No. of Recommendations: 1
It implies Israel is killing multitudes for 'one or two fighters'.I just clarified my meaning in my last post. Either you accept that clarification, or not. But to clarify again, they have had many attacks where they have deliberately targeted civilians knowing that they were going to kill more civilians than fighters. That hasn't happened every time, of course. But it has happened more than once. In the overall war, it's very hard to say - as I said earlier, good breakdowns of who are among the dead are simply not available. And most estimates of those breakdowns are not good enough to trust. The total dead is reliable enough for discussion, but not the details of who has died. Those estimates run as high as 70% civilian deaths to as low as 40% or so.
One estimate I just read says that the remaining Hamas forces are in the 9000-12000 range, and that is roughly half of what they started with on Oct 7. That would imply that something like 2/3 of the dead are civilians.
https://www.cfr.org/expert-brief/how-much-threat-d...Perversely, all of these estimates are roughly in line with estimates of civilian vs. military deaths in most of the wars fought during the 20th century. That's something I haven't looked into before, and it rather surprised me. So while I find it terribly distressing, it makes me far more aware of how isolated most Americans (including myself) are about the civilian casualties of war. Virtually every war that US forces fought in during the 20th century was on foreign lands. So civilian deaths among Americans are vanishingly small - mostly limited to civilians accompanying the fighting forces for various reasons. (People such as reporters, advisors, and contractors.) We simply have a poor concept of what it is like trying to live in or near a war zone.
The IDF has been sustaining hundreds of casualties chasing a substantial, well armed Iranian proxy military organization in treacherous terrain above and underground. Israeli losses are around 2000 people. Gazan losses are over 37,000. Of course, that is how you win a war - make the other guys die for their country instead of you dying for yours.
Again, in 4 wars, Israel has had the opportunity and ability to eliminate all opposition 'from the river to the sea', but has not. Not yet. And to be clear, they won't this time either. Even if they were to kill everyone in Gaza (which, for the record, would count as a genocide in my book), they still wouldn't eliminate Hamas, since Hamas exists in the West Bank as well as in other countries.
So how long does Israel keep prosecuting this war? The stated goal of eliminating Hamas is simply not feasible. They'd have to eliminate everyone in Gaza, the West Bank, and a few other countries where Hamas fighters and leaders are found.
--Peter
