Peloni: The contrast between the truth and the fiction being past as truth is important to reflect upon, but so too is it essential to understand that Israel’s enemies are less deterred from the deliberate slaughter of Jews when threatened with such morality as is being celebrated in Israel’s pulled punches. Unlike the tens of thousands of Israelis who have fled the possible repeat of the October 7 Massacre, Israel’s enemies await to be informed where they should go to avoid dealing with Israel’s wrath.
By | August 10, 2024
We have already heard this conclusion — that the IDF is “the most moral army in history” — from both Colonel Richard Kemp, who commanded British forces in Afghanistan, and from West Point Professor of Urban Warfare John Spencer. Now the High Level Military Group, which is made up of retired chiefs of staff, senior generals, and cabinet ministers from NATO countries, have issued their own report on how the IDF has been conducting its war in Gaza, and they too, have concluded that the IDF is “the most moral army in history.” The description of their study, and their conclusions, can be found here: “Israel’s army is not only moral. It is the most moral army in history.” Elder of Ziyon, August 9, 2024:
The High Level Military Group is “an independent body of former chiefs of staff, senior military officers and cabinet ministers from NATO countries with many decades of expertise at the highest level of land, air and sea conflict and the legality thereof,” that includes members from the United States, United Kingdom, Italy, France, Spain, Finland, and the Netherlands.
The HLMG has filed an amicus curiae brief to the International Criminal Court, describing why the ICC charges against Israel of intentional starvation and unlawful killing in Gaza are false.
Not just false, but egregiously and absurdly false.
Within the report, the experts list no less than three ways that Israel conducts itself in war that are unmatched by any other military in history.
On the “starvation” charge, they describe in detail Israel’s efforts to bring aid into Gaza and then conclude:
It is our considered military opinion that the State of Israel and the IDF are and have been since the inception of this operation complying in good faith with all international legal obligations to facilitate the provision of humanitarian aid into Gaza. Based on our experience and knowledge, Israel is facilitating aid to a level we have not seen in our own militaries and we are not aware of our forces’ efforts or even capabilities to conduct similar operations. We do not believe any other armed forces have ever made such efforts, or achieved such success, in facilitating aid delivery to civilians in enemy territory while still engaged in active hostilities in that same operational environment. It is our professional view that accusations of an intent to starve civilians by the Israeli Prime Minister and Minister of Defence are unsupported by all available evidence, most importantly by the actual conduct of IDF operations in and around Gaza.
On the unlawful killing charge, they add another example where Israel does things to protect civilians above and beyond every military in recorded history:
One of the most pertinent examples of innovative civilian risk mitigation is the Civilian Harm Mitigation Cell (CHMC), established prior to the conflict and in operation during every phase. The CHMC integrates digital map technology, updated hourly, and intelligence to show population density in each area of Gaza. Every IDF operations centre has access to this map which is cross-checked with real-time air surveillance to verify civilian presence.
IDF targeting of air strikes is made in conjunction with the CHMC and influenced by civilian population density in a particular area. Selection of munition size is based on the nature of the military target, intelligence regarding enemy presence and the proximity of civilians.
It is our professional opinion that such a unit is extremely unusual and we are not aware of any other military with a comparable risk mitigation methodology. We assess this is an unprecedented measure, along with millions of leaflet drops, phone calls, text and voice messages, to help commanders prevent or minimise risk to civilian life. How such innovative efforts align with an allegation of the defendants in this matter directing the IDF to intentionally attack civilians is perplexing.
Finally, they note how Israel’s internal investigations of incidents during wartime also operate at a speed and efficiency never before seen by any other army, ever:
During our assessment we visited the IDF Fact Finding and Assessment Mechanism which examines any incident that could raise a charge of possible illegal conduct or military procedural misconduct (except for incidents that immediately raise suspicion of criminal misconduct, which are sent directly for criminal investigation). There are currently approximately 300 incidents being actively investigated by the FFAM, with many more which they have received initial information about. To our knowledge no other armed forces have established such a permanent system but would benefit from doing so.
In respect to the speed of the FFAM’s processes, Australia’s Special Advisor, Air Chief Marshal Binskin, reporting on the World Central Kitchen strike, stated: ‘…the ADF [Australian Defence Force] could not have imposed equivalent reprimands as quickly as the IDF CGS [Chief of General Staff] was able to.’
By way of comparison, we draw your attention to war crimes investigations by comparable armed forces in Australia and the UK. The Brereton report was commissioned by the Inspector-General of the ADF to investigate war crimes by Australian forces committed between 2005 and 2016 . The investigation began in 2016 and reported in 2020. Charges were not brought until 2023.
The Haddon-Cave Independent Inquiry was commissioned by the UK Ministry of Defence to investigate alleged special forces war crimes in Afghanistan committed between 2010 and 2013. It was established in 2022 and is ongoing. These two inquiries give a clear parallel to Israeli investigations of war crimes and demonstrate the length of time required to give an equitable, legal outcome in such investigations….
It will be fascinating to see how the president of the Israel-bashing International Criminal Court deals with this report from the High Level Military Group that methodically contradicts every one of the charges leveled at Israel by the South Africans before the ICC. This report by the HLMG is being filed as an amicus brief, and coming from such a distinguished group, cannot be ignored. It will be fascinating to see how the ICC, consumed as it is with anti-Israel animus, tries to deny the HLMG’s conclusion, that the IDF “is the most moral army in the history of warfare.”
