Israel is justifiably worried that other European suppliers of arms to the IDF will follow French President Emmanuel Macron’s lead and halt their own sales of weapons to the embattled Israelis. He is setting a terrible example. More on his call for an embargo on weapons for Israel can be found here: “Macron urges countries to ‘stop delivering weapons’ to Israel for war in Gaza,” by Niha Masih, Bryan Pietsch, and Ellen Francis, MSN, October 6, 2024:
Macron said that terrorism should not be fought by “sacrificing a civilian population” and that he had expressed those concerns to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu….
It is Hamas that is “sacrificing a civilian population” by placing its operatives, its weapons, its rocket launchers, its command-and-control centers, among civilian areas and buildings, including schools, mosques, hospitals, and apartment buildings. Macron knows this. And he knows that the IDF makes every effort to prevent civilian casualties, by warning those civilians away from areas about to be targeted. Already by March (and many more in the months since then), the IDF had dropped nine million leaflets, sent fifteen million text messages, and made sixteen million robocalls, all to warn civilians away from such areas. Israeli pilots have instructions to abort their missions when they spot too many civilians below; about half the time they do so. That, too, must surely be known to Macron, who nonetheless accuses the IDF, not Hamas, of “sacrificing a civilian population.”
Finally, Macron should realize that of the nearly 42,000 Gazans killed — if we accept the number claimed by the Hamas-run Gazan Health Ministry — close to 20,000, or nearly half, were Hamas fighters. Before October 7, in Gaza about 800 people died each month on average of diseases (cancer, heart disease, COVID, etc.) and from accidents. Assuming that number has held steady, in the twelve months since October 7, 2023, 9600 of those 22,000 civilian deaths were due to diseases and accidents. Thus only 12,400 civilian deaths can be attributed to the IDF.
This brings us to the key ratio by which the conduct of wars may be judged: the ratio of civilian-to-combatant deaths. The UN has claimed that in all the wars fought since 1945, that average ratio has stood at 9:1 — nine civilian dead for every combatant. In Afghanistan, the Americans brought that ratio down to 4:1; in Iraq they did even better, bringing it down to 3:1. But in Gaza, the IDF has done what no other army has ever done, by achieving a ratio of 12,400 to 20,000, which is much less than 1:1. No wonder that Colonel Richard Kemp, who led the British forces in Afghanistan and has fought in a half-dozen campaigns, has called the IDF “the most moral army in the world.” And Professor John Spencer, a professor of Urban Warfare at West Point, has claimed that “Israel has done more to prevent civilian casualties in war than any military in history — above & beyond what international law requires.”
Has no one told Macron any of this? Or does he knows it all, but doesn’t care? He wants to secure the support of the Arabs, for obvious financial reasons. Qatar alone, the supplier of billions of dollars to Hamas, the supplier of a refuge for Hamas’ leaders, who lead cosseted lives of luxury in Doha, announced earlier this year that it would be investing the colossal sum of $15 billion in France. No wonder Macron wants to please the waddling emirs of the Al-Thani family.
Netanyahu, in a video statement Saturday after Macron’s remarks, criticized the French president and other leaders who “call for an arms embargo on Israel.”
“Israel will win with or without their support, but their shame will continue long after the war is won,” he said.
In response to Netanyahu, Macron’s office said France remains a “steadfast friend of Israel,” describing Netanyahu’s reaction as “excessive and detached from the friendship between France and Israel,” according to Le Monde.
Nothing says “steadfast friend of Israel” like cutting off all arms sales to that embattled land as it is fighting a seven-front war against those who would destroy it.
gravenimage says
Does Macron Not Know How Israel is Preventing Civilian Casualties, or Does He Not Care?
………………………………….
How can he *not* know? Even the most basic intel would tell him this.
Jon Sobieski says
Demographics is destiny. There is no plan to kick out the muslims. The muslims are breeding far more children than the French. Macron is executing on the wishes of the new muslim France. Macron may convert and become a muslim. Looks like a smart plan to me.
Mike says
Paris is worth a shadaha!
gravenimage says
+1
Lavéritétriomphera says
Bonjour
Macron cares about Lebanon https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AoDeCVfGJjk
We share a common history with Lebaneses https://www.euronews.com/2020/09/01/france-and-lebanon-the-history-of-a-turbulent-relationship
À+
gravenimage says
Alas, Lavéritétriomphera, there are fewer of the Maronite–Christian–Lebanese all the time. They are now a minority in Lebanon, and Hezb’allah is a part of the government there now.
Lavéritétriomphera says
Bonsoir
Unfortunately, you’re right:
https://www.persecution.org/2024/05/24/icc-perspectives-christians-are-leaving-the-middle-east-so-why-is-persecution-increasing/
Amitiés
gravenimage says
Wish I was wrong, Lavéritétriomphera.
Lavéritétriomphera says
Bonjour gravenimage
The apostates from islam may be subject to persecution in France and in Europe http://media.aclj.org/pdf/The-Persecution-of-ex-muslim-christian-in-France-and-in-Europe.pdf
Amitiés
gravenimage says
Disturbing stuff, Lavéritétriomphera–and only likely to get worse with the Muslim population growing in France and the rest of Europe and the West.
OLD GUY says
He probably receives money from the islamic world.
gravenimage says
He does–Qatar, certainly. Why isn’t this illegal in France?
bagsgroove says
Macron is a maroon !
rick says
What I want to know is – if you believe the IDF is not concerned with civilian lives then why are there only a total of less than 42,000 dead including Hamas dead and not 400,000 or more? Is the IDF less effective in killing civilians than Assad is in Syria where well over 500,000 have been killed? Why the low body count in Gaza?
mgoldberg says
I think he has received some ten billions of dollars to be delivered from 2025-2030. Hence Qatar got his acquiescence…. for his awful decision.
gravenimage says
Grimly money seems to be a significant factor–blood money.
Spiro says
He doesn’t care about truth only the narrative
and it must support the program
He doesn’t care about France or its citizens
He doesnt care about either side in the war in Isreal
He only cares about himself and his political power
Thats just how it is until there’s a change in attitude among the populist
James Lincoln says
Spiro says,
“Thats just how it is until there’s a change in attitude among the populist”
By then, the situation will have reached critical mass – and it will be too late.
Big Dude says
What we see is the typical European realpolitik. The reality here is that Macron doesn’t care about anything but Macron.
Even when the Friday people kill the French, there will always be a reason to minimize it.
It’s not so bad. The French will submit, then the other Europeans, and then the English. And soon Europe will truly be Eurabia.
Soon there won’t be any Europe, and then the people there will rise up, and there will be a bloody massacre. Something tells me that the Friday people will lose this one. And a bunch of revenge-seeking folks will be roaming the streets.
I wonder whether this would make a good movie … if it’s Tuesday it must be halal
tgusa says
Macron is just trying to distract from his country going to shit. Coincidentally, and lost to him, is his country is going to shit because of the importation of the very same people that started the trouble in Israel. I used to think it was stupidity or misplaced sympathy that was behind it but neither of those can account for what I see and have seen going on. What we see going on is so hard to fight because what is going on and what is being done is inexplicable. It is not easy to put up a defense against something so idiotic that many cannot comprehend.
SC says
Maybe macron should visit gaza unannounced and without his entourage. See how long his pro terrorist feelings protect him.