The Israeli soldiers who died as Gaza’s lifeguards

The world, especially the left-wing part of it, is wailing and gnashing its teeth at the fact that 74,389 Palestinians have been killed since Oct. 8, 2023, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, which never lies and, therefore, can be fully trusted. This organization does not offer a breakdown between civilian and military deaths. The best estimates — make that guesstimates — are a 2:1 ratio, perhaps, roughly, 50,000 civilians and 25,000 members of Hamas.

It also happens that during this time period, 472 Israeli soldiers have perished due to the fighting. As well, fewer than 100 Israeli noncombatants were murdered by Gazans.

When one takes a first glance at these widely different numbers, one’s heart, obviously, goes out to the greater number of sufferers. That is as it should be. One “feels the pain” of the former, much more than that of the latter, maybe, in proportion to these widely disparate statistics. Reading the world’s newspapers, the sympathy goes out, virtually entirely, to the Palestinians who perished in Gaza, and none to the Israelis, soldiers or civilians. The New York Times and its ilk wax eloquent about Gazan fatalities — nary a word is spent on Jewish losses after the last hostage was returned to Israel.

This is an entirely wrong way to look at the matter. If justice is our watchword, the very opposite should take place. The world should look in dismay at the Jewish fatalities, almost entirely. Those 472 Israeli soldiers were, in effect, lifeguards for the Gazans who did not die had Israel limited itself to its air force and drones.

Why? Say what?

This is due to the fact that the Hamas terrorists purposefully aim to murder the Jewish elderly, women, and children, while the Israeli military strains mightily to protect that very sector of the Gazan population. Those 492 soldiers lost their lives in face-to-face, hand-to-hand combat with Hamas militants doing exactly that.

Why did they do so? To protect noncombatant Gazan lives. The Israeli military could have far more easily rooted out the 25,000 Hamas assassins from the air. Israel has a strong comparative advantage in that theater of war — Hamas has no air force, and its rocket power does not at all compare to that of the Jewish state. However, many more Gazans would have perished had Israel done just that, which it had every right to do. The difference between the number of these civilian Palestinians who would have died had the Israeli military confined itself to the air and those who actually died would have been enormous, gigantic, stupendous. Saving those lives can be credited, nay, debited, to those 472 Israeli soldiers who paid the price for preserving those lives.

Why, then, in the event, did so many — call it 50,000 — Gazans die? Was it due to the Israeli military? No. The very opposite is the case. They were used by Hamas as shields. This is something that even the Nazis, at no point during World War II, engaged in against German citizens. These Arab murderers placed rocket launchers in hospitals, schools, and residential areas. Did the Israeli military initially attack them? No. First they dropped leaflets, not bombs, on these targets. Only then did they attempt to obliterate these facilities. And Hamas would not allow these shields of theirs to escape.

JOHN MEARSHEIMER STRIKES OUT ON ISRAEL

So those responsible for these numerous civilian deaths were the members of Hamas, not the Israeli military.

A word about the so-called innocence of the Gazan “noncombatants.” Virtually all of them were dancing in the streets on the evening of Oct. 7, 2023. They were handing out candy to their children in celebration of this “resistance.” When Hamas brought its Jewish hostages back to their home turf, these “innocent” civilians were frothing at their mouths, desiring nothing more than to tear these hapless victims limb from limb. Their lives were saved by the Hamas terrorists. Let me repeat that: These Jewish lives were saved by the Hamas terrorists. At the time, Hamas valued them more as live hostages, not dead bodies.

Walter E. Block is the Harold E. Wirth eminent scholar, endowed chairman and professor of economics at Loyola University New Orleans.

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[ H/T Washington Examiner ]