The World Central Kitchen deaths in Gaza: the standard set for Israel
Seven aid workers from World Central Kitchen were killed in an Israeli airstrike …
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed that the Israeli military was responsible for the unintended “tragic” strike and vowed to investigate. …
“It was a mistake that followed a misidentification – at night during a war in very complex conditions. It shouldn’t have happened,” he said, adding that a “thorough investigation” would be completed in the “coming days” by an independent body. …
The WCK said the convoy included armored cars clearly marked with the WCK logo and was in a de-conflicted zone. The organization said it also coordinated its route with the Israel Defense Forces.
It’s also a tragedy on which Israel’s numerous enemies will attempt to capitalize, although it is exactly the sort of tragic mistake that inevitably happens in wartime. But, unlike other countries, Israel is not allowed mistakes (it’s not even allowed to defend itself without mistakes, either).
And Isael’s enemies have also portrayed this strike as purposeful targeting. This tragic mistake and these very sad deaths have been a golden opportunity for Israel’s enemies to continue to spread the pernicious lie that Israel is evil and genocidal.
That lie is not just pernicious; it is Orwellian in its reversal of the truth. No country on earth has ever waged war as carefully as Israel in its ongoing attempts to spare civilians and certainly to spare aid workers. Israel’s civilian-to-combatant kill ratio is among the best in the world for urban warfare, and the IDF sustains extra casualties in its own ranks in order to keep it that way:
It is no accident that this reduced civilian death toll has been “somewhat overlooked” by the media and by Israel’s critics, including previously by The New York Times itself. Israel is subject to a discernible double standard when it comes to covering its military actions.
… Israel’s military actions produced far fewer deaths and a far lower ratio of civilian-to-combatant deaths than in any comparable urban warfare. This is especially significant considering the reality that Hamas deliberately increases civilian deaths by using women and children as human shields and by hiding its military personnel and equipment among civilians. The current ratio of civilian-to-combatant is well below two-to-one, which compares extremely favorably with ratios achieved by other Western democracies in urban warfare.
None of this matters to most of the world or to most of the press, and I submit that even if the ratio were to be markedly reduced by Israel it still would not matter to most of the world or to most of the press.
I did some research on the World Central Kitchen, a group I’d never heard of before this. The organization sounds as though it does very good work around the world. Its main focus is on helping people visited by natural disasters – earthquakes, floods, fires, and hurricanes, for the most part. If you look at the list of the group’s previous operations at that link, you’ll see that the WCK served in Haiti after the earthquake, in Houston after Hurricane Harvey, in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria, in California after the Thomas Fire, in Hawaii after the Puna eruption, and in many other similar situations after natural disasters. It also has provided food in the US to the poor in several places.
But what of war? I expected to find a long list of places where the group has provided food during armed conflicts, as well. But I only found two, and Gaza was one of them. The other – no surprise – was during the Ukraine War. Much of the aid provided there by WCK was not within Ukraine itself but in the refugee camps along the Polish border where Poland had taken in Ukrainian refugees, although some was also in Ukraine.
You probably are aware that, unlike the situation with the Ukrainian refugees, no one is willing to take in refugees from Gaza, although Egypt has a border with it. So any group seeking to aid the Gazans would have to be in Gaza itself, and although the vehicles were supposedly in a “de-conflicted zone” (however that is defined; I’m not sure what it means exactly), they were nevertheless in Gaza itself. Gaza as a whole is a war zone involved in urban warfare, and that of course increases the danger.
The WCK must know that. In fact, they had some bad experiences in Ukraine. A World Central Kitchen employee was killed in the Ukraine conflict earlier; it sounds as though he was a local man who had volunteered with the group:
In early June 2023, Igor—a WCK volunteer—was killed when a Russian missile hit his apartment building in Ukraine’s eastern Kharkiv region. Igor volunteered for months to feed neighbors in his community, and we are forever inspired by his bravery and compassion.
