Israel (now broader Mid East discussion)

HoustonSaint68 said

Legitimately curious as to your opinions, not dropping a landmine question:

What, in your opinion, constitutes acceptable rules of engagement for the IDF in this conflict? Or, if you prefer it put a different way, what military actions against Hamas and/or Hezbollah would not constitute a war crime?

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I think one of the ways people talk past each other in these conversations is taking specific statements and treating them as if they're much broader - or even different - ones. E.g. here, the question implies that the suggestion is being made that every military action being taken is a war crime, when what's been referred to specifically is targeting a school, and the killing of civilians that took place in general.

So right off the bat, it should be clear that, "military actions that don't target schools or kill civilians as has taken place" aren't being included as war crimes in those statements. So unless someone holds the belief that every military action taken by the IDF is doing one or both of those, there's no implication that every military action is a war crime there.

So I would actually come back to you here to start off with and say, do you think that? Do you think that the IDF can't engage without targeting schools or killing civilians at this scale? Because that would seem to be the crux of the matter.