Fawaz Gerges is is Professor of International Relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), and holder of a Professorship in Contemporary Middle East Studies. He was also the inaugural Director of the LSE Middle East Centre from 2010 until 2013.You can guess who funds that Middle East Centre, and why that just might affect Gerges’ view of the Arab war, or rather wars, on Israel. On December 13, he appeared on NPR, discussing the “tragic” situation of the people in Gaza. He made no mention of Hamas’ atrocities carried out on October 7, nor did he mention the hostages held by, or in some cases murdered in cold blood by, Hamas. He said nothing about Hamas’ use of human shields, its deliberate placement of its rocket launchers, command-and-control centers, vast storehouses of weapons, and fighters, in and around civilian structures — schools, shops, apartment buildings, mosques, and hospitals, nor mention that Hamas fires rockets into Israel from within civilian centers, making it hellishly difficult for Israel to respond without also wounding or killing civilians.
As Gerges went into his anti-Israel spiel, he mentioned — casually, quickly, hoping he would not be called to explain how he arrived at his fantastic number — that the IDF had so far “killed 20,000 civilians.” This astonishing claim was not called into question by the interviewer, which meant that millions of NPR listeners assumed that that figure must have been accurate.
But it was not. At the time of the interview, the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza, which is completely under the control of Gaza, had claimed that there were about 17,000 total deaths in Gaza, without providing a breakdown of the total into the numbers of civilians and combatants who were killed. This failure by Hamas to distinguish the two kinds of deaths was meant to suggest that there really was no difference in their treatment; both were equally targets of the wicked Israelis.
But Israel does not deliberately target civilians anywhere in Gaza. They are collateral damage, greatly regretted by the IDF, that does everything it can to limit their number. It does this in three ways. First, the IDF warns large numbers of Gazans away from areas that are soon to become part of. the battlefield. It dropped 1.5 million leaflets over northern Gaza in the first weeks of the war, urging residents to move south, beyond the Wadi Gaza, to avoid being caught in a battle zone. Nearly one million Gazans heeded the warnings and moved south. Hamas tried to prevent them from leaving; it wanted to hold onto as many human shields as possible. It even fired on, and killed, civilians trying to flee along Salah al-Din Street, the north-south corridor that cuts straight through Gaza. Second, when the IDF is about to target a civilian structure — school, mosque, apartment building — it warns residents of those buildings, and other civilians nearby, to leave those structures. It does this by means of messaging, telephoning, leafletting, and use of the “knock on the roof” technique. Tens of thousands of civilian lives in Gaza have been saved as a result of those warnings.
Of course, Israel pays a stiff price for such a policy: it not only warns civilians, but Hamas members, about where Israel will soon attack, giving them time to hide in their underground tunnels. It’s a price the IDF has been willing to pay. Third, when Israeli pilots see signs of many civilians present at or near an impending target, they frequently call off the mission. None of these ways that Israel minimizes casualties has received anything like the attention they deserve; such information would help make others realize that the IDF is doing a great deal to lessen harm to civilians, and its bombing — pace Joseph Biden — is not “indiscriminate” but exceedingly precise. For many people who are consumed with anti-Israel animus, such a revelation would never do.
Fawaz Gerges’ claim that “20,000 civilians” have been killed was not challenged, as it ought to have been by the NPR reporter. The Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health had, as of December 8, claimed that “17,00” people had been killed in Gaza. But as it offered no breakdown between civilians and combatants, we need to look at the Israeli estimates on the number of Hamas terrorists it killed. As of December 9, the IDF believes it has killed 7,000 combatants. That would mean that that 10,00 civilians had been killed, and 7,000 combatants, resulting in a civilian-to-combatant ratio of 10 to 7.
Furthermore, the UN itself claims that in all the wars fought since World War II, the civilian-to-combatant ratio has been 9 to 1. Many countries — Russia, China, Syria, Turkey — make no to minimize civilian casualties. The American and British armies are different; in Iraq the ratio of civilian-to-combatant deaths was 3 to 1; in Afghanistan, it was between 3 and 5 to 1, according to the commander of the British troops in Afghanistan, Colonel Richard Kemp. But Israel’s achievement in Gaza, of a 10 to 7 civilian-to-combatant ratio, is astounding, without parallel in the annals of urban warfare. A well-prepared reporter for NPR would have been able to immediately question, and rebut, Gerges’ blatantly false remark that “20,000 civilians” in Gaza have been killed. More study on the subject of civilian deaths — how the IDF minimizes them, how Hamas tries to maximize them, and what are the real figures on civilian and combatant deaths in Gaza is needed. The next time an NPR reporter has to endure such nonsense he, or she, will be able to respond, fully armed with the latest figures and civilian-to-combatant ratios. At NPR, as we know, there is always room for improvement.
Hudders. says
As much as asinine apologists, much main stream media & useless left leaning idiots may try to convince otherwise; we know that responsibility for any civilians Killed in Gaza belongs to those murdering islamic terrorists Hamas & friends.
In fact islam is a magnet of misery.
Wherever it’s followers are in any significant number, death & misery are certain to follow.
bill says
Does JB understand that the rocketing of Israel’s civilians which has been done regularly for many years, is indiscriminate as the missiles of Hamas are not accurate (they sometimes fall within Gaza) and anyway they do not care as the only objective is to kill Jews.
James Lincoln says
bill,
I remember when Saddam Hussein used to fire his rifle into the air when addressing a large crowd.
What goes up must come down, likely someone got hit – but Saddam didn’t care…
somehistory says
They all lie so very easily. It’s all built on lies…from islam’s beginnings until now, when they lie to gain sympathy and support for their evil.
They lie about their reasons for war….like bin laden did in his letter. In his letter to the saudis, he told the Truth about the *reasons* for the attacks of terrorism. In his letter to infidels, he lied about the *reasons* for the attacks.
Liars lie and this creep is just another like the rest of them. And, since he lied in support of terror, he is a terrorist.
Ray Jarman says
This is why I stopped listening to NPR in the 1980s and when the hired Christiane Amanpour, I refused to even contemplate watching Public TV. It is sad because I remember watching McNeil and Lehrer at six o’clock for the news. They may have been a bit liberal but not liars and phonies.
James Lincoln says
Yes, Ray.
I certainly enjoyed the McNeil / Lehrer report.
geoffc says
Hugh, additionally, Isreal reports something on the order of 29,000 air strikes. With at this idiots number of 20,000 dead, that is an amazing ratio of clearly incredibly discriminate bombing. Less than one person killed per bomb dropped? That literally can be used as the definition of a “Discriminate” plan of attack.