There also had been another Russian missile strike, this one on the Kharkiv kitchen in 2022, in which four WKK workers were injured. Fortunately no one was killed. But I can almost guarantee that even had they died as a result of the strike, the press and the world wouldn’t much care.
Here’s another page describing the WCK’s Ukraine efforts. In addition to the refugee camps in Poland, the organization delivered supplies to many Ukrainian restaurants that made meals for their fellow Ukrainians. There was definitely some risk involved, and in fact two volunteer workers (whom I believe were Ukrainian, and who were involved in serving meals) were killed in a Russian strike on a community center in Chuhuiv (near Kharkiv). We certainly didn’t hear much if anything about that, either – after all, it wasn’t Jews doing the bombing.
But back to the WCK’s efforts in Gaza. There are many armed conflicts in the world where people almost certainly need aid. The WCK can’t be everywhere, of course. But why, of all the other suffering people (besides Ukrainians) living in earth’s many war zones during the last few years, would the Gazans be the most deserving of aid and the most sympathetic? I’m not just talking about the World Central Kitchen, either; that group is just following the lead of so many NGOs, the press, the UN, and most of the nations on earth.
So, why the Gazans? After all, they elected a terrorist group to be their leaders, supported those leaders and even aided them in one of the most ferocious and barbaric terrorist attacks ever perpetrated in the modern age, cheered them on and taunted the hostages that were taken, and have continued to support terrorists as measured by opinion polls in the region.
Why the Gazans? It’s a rhetorical question, actually. I believe it is because they are fortunate enough to have declared war on Israel and the Jews.
Feeding the enemy’s population during war. What a strange concept. I guess starving Germany to revolt during WWI was the wrong strategy.
The US waged war where we carefully avoided targeting civilians in both Iraq and Afghanistan. If anything I think we did better than Israel, although the situations are different, making comparison difficult. Such a surgical approach has little precedent. Perhaps the USMC in Hue in Vietnam.
The normal way to do it doesn’t involve allowing in resupply.
Also note Biden did a drone strike on a family during the Afghanistan pullout. A mistake similar to the Israeli one, except I think it was rooted in Biden’s desire to flip the narrative, i.e., they engaged in sloppy targeting for political reasons.
Israel admitted the mistake very quickly and will investigate and report honestly. The US, on the other hand, took months to admit it had killed an innocent Afghan family. Biden has no room here to be lecturing Netanyahu.
When you slow-walk a war you give your enemies time to counter-attack with propaganda. If it’s time to kill, you kill fast and hugely. If you don’t, you will likely lose the propaganda war. See Vietnam and the ME. Same holds true for almost anything. You want to have a pipeline, build it fast. Same for nukes. Etc. Because if one thing is true, it’s that political leaders are cowards and they will sell you out in a heartbeat.
The current ratio of civilian-to-combatant is well below two-to-one, which compares extremely favorably with ratios achieved by other Western democracies in urban warfare.
I have no reason to doubt this ratio. But I hate this line of argument. What is says is “Yeah, we’re killing women and children, but we’re not killing as many women and children as other armies do.”
Ugh. And of course this argument has no effect on people for whom a single civilian casualty in Gaza (but nowhere else) is unacceptable, since no one can be reasoned out of antisemitism.
Anyway, when I expressed this thought to an Israeli acquaintance, he said Israelis don’t much care about the PR war, which is unwinnable. He said they care about the war in Gaza, which can and will be won.
In the meantime, the Orwellian lies are maddening.
Kate,
It was obvious at the time that Biden’s drone strikes (he hit another target besides the family) were pollical. They tried to lie about the family, and I don’t recall details on the other strike being released.
MollyG:
Wars are awful and there’s no getting around that. But the ratio of civilians to combatants killed does matter, especially because those who accuse Israel of genocide are totally ignoring the facts that make such an accusation a lie, and so those facts need pointing out. But you are very correct that this type of reasoning has zero effect on Israel-haters and Jew-haters.
