The US response to the IDF War in Gaza

Zap him again

There were always ample warnings
There were always subtle signs
And you would have seen it coming
But we gave you too much time

Zap the son of a bitch again - Coma, Guns N' Roses (1991)

It's important to try and maintain a grasp on the truth in both in a fundamental metaphysical way and the day-to-day visceral reality during a War.

Wolf Blitzer repeatedly asked IDF Spokesman Richard Hecht about the IDF decision to bomb the Jabalya Refugee Camp, when the IDF knew there were innocent civilians there; 

“But you know that there are a lot of refugees, a lot of innocent civilians—men, women, and children—in that refugee camp as well, right?

“This is the tragedy of war, Wolf. We as you know, we’ve been saying for days, move south..." 

“Yeah I’m just trying to get a bit more information. You knew there were civilians there, you knew there were refugees, all sorts of refugees, but you decided to still drop a bomb on that refugee camp attempting to kill this Hamas commander.”

A day this interview and the bombing to supposedly get the Hamas Leader hiding in the Jabalya refugee camp the IDF struck it again.  Perhaps, one attack could be justified as a military operation but, the second attack?  And apparently the IDF struck it a third time...  The "Tragedy of War" or a deliberate choice?

Former Tea Party Republican Justin Amash said relatives of his were killed in Gaza.  Amash's relatives were apparently sheltering in the 1000 year old Greek Orthodox Church of St. Porphyrius, which the IDF bombed earlier this month.

I mean at some point We, and more importantly President Biden, Secretary Blinken, Secretary Austen, are going to have to publicly call for the IDF and Israeli Government to stop killing people in Gaza, right?

Whomever, is leading the G-2 in CENTCOM has done a fantastic job of providing President Biden with proper analysis of individual acts occurring in Gaza.  Hamas leadership lied egregiously about the Baptist Hospital, grossly exaggerating the fatalities and worse still lying about the cause of the explosion.  But, the Jabalya refugee camp bombings has resulted in over a 1000 casualties.

How can we justify this?  How can the Israeli government?  Right now, any condemnation of Israel, the IDF, or the current violence in Gaza is met with rapid charges of Anti-Semitism and invocations of the Simchat Torah Massacre.  Every fresh IDF atrocity and the daily violence being meted out by IDF forces is met with 10/07 as a justification.

At some point this has to stop.  At some point I guess the US is going to have to exert itself to stop the apparent IDF campaign to displace or kill everyone in Gaza and annex the land while the Palestinians who weren't indiscriminately killed live in refugee camps.

For whatever it is worth here is the Marine Corps orders distributed to Marines preparing to invade Saipan in 1944;

We must... be absolutely sure in our own minds that a civilian is fighting us or harming out installations before we shoot him.  International law clearly demands that civilians who do not fight back at us - whether they are Japanese or Korean civilians working as laborers or noncombatants in the armed forces, like doctors or nurses, or ordinary civilians - must whenever possible be take alive and must not be injured or have their possessions taken from them except after a due trial by competent authorities.  Neither such a person nor his property are the property of any of us who captures him.  It is one thing kill a Japanese soldier in battle; it is an entirely different thing to kill civilians who have not fought against us, whether they are Japanese or not.  The latter is murder, nothing more nor less.