Israel Can’t Do More to Avoid Civilian Casualties ‘Unless You Just Want to Surrender’

On Tuesday’s broadcast of Bloomberg’s “Balance of Power,” Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) said that as good a job as the U.S. is doing in avoiding civilian casualties, “Israel is doing a good job” because Hamas has decided to hide behind civilians, he said. It’s very difficult to minimize civilian casualties unless you just want to surrender to terrorists, and I don’t think anyone is suggesting that. ”

co-host Kylie Reintz asked.[T]Relations between the United States and Israel certainly appear to be tense, at least at the level of the Biden administration. Apparently, in the conversations that took place yesterday between President Biden and Bibi Netanyahu, there was a warning not to go to Rafah, and that without a credible plan to protect civilians it could be a mistake. I was warned. Congressman, I know that you have been very supportive of Israel as an ally of the United States, but if you ignore the Biden administration’s warnings about civilian casualties in the Gaza Strip, then Israel will Is it worth continued stubborn support? ”

“I don’t think Israel is ignoring these warnings, and it certainly shouldn’t be,” Sherman responded. actual, West Point’s number one urban warfare expert He said Israel has done at least as good a job as the United States in avoiding civilian casualties in urban combat situations. Of course, we have experience with urban warfare in Fallujah, Mosul, and elsewhere, and when you have a 1:1 ratio of civilian to combatant casualties, that’s as good as it can be in an urban combat situation. be. Remember, Hamas is in southern Israel and could have stayed there and fought. Instead, they decided to retreat behind human shields and fight from behind Palestinian civilians. And once the military does that, it’s very difficult to minimize civilian casualties unless you just want to surrender to the terrorists, and I don’t think anyone is suggesting that. ”