I’m sure Neo will have much to say about this, but Iran’s threat to retaliate for the consulate bombing in Damascus will likely escalate the war.
It’s possible that Hezbollah may open the northern war, while Iran takes out the Jordan monarchy. Would the Saudi’s react to that?
War with Hezbollah and Iran May Have Just Begun | Caroline Glick Show In-Focus
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0GJhsmMx8o
You forgot to mention the new-found contrivance of propagandizing the aid shortfalls, by constantly telling the audience that the Gaza population is suffering from ‘severe food insecurity’. Now…. what does that term mean? Does that mean, they’re going hungry? Does it mean they are malnourished? Or facing endemic starvation, like some African republic? Apparently not, on the face of it. Apparently, they are nervous and insecure about their sustenance. But I notice that many Gazans, especially the captured combatants, appear rather zaftig, to use the term sarcastically.
So – I understand Neo’s frustration perfectly. The Palestinians not only enjoy a poor credibility rating – their credibility rating is well into the negative territory. When one views or reads or hears a Palestinian update, one automatically assumes it’s a deception, at best – and an outright lie, on average. As we have seen with each fresh day of the Israeli action, the Palestinians steadfastly condemn Israeli incursions – and then, new tunnels are discovered, new caches of weaponry found in supposedly neutral facilities, time after time after time. It is the rule, not the exception.
So: Since the Palestinians have not surrendered unconditionally, our leaders should be exhorting that, like the World Wars, nothing less will bring an end to the Israeli action: Freeing of the hostages and unconditional surrender. I don’t blame them one bit. I support the Israelis, and think their attack on the Iranian generals is just their way of getting to the head of the snake.
JackWayne,
Can we call them “political officeholders” instead of “leaders”? Not picking on you but calling any of these clowns a leader makes me ill.
Brian E:
It’s been known from the very start (October 7) that there will be a war with Hezbollah. It was just a question of when it would heat up. Retaliation for the bombing in Damascus is just an excuse. This war was inevitable.
I think this will escalate beyond that.
Iran’s Grand Plan: Bring Down The Jordanian Regime, Attack Israel From The East, And Thwart The Western-Sunni Normalization Project – And This Could Begin This Friday, Iran’s Qods Day
https://www.memri.org/reports/irans-grand-plan-bring-down-jordanian-regime-attack-israel-east-and-thwart-western-sunni
Brian E:
The sky’s the limit for Iran. When I heard about October 7, I was surprised it wasn’t coordinated with a much bigger war. Iran’s goal has always been to gain control of the entire Middle East.
Iran may be moving fast because they want to do it while Biden is president.
But if they go too far too fast they may arouse the opposition of more than Israel.
They may be moving fast because they want to do this while Biden is still president.
Here’s my concern. In a normal world with an American President that values Israel, we would use our influence/military presence to keep Iran’s response minimal.
Killing the senior command of its IRGC Qods Force in Syria and Lebanon on what is considered Iranian territory makes the international propaganda against Israel that much easier.
But we have a President that has chosen Iran to be what they consider is a counterbalance to Israel. I don’t think Biden wants Israel to cease to exist, but there are some in his administration who wouldn’t shed a tear at that outcome.
If Iran succeeds in toppling the Jordanian government, they may not immediately attack Israel, but the threat will be one country closer. I hope I’m wrong.
Brian E:
Damascus is not Iranian territory and I don’t think it was actually in their consulate, just an adjacent building. Not that it matters because anti-Israel feeling is sky-high no matter what they do.
I think Israel struck because they knew what Iran was already planning to do.
I’ve seen it suggested that Israel had information indicating that the IRGC Gen. just killed was involved in the planning and preparation of the Oct. 7th Hamas attacks, hence a deliberately chosen target for elimination. Whether this is so, I have no direct knowledge or evidence. It is however in my view a plausible scenario.
