No, Israel’s President Did Not Argue That Gazan Civilians Are Legitimate Targets

Isaac SchorrOct 13th, 2023, 2:22 pm
 

A viral clip of Israeli President Isaac Herzog has been used to suggest that he was arguing that the intentional killing of Gazan civilians was justified in the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas.

At a press conference, Herzog — who once served as Chairman of the Israeli Labor Party and Leader of the Opposition against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — denied that no Gazan civilians bore responsibility for Hamas’ actions.

“It is not true this rhetoric about civilians were not aware, were not involved, it’s absolutely not true. They could have risen up, could have fought against that evil regime, which took over Gaza in a coup d’etat,” said Herzog.

The statement was inartful, to say the least. It’s hardly fair to expect civilians to overthrow a violent, barbaric terrorist organization. But there is truth in his statement; a significant proportion of Gaza’s population supports Hamas, a terrorist group intent on seeing Jews killed and Israel wiped off the map. The fact that Herzog made his point clumsily does not invalidate it.

Moreover, some have used this statement as proof that he — and by extension Israel — favor the targeting of Gazan civilians.

“Herzog’s statement has the same logic as ‘settlers aren’t civilians.’ Given that this is coming from a president not a student group, the chorus of condemnations should be louder than that drawn by the Hamas apologists. Somehow, I don’t think it will be,” declared New York Magazine‘s Eric Levitz.

“There you have it. Israel’s president Isaac Herzog makes the Israeli state’s official position abundantly clear: that the Palestinian civilian population have collective guilt. This is the mentality which, throughout history, leads to genocide,” asserted The Guardian’s Owen Jones.

“Israel’s president is denying the concept of innocent civilians, on the brink of a major military offensive. A very bad sign,” said the Financial Times‘ Henry Mance.

But this characterization of Herzog’s remarks are undermined by something else he said at the same press conference.

When a reporter told Herzog that he seemed “to hold the people of Gaza, the civilians of Gaza responsible for not removing Hamas and therefore by implication, that makes them legitimate targets,” Herzog rejected that characterization of his views.

“No, I didn’t say that. I did not say that — I want to make it clear,” began Herzog. “I was asked something about separating civilians from Hamas. But with all due respect, with all due respect, if you have a missile in your goddamn kitchen and you want to shoot it at me, am I allowed to defend myself? Yes, that is the situation. These missiles are there, these missiles are launched, the button is pressed, the missile comes up from the kitchen onto my children.”

In other words, Herzog explicitly rejects the indiscriminate targeting of civilians alongside of Hamas, and correctly attributes moral responsibility for civilian deaths caused by the use of civilian infrastructure to launch military attacks against Israel on Hamas.

Herzog may have been guilty of using faulty reasoning to support a reasonable contention, but he is most definitely not guilty of what some in the media are accusing him of.

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.

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