Military Targets Quotes
small Jewish Zionist groups who unlike the majority Jewish organizations in Palestine used terror tactics After the 2nd World War, European Jews who had survived the holocaust were trying to emigrate to Palestine. The Arabs wanted all the Jews who were there to be gone. The English were caught in the middle and tried to limit the Jewish immigration. Most Jewish organizations worked to smuggle European Jews into Palestine but 2 small ones resorted to a type of terrorism. However, as the ambassador observed there was a large moral distinction between the terrorism of those 2 small Jewish Organizations and the current Palestinian terrorists. The important moral distinction is that the Jewish terrorists were fighting to establish their state with no program or desire to prevent Arabs from having their own state, but the Hamas terrorists of Palestine (not the Fatah Government) want not only to establish a Palestinian State but to destroy the Jewish State (Israel) and murder all the Jews that they can as their charter requires.
This quotation describes an embarassng shortcoming of our American body politic.
Hamas had seized power in a coup of the Gaza Strip, and in July of 2014 they fired thousands of rockets into Israel with a stated aim to kill as many Israeli men, women, and children. The Israelis responded to this act of terrorism and war by a set of air power attacks on the Hamas infrastructure and military targets. They even notified the Gaza population of each target that they before the strike so civilians who might be there could evacuate. Hamas, however, told the people to stay and not to evacuate. They also stored and fired their rockets in civilian institutions like schools and hospitals, thereby turning the institution into a military target according to the Rules of War. United Nations officials observed the Hamas practice in Gaza schools and informed the Secretary General who was furious and made this statement—particularly harsh for a leader of the UN who generally tries to avoid attacking anyone.
In WWII the Germans bombed London causing many civilian casualties. In retaliation, the allies bombed German cities such as Hamburg and others. The resolution’s effect was very short lived. There are similar restrictions in the Geneva Conventions but again, if one side breaks the conventions, most other sides will retaliate. Note that in the 3rd condition, the one that is most contentious in the 21st century “negligence” is the operative word. An error or mistake is not necessarily or even usually negligence. Many people believe that international law prohibits the bombing of civilians from reading 3) and similar statements from treaties. However, an honest error, mistake or equipment malfunction which kills
