Richard Landes asks an important question: Why doesn’t HRW’s white-flags report mention Hamas’s use of civilians and civilian infrastructure on the battlefield, when HRW has acknowledged the tactic elsewhere? This is a key point. If Hamas intentionally introduces civilians into combat, the claims of Israeli culpability for their deaths become a lot less credible. Indeed, people might start thinking that Hamas, not the IDF, bears the responsibility for them. And this is exactly why such tactics make no appearance in HRW’s report, whose claims are entirely sourced by Palestinians:
If Hamas will fire from the midst of civilians, hide behind white-flag toting refugees, and keep them cooped up in areas to which they draw fire, then surely they are not going to be very happy with Palestinians complaining about that behavior. Once HRW grants that such matters go on within the same report in which they present Palestinian evidence as their key source for their allegations, the epistemological house of cards begins to fall.
