Ron Dermer Quotes
They target and try to kill as many of our civilians as they can. We do not target civilians..
Hamas had fired thousands of rockets and other missiles at Israeli population centers—war crimes under the Geneva Conventions. Israel finally retaliated against Hamas facilities in Gaza. However, in an unprecedented effort to avoid civilian casualties, the Israeli Defense Forces warned the people by indicating which targets they were going to strike. They also dropped leaflets in Arabic telling the civilians that they are not the targets but to try and avoid harm to them and their families, they should evacuate the neighborhoods that would be under attack. Hamas had placed their missile launchers and other weapons in and near schools, hospitals, mosques and civilian housing risking their civilian population—see {640841}.
Ron Dermer, Israeli Ambassador to the United States, Interview, PBS News Hour, July 16, 2014
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
Hamas, a terrorist organization controlling Gaza at that time had fired a thousand missiles into Israel. To stop them, the Israeli Defense Force using air power destroyed hundreds of Hamas facilities and homes of Hamas leaders. They also killed many Hamas terrorists, but at the same time there were also civilian casualties including women and children. Some critics of Israel formulated a moral equivalence between the two sides especially since the Israeli’s had anti-missile defense that exploded most of the missiles in flight. The Israeli Prime Minister explained the moral and ethical distinction. The Israeli’s did not strike any building without warning; they always notified the population in advance as to which target would be hit—something that no other nation had ever done in an armed conflict. However, Hamas forced many civilians to remain in the targeted buildings and almost all of the civilian casualties were to the civilians who Hamas decided to sacrifice. The facilities attacked were all places where Hamas had stored weapons or were command and control facilities, or were used for planning terrorist activities or were the residences of Hamas fighters of high rank. All these are legitimate targets under the rules of war, and the military force that uses them are responsible for clearing the civilians out. In this case, the kept them in, and in many cases sent them in, so that the Israeli military forces would be accused of injuring or killing innocent civilians.
In WWII the Germans bombed London causing many civilian casualties. In retaliation, the allies bombed German cities such as Hamburg and others. The resolution’s effect was very short lived. There are similar restrictions in the Geneva Conventions but again, if one side breaks the conventions, most other sides will retaliate. Note that in the 3rd condition, the one that is most contentious in the 21st century “negligence” is the operative word. An error or mistake is not necessarily or even usually negligence. Many people believe that international law prohibits the bombing of civilians from reading 3) and similar statements from treaties. However, an honest error, mistake or equipment malfunction which kills
He signaled his subordinates that it was OK to commit war crimes against the Italian Partisans.
Germany had invaded and occupied much of Europe. These two fronts accounted for the majority of the German casualties. The Germans not only violated the Geneva Convention and the Laws of War repeatedly, but as you can see from this quotation, it was deliberate policy. Keitel was tried and hanged after the war. See {621438} .
This is true. There never has been any International law that made a belligerent responsible for civilian damages and deaths that were the result of collateral damage. However, the United States over the years, more so than any other country. Provided huge amount of aid to the citizens of the enemy nations although there was no legal obligation to do so.
Although the Amerian Drone program did inadvertently kill untargeted or mistakenly targeted civilians at that time, the collateral damage rate was smaller than any other weapons system available to the American forces. War has always produced unintended collateral damage. The only way to stop the killing of innocent civilians then and now is to stop the war.
Hamas had seized power in a coup of the Gaza Strip, and in July of 2014 they fired thousands of rockets into Israel with a stated aim to kill as many Israeli men, women, and children. The Israelis responded to this act of terrorism and war by a set of air power attacks on the Hamas infrastructure and military targets. They even notified the Gaza population of each target that they before the strike so civilians who might be there could evacuate. Hamas, however, told the people to stay and not to evacuate. They also stored and fired their rockets in civilian institutions like schools and hospitals, thereby turning the institution into a military target according to the Rules of War. United Nations officials observed the Hamas practice in Gaza schools and informed the Secretary General who was furious and made this statement—particularly harsh for a leader of the UN who generally tries to avoid attacking anyone.
The Hamas leadership of the Gaza strip had fired thousands of rockets into Israel which their charter states should be eliminated. The Israelis after many being hit by more than a thousand rockets, used their military to attack (via the air) the Hamas leadership. However, Hamas had stored their rockets and their armaments in or very near civilian facilities including hospitals, schools, mosques and even UN humanitarian facilities. The Hamas leaders thereby made civilian facilities legitimate military targets under the Rules of War of the Geneva and Hague Conventions. So the Gaza leadership, instead of their military protecting their own civilians, used the civilians to protect the military and their weapons in the midst of war. The Secretary General also was referring to the Hamas leadership who had rejected at that point 5 different cease fires that had been proposed by the Egyptians, Americans, The Arab League and others. Israeli accepted them all.
There was extensive hostility expressed by civilian populations in Pakistan and other countries where the United States made Drone strikes to take out terrorist leaders. However, there was much anti-American feeling in Pakistan before the Drone strikes.
- Born: April 16, 1971
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Ron Dermer is an American-born Israeli political consultant and diplomat who served as the Israeli Ambassador to the United States. He previously served as Israel's economic envoy to the United States from 2005 to 2008, a position requiring him to give up his American citizenship, and subsequently served as senior adviser to current Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for four years. On July 9, 2013 Dermer was confirmed by the government of Israel as Israel's ambassador to the United States, replacing Michael Oren. He began serving as Israel's Ambassador to the United States in October 2013. In July 2019, it was announced that the Israeli Civil Service Commission would not extend his term and that Dermer will resign as Ambassador to the United States in September 2019. In January 2021 Dermer stopped serving as the ambassador and Gilad Erdan replaced him.
