Analysis
New Statesman: Why Israel’s action in Gaza is not ‘disproportionate’, by Alan Johnson
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“One of the most common complaints against Israel is that its response to rocket attacks from Hamas is ‘disproportionate’. Several MPs, including Menzies Campbell, put this charge to the Foreign Secretary, William Hague, in the House of Commons yesterday. And it is easy to understand why: in seven days of conflict there have been five Israeli casualties to over 130 Palestinian deaths. We look for things to be ‘even-steven’; they are not, and our British sense of fair play is offended.
No technology, however advanced, can remove the fog of war or the inevitability of human error. The death of a Palestinian family of ten on Sunday makes a mockery of easy talk of ‘surgical strikes’. War is always hell and when a cease-fire is agreed there will be joy on both sides.
Nonetheless, the charge of ‘disproportionality’ is fundamentally misguided for three reasons.
First, in comparison to Operation Cast Lead in 2008-9, what is striking about the current military action is precisely how limited the civilian casualties have been. As of this morning, the Israeli Defence Force has conducted over 1,500 targeted strikes against the weapons caches and the command and control facilities of armed groups; on the rocket launching sites, the tunnels through which they are smuggled, and the terrorists who fire them – all deliberately hidden in built-up civilian areas. These 1,500 strikes have caused around 130 deaths and a significant number of those are terrorists. Of course, each civilian death is appalling. But the ratio tells a story: of scrupulous intelligence gathering, of the intensive use by the IDF of early-warning by leaflet and text message, and of a willingness to abort missions that would cause civilian deaths.”