The Israel-Hamas war is nasty. History shows who’s responsible for Palestinian deaths | Opinion
Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, purposely targeting civilians. The terrorists brutally killed 1,200 Israelis: men, women, children and babies. And they took 250 hostages back to Gaza.
War is nasty business. It kills and maims people, often innocent civilians. Property and infrastructure get destroyed. Lives are changed such that it often takes generations to recover.
This is precisely why war ought to be the last resort. If a country decides to go to war, then two conditions must exist. First, there better be a damn good reason for it. Second, go all in. Use overwhelming combat power to achieve victory while minimizing your casualties.
After Oct. 7, Israel went to war to defend itself. It was a good reason. The objective was to destroy Hamas. Hamas, a proxy of Iran, vows to eliminate Israel. Israel has endured years of suicide bombers and mortar and rocket attacks on its civilians. Oct. 7 was the last straw.
Israel had a good reason to go to war, but it did not initially go in with overwhelming combat power. Hamas’ tactics of hiding within the civilian population — in their neighborhoods, mosques, schools and hospitals — caused Israel pause. And again, Hamas had Israeli hostages in Gaza. Hamas uses Palestinian civilians and Israeli hostages to deter an Israeli attack.
Oct. 7 could not be ignored, and Israel would not be deterred. its forces attacked Hamas in Gaza. Unlike Hamas, which purposely targeted Israeli civilians, Israel tried to minimize Palestinian civilian casualties. Make no mistake: There were civilian casualties. A lot of them. While most of the world is deeply saddened by the number of Palestinian casualties, what about Hamas?
It’s not that those in Hamas do not care — but they seem to care the least about Palestinian casualties. They had to know that Israel would not ignore the brutal Oct. 7 attack on innocent Israeli civilians. Still, they hid among the Palestinian civilians. Predictably, Palestinians were killed and injured. Hamas made sure the terrible images were projected around the world and they exaggerated the numbers. Hamas needs Palestinian casualties to make Israel look like the aggressor and to upset the rest of the world.
Some say the Israeli response has not been proportional to Hamas’ attack. As of this writing, Israel has killed almost 30,000 Palestinians in its offensive aimed to destroy Hamas, versus the 1,200 Israelis who were killed on Oct. 7.
However, those who push the proportionality argument have lost sight of the nasty nature of war and history. Consider the European theater of World War II. A nine-month Nazi ground offensive took Poland, Denmark, Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and France. Next was Britain, but the English would not yield to Adolf Hitler. The Nazis terrorized the United Kingdom for 10 months with V2 rockets and aerial bombardment, killing 23,000 British civilians.
The Allies’ response was an all-out effort to break the Nazis. They conducted a devastating bombing campaign, targeting German infrastructure that supported the Nazi war machine: airplane manufacturing, railroads, ammunition and fuel. Unfortunately, the bombing also killed more than 350,000 German civilians.
Next came the Allied ground invasion on D-Day. It succeeded. The Nazis could not continue the fight. Hitler killed himself, and Nazi Germany surrendered. It was a damn good cause and the Allies pursued it with overwhelming combat power.
The Nazis are to blame for the German civilian casualties. Their offensive through Europe and the bombing of Britain provoked the Allied response.
What is happening in Gaza is terrible. Hamas is to blame.
Mike Souder is a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel who has also worked in the manufacturing and education fields. He lives in Prairie Village.
This story was originally published February 29, 2024 at 6:02 AM with the headline "The Israel-Hamas war is nasty. History shows who’s responsible for Palestinian deaths | Opinion."