other German Israel correspondents constantly do.
It's the rules of cause (Hamas terrorism) and effect (Israeli response) that govern this conflict. Probably too simple a fact for the sophisticated minds of German journalists...
Our enemies have never been impressed with the FAILURE TO USE FORCE. America-haters like to pretend that the wild, unkempt, imperial American animals, keep the noble "jihadis" at bay.
The popular myth is that America is hated because she wields power with a heavy hand. I can't think of one instance of modern American imperialism. I think we are hated because we have failed to use our full power. We've shackled ourselves and become the world's excuse for their own impotence.
PS: I hate signing into typekey. It feels creepy. I'd rather know for an absolute fact that Dick Cheney and the CIA would get a personal blood sample than to sign in through whatsis typekey. But, I do.
Note from David: Tom, thanks for going through the procedure of signing in with typekey.
In fact, typekey is a heaven sent to us. Managing the comment section of DMK pre typekey used to be a real nuisance. At times I was under the impression that all anti-American trolls of this world conspired to sabotage our blog by conquering our comment sections. It was terrible.
Thanks to typekey those times are gone.
If something better shows up I'll be glad to abandon typekey.
Posted by: Tom Penn | June 30, 2006 at 11:08 AM
The difference between the Israeli raid into Gaza now and its previous missions into the occuppied areas is the difference between a raid and restoring order. Gaza is now a area apart from Israeli reponsibilities and a raid can damage or destroy military targets, ie., roads, bridges, infrastructure of any kind, and not have to rebuild them later. The rock throwers of the various intifadas are now irrelevant and the IDF can simply go around them in search of more valuable targets. Though eventually I suspect that either Hamas or Fatah will begin to pack civilians into or near tactical and strategic targets and the death toll among non-combatants will then rise sharply.
Posted by: Pat Patterson | June 30, 2006 at 04:30 PM
David, you hang in there. Typekey is better than having to enter the anti-spam characters with blogger. I can't always decipher those.
Posted by: Mike H. | June 30, 2006 at 09:35 PM
I don't buy it. Israel has undermined the entire US effort to bring democracy to the middle east. If any group gets elected that Israel doesn't like the US will oppose or attempt to overthrow them. Small wonder they are little interested in Condi's world tour of hot air about democracy. I should also remind you that Israel seems to have no problem with collective punishment or killing a terrorists entire family as done last year by dropping a 500 lbs US bomb from a US plane in a targeted extra-judicial anhilattion of the suspects entire family. I am surprised that you buy into this propaganda from the IDF since you seem to wade fairly effortlessly through the garbage from your own media.
Posted by: FranceSucks | July 02, 2006 at 02:26 PM
oops. typos. I wish you could edit these after you post them.
Posted by: FranceSucks | July 02, 2006 at 02:27 PM