First, let’s be clear that these leaks are not as severe or damaging as they were during the Trump presidency. That was a sustained and prolonged campaign to hamstring an administration these supposed apolitical civil servants didn’t like. With Joe Biden, it’s a policy difference regarding his support for Israel, which has been a long-standing cornerstone of American foreign policy. Some folks in the intelligence community don’t like Israeli forces bombing Hamas terror targets, releasing that a healthy number of munitions used in Gaza were not guided precision.
This leak was meant to place pressure on the administration to curb its military aid packages to the Jewish state, which is also the only democracy in the Middle East. Civilians die in war. Collateral damage is different than what Hamas does, which is a genocidal targeting of Israelis. Those civilian casualty figures rise exponentially when Hamas terrorists force them to be used as human shields. We all knew a lot of civilians were going to die, but Hamas also didn’t need to commit a terror attack that murdered 1,200 Israelis (via WaPo):
Almost half of the munitions Israel has used in Gaza since the war began have been unguided bombs, a U.S. intelligence assessment has found, a ratio that some arms experts say helps explain the conflict’s enormous civilian death toll. The revelation comes as U.S. and Israeli officials engage in intensifying conversations about the sequencing of military operations in the two-month conflict.
The Israel Defense Forces has fired more than 29,000 air-to-ground munitions into the Palestinian enclave since Oct. 7, and only 55 to 60 percent of them have been precision-guided, according to a new assessment from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. The rest were what are known as “dumb bombs,” said two people familiar with the assessment who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the matter.
The use of so many unguided bombs, first reported by CNN, is a concern among humanitarian groups and others amid growing calls inside and outside the United States for Washington to condition any further military aid to Israel on the immediate reduction of civilian deaths.
The Biden administration has thus far rejected such calls, fearing a backlash by Republicans and political attacks from powerful pro-Israel lobbying organizations. Instead, it has attempted to influence the Israeli government to sharpen the focus of its military campaign using high-level visits, including meetings in Tel Aviv on Thursday between national security adviser Jake Sullivan and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The IDF did not respond to a request for comment.
[…]
“It is challenging in the best of circumstances to differentiate between valid military targets and civilians” there, said Brian Castner, senior crisis adviser and weapons investigator at Amnesty International. “And so just under basic rules of discretion, the Israeli military should be using the most precise weapons that it can that it has available and be using the smallest weapon appropriate for the target.”
Israel has been using “very, very large weapons,” Castner said. “And so when you’re using that in a densely populated area, even if you hit your valid military target, you’re far more likely to kill civilians nearby.”
[…]
In some instances, Israel’s use of unguided munitions is less problematic than in others, said a U.S. official familiar with the matter. Hitting tunnel entrances or buildings in less-populated areas, when Israeli planes will fly at low altitudes and release their payloads at close range — a tactic known as “dive bombing” — is viewed as more defensible by the Biden administration.
Amnesty International is one of the most vocal anti-Israel NGOs out there, so I’ll leave it at that. Also, the IDF is using these munitions to destroy parts of Hamas’ terror tunnel infrastructure, a point buried in the story. Since the start of this war, there have been Biden staffers protesting their boss’ efforts to help Israel eliminate Hamas. We shouldn’t have been naïve to think it was just contained among low-level staffers and interns. Once the Deep State knew it could operate with impunity during the Trump years, protected by officials at the Justice Department, they’ve been waiting, eager to execute targeted leaks to influence policy. That’s not democratic. That’s a coup. No one elected these people, most pushing paper from one department to the next.
Also, given this clown show’s penchant for leaking untrue things, like every bombshell during the Russian collusion hoax, I’m not sure this assessment is even factual. When you can’t trust anonymous bureaucrats selectively leaking information that bolsters their narrative, who can you trust, right?
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