Diary of a (Maybe) Retired Pastor

I believe the IDF

I don’t know if anyone’s noticed, but when the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) needs to put up a spokesman to respond to the latest criticisms of its actions they put up a senior officer (I think he’s a colonel, but I may be wrong) who is very suave, urbane, and, well, elegant!  His voice is cultured, steady and measured. He is persuasive. And when he says that any particular action has been very carefully considered and meticulously planned to minimise civilian losses, I believe him!

I am quite sure that the IDF really does plan carefully and meticulously, especially with regard to minimising civilian casualties. But, of course, that is essentially meaningless! How many is “minimal”? It could be any number you want, it just depends on what you find acceptable.  So, an IDF planning session, having received intelligence that there is an Hamas militant living in an apartment on the 6^th floor  of a 12 story apartment block, will, presumably, be asking how can that operative be eliminated and at what cost? Primary concern after elimination of target is minimising IDF losses – simple, drop a bomb. What about civilian casualties? Well, to ensure 100% elimination we need to destroy the whole block resulting in 100% civilian casualties, but we can ensure 90% success of elimination and cut civilian casualties to 60%, that’s a 40% reduction in civilian casualties!

That’s all made-up , of course, but I’m quite sure that the IDF carefully plans and estimates success and casualties in this kind of way so that the very impressive IDF spokesperson can speak with, for him, a clear conscience. But we can measure what the IDF means by minimising civilian casualties and other collateral damage by simply looking at the overall numbers. Since the IDF offensive began, around 30,000 civilians have been killed, 80% (1.7 million) of the population has been displaced, and half of all buildings in Gaza’s cities have been reduced to rubble¹ . To the IDF, this represents minimal civilian casualties and collateral damage! To many of the rest of us, it is a massacre. Full marks to David Cameron for being one of the few senior Western leaders to condemn it explicitly as “too many”² .

¹ https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-68006607 acc. 26/2/24

² https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/78/foreign-affairs-committee/news/199981/foreign-secretary-writes-to-fac-on-the-planned-israeli-offensive-in-rafah-and-uk-arms-exports-to-israel/ acc. 26/2/24