FOLKS-
Thinking about WW2, ONE important thing is forgotten about the “indiscriminate Bombing by both sides. They had “early warning systems sirens which informed all that an air raid was imminent.
They all hustled down into their family bomb shelters or the underground tube systme so comparatively few were killed. Only when the warning was late or absent were citizens killed in mass.
Why can’t we use this to facilitate our bombing of Gaza. Thwey have warning ayatems merelt loud sirens and they have enough time to get underground into theior plentiful tunnels, and Israel can flatten all above ground.
Presto… the War will be over a lot sooner with all the infrastructrure gone.
@Adam: with regard to the indiscriminate bombing of civilians in Germany during WW2, we should remember a few points:
1. There were very few innocent civilians with the exception of children.
2. The Germans led the way by firing their V1 & V2 rockets at UK for years.
The bombing could be regarded as a degree of punishment for those missiles which had very little in guidance. They were intended to demoralize the citizens of the UK (mostly) and coerce them to surrender. The reimbursement by bombing them at the end of the war was quite justified.
Similarly, the dropping of A-bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki did, according to all reports, save many lives and shortened the war considerably. I guess the Brits would have used those bombs too if they had had them.
Finally, the fact that Israel does not descend to these levels is certainly a bunch of points in Israel’s favor. The population of the Gaza Strip, Judea and Samaria and Syria should wake up and deny these terrorists the option of carrying out their acts of terror. If they prefer to suffer by allowing the firing of missiles to continue from their own homes, they should not be surprised when a missile or bomb lands in or on their homes.
I could play devil’s advocate in these stories but unfortunately, I would reach the same conclusions.
Could the Allies have defeated Nazi Germany and imperial Japan by fighting a completely “clean” war in which they did everything they could to minimize civilian casualties? In my opinion, yes. But the wars would have gone on longer, perhaps months longer. Many more allied soldiers would have been killed. The civilian populations of Britain and the United States, especially the relatives of the soldiers fighting at the front. The soldiers themselves were desparate to go home. There was concern by senior military commanders that their soldiers might mutiny if the war continued much longer. They concluded that avoiding these possible calamities was the lesser evil to mordering tens of thousands of “enemy” civilians. A morally wrong decision? Some Americans, even at the time, thought so. One of those that objected to these operations, and espcially the nuking of the two Japanese cities, was President’s own wife, Bess. Bess was so angry at Truman for ordering the nuking that she left him for several weeks and even threatened to divorce. But eventually she cooled off and returned to her husband. The assistant secretary of the navy, can’t remember his name, at a meeting of about a hundred senior military and intelligence officials convened by President Truman to consider the “nuclear option,” furiously denounced the president’s decision. He told Preident Truman and his assembled advisors (I am paraphrasing from memory): I joined the navy as a young man to protect innocent civilians, not to murder them. I have adhered to this code throughout my career. I will not be a party to the murder of thosands of innocent civilians, not even Japanese civilians, He then proceeded to hand in his resignation to the president in front of the whole assembly and stalked out.
However, President Truman refused to accept the resignation. A few weeks later, after the end of the war, the assistant secretary resumed his duties without discussing the matter any further.
During World Wat II, the British and American airforces relentless bombed civiian-inhabited cities, causing hundreds of thousands of civilian deths. Even children and babies were burned to death. The U,S, and Britain had nothing even remotely like the iDF’s purity of arms doctrine, and made no effort whatsoever to protect non-combatant civilians when they leveled German and Japanese cities to the ground. After the war was won, usually many years after it was won, some Brits and Americans did criticize this wonton killing of civilians in books, newspaer columns, etc. But even today, some historians maintain that the allies could not have been won without these gruesome military operations. These are the countries that now set themselves up to pass judgment on Israel. What astounding hypocricy.
An extremly brilliant and thorough report that describes the unique, unprecedented Israeli efforts to protect the lives of unarmed civilians in the enemy’s territory. Even when those civilians support the enemy. These Israeli actions are consistent with the IDF’s doctrine of “the purity of arms,” which dates back all the way to the british Mandate period, even before Israel became an independent state. The” purity of arms” requiring respect for the lives of all noncombatants, has always been an IDF doctrine, and the IDF’s present day efforts to protect civilians in Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthi and Iranian territory directly flow from this more than eighty year old IDF doctrine. No other army in the world has such a doctrine, or much the less adheres to it strictly, even to the peril of its own soldier’s lives.
WAR IS NOT A KIDz GAME, WITH NO CONSEQUENCES. THE CONSEQUENCES FOR THE LOOSER “R KINDA TERMINAL ! WESTERN RULES OF ENGAGEMENT PREDICATED UPON JUDEO-CHRISTIAN ETHICS ‘R BY DEFINITION SELF-LIMITING AND IF THE GOOD GUYS DO NOT ENGAGE THE FIELD OF BATTLE WITH THE SAME IF NOT GREATER RESOLVE THAN THE ENEMY … HISTORY RECORDS THE ONE WAY TICKET TO THE DESTRUCTION OF THE “JUST AND MORAL” CIVILIZATION … THE ORACLE HAS SPOKEN !!!