It was an annex adjacent to the Iranian embassy, but that tidbit is lost in the reporting. I thought embassies were considered to be sovereign territory of the country.
“On 1 April 2024, an Israeli airstrike destroyed the Iranian consulate annex building adjacent to the Iranian embassy in Damascus, Syria, killing 16 people, including a senior Quds Force commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi and seven other IRGC officers.” — Already a Wiki page!
From what I could find, all of the WCK workers but one were Gazan. Considering how many Gazan doctors, teachers UN workers, etc. are also Hamas soldiers, I wouldn’t be surprised if these were less than “innocent aid workers.”
@ Someone Else > “all of the WCK workers but one were Gazan”
That’s an interesting factoid I haven’t seen before, although I have no reason to doubt it. Do you have a source citation?
I saw a comment (at Turley’s site IIRC) noting that even the IDF has lost casualties to “friendly fire” (such an awful euphemism), so it’s a risk the aid workers ought to have been aware of, although it’s still a tragedy.
J. E. Dyer has a couple of things to say, at great length, but there are two bottom lines: (1) multiplying the number of points where “aid” enters Gaza, as the WCK did with their own “pier” also multiplies the number of points where the IDF has to monitor incoming supplies to make sure they actually are aid and not weapons (already a considerable problem despite their blockades);
(2) looking at a map of Gaza shows that the location of the aid warehouse was not in a very rational place, for both the distance to the pier and the type of area.
So, Someone Else may have hit the nail on the head.
The Israelis hit exactly the people they wanted to, but have to put on a show because they can’t prove it (not that anyone on the side of Hamas would care, as MollyG pointed out) ; OR they did in fact hit the wrong cars, because they were expecting some terrorists to be in that vicinity.
https://theoptimisticconservative.wordpress.com/2024/04/02/two-pings-on-strike-that-killed-food-aid-workers-in-gaza/
I hope we would find that Sunni resistance to Iranian control might be stiffer than the Shi’ite regime expects.
Yeah, we’re killing women and children, but we’re not killing as many women and children as other armies do.” Molly G.
As an aside, the sacrosanctness of women and children is a western concept. Over there woman and children are full time combatants. Their concept of war is totally different the the West. Which they use very effectively.
Biden’s Afghanistan drone strike is far from the only US strike to kill civilians.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civilian_casualties_from_U.S._drone_strikes
The IDF has dismissed two officers and reprimanded three others for the WCK strike. (No US personnel were ever disciplined for the hit on the family van in Kabul.)
https://www.wral.com/story/israel-dismisses-2-officers-over-deadly-drone-strikes-on-aid-workers-in-gaza/21364396/
When you’re a soldier, aid worker, or any other non-combatant you must consider yourself dead when entering the arena of war. You’re there for others not yourself.
I despise Blinken. Personal motives almost always trump obvious basic truths.
…whinge the same people who as a matter of principle use ambulances for transporting terrorists and weaponry…
Neo. Your last paragraph is likely correct. But there’s another factor about Russia striking Ukraine’s population centers. No enemy of the US or the West is ever condemned for war crimes or crimes against humanity. Remember the left’s outrage over the Killing Fields?
This would include Hamas, of course.
So Israel is getting a double dose of double standards.
Need to correct a comment by Someone Else @ 2:24 pm
Only one of the workers killed was Palestinean/Gazan. Three were from the UK, one from Australia, one from USA/Canada and one from Poland.
I see Israel has already responded with relieving two military personnel for the mistake. It is one of the risks taken when working in a war zone, but still tragic for the workers and their families.
Since Israel is blamed no matter what they do, it seems that the best course would be to win decisively with all possible speed. They’ve been put in an untenable position, being made to account and self-flagellate for every civilian death, even the ones that Hamas has invented. I believe that all reasonable attempts should be made to spare civilians but I also think that every day the war continues, pressure mounts for a permanent cease fire. Israel needs to get the job done before they’re forced to stop doing it.