As the Israeli military continues its offensive against Hamas — and the casualty numbers among Palestinian civilians continue to rise — there is an emerging argument from those who count themselves among Israel’s supporters: Israel has a right to defend itself, but it must do more to protect civilian lives.
“Israel’s war against Hamas is just, but it must be fought justly,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., wrote last week in a Washington Post op-ed. American officials, he says, should insist that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “produce a verifiable plan to reduce the unacceptable level of civilian casualties … in Gaza.”
It seems many in the West, including those supporting Israel, are struggling to come to grips with the moral dilemmas the war in Gaza has created.
“Israel has both a right to defend its citizens from Hamas’ terrorist attacks,” said Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., but it also has “an obligation under the laws of war to protect innocent Palestinian civilians in Gaza.” Israel is “conducting military operations with little regard for civilian life,” she said in a Senate speech last week, and she cited the “humanitarian catastrophe” taking place in Gaza, including estimates that more than 15,000 people in Gaza have been killed and that more than 40,000 have been injured.
But there is a fundamental and, perhaps, unbridgeable disconnect in these arguments. If you endorse the idea that Israel has a right to defend itself, then that means tacitly endorsing the collateral deaths that result from that position.
Going into Gaza and uprooting a terrorist organization that has had a decade and a half to construct a military and political infrastructure in and among the civilian population is going to cause massive casualties. Even in the most ideal of scenarios, thousands would still die in Gaza. Many of Israel’s critics and friends are ignoring that reality. Complaints that Israel needs to wage war in a less deadly…
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