Joe Biden just accused Israel of war crimes. Where is the outrage?

Seth Mandel writes at Commentary about how Joe Biden, unlike Barack Obama, passes the "kishkes" test for his deep affinity with Israel, by proudly calling himself a Zionist and defending Israel.

Which may be one reason why we have not heard much criticism about this outrageous accusation Biden made yesterday.

Speaking to Democratic donors in Washington, Biden voiced criticism of Israel’s hardline government and said Netanyahu needed to alter his approach.

“I think he has to change, and with this government, this government in Israel is making it very difficult for him to move,” Biden said, calling Netanyahu’s government the “most conservative government in Israel’s history.”

He warned support for the country’s military campaign is waning amid heavy bombardment of Gaza and added that the Israeli government “doesn’t want a two-state solution.”

Biden said right now Israel “has most of the world supporting it,” but said “they’re starting to lose that support by the indiscriminate bombing that takes place.”

Maybe it was a slip of the tongue. Maybe it is senility. But the President of the United States just falsely accused Israel a war crimes.

Indiscriminate bombing is what Hamas does. Rockets targeting civilian areas without precise aiming are indiscriminate. That is war crime, violating the principle of distinction between civilian and military targets. (Placing military targets in the midst of civilian objects i also a violation of that principle.)

Israel does not bomb indiscriminately. It spends a great deal of time choosing its targets and calibrating the attacks based on the military value of the targets. Just because the casual observer cannot see that there is a Hamas commander or a Hamas command and control center or a Hamas weapons cache inside or beneath the building does not make the airstrikes indiscriminate. 

The widespread damage in Gaza is a direct result of Hamas using civilians as their primary defensive shield. The IDF is finding weapons literally everywhere they search and they have found tunnel entrances in schools, in many houses and beneath old cars planted there to hide them. Hamas turned all of Gaza into a military target, not Israel, and it is enormously difficult to make that distinction - but the IDF still attacks based on intelligence information. It is not random and it is not indiscriminate. 

Israel is apparently sweeping this under the rug to preserve the relationship, but that doesn't make the lie any less vile. 

Friends don't falsely accuse friends of war crimes.

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