Gaza report tells difficult truths

Let's imagine for a second that terrorists in San Diego, incensed with their treatment by the Mexican government, start shooting rockets into Mexican villages. As a result, several civilians are killed. In response, Mexico first launches seven days of non-stop airstrikes. Then, thousands of troops and hundreds of tanks roll across the border into San Diego. They set houses on fire, bomb sewage treatment plants, drop white phosphorous bombs on hospitals, bomb houses where civilians were told to gather, and use civilians as human shields as they break into people's houses. When the dust settles, the Mexican army has lost nine soldiers, four of whom have been killed in friendly fire incidents. In San Diego, estimates say anywhere from 1,300 to 1,400 people are dead, many of them women and children.

It's not that hard to figure out right and wrong here. The attack is disproportionate from what led to it. It reeks of collective punishment, the kind of thing the Geneva Convention explicitly defines as a war crime.

But this was not Mexico and San Diego. And despite the limits of the analogy — and there are many — judging this should be a slam dunk. But this was Israel and Palestine, and the same rules don't apply.

So when the United Nations issued its "Report of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict," calling Israeli actions in Gaza "war crimes," citing the same facts in the scenario above, it was quickly denounced. Israel slammed the report, even though it had refused to cooperate with the investigation. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's spokesman dismissed the report as "the product of a union between propaganda and bias."

U.S. officials were mainly silent. In fact, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that Israel had "asked a number of senior members of the Obama administration to assist in curbing the international fallout from the ... report." If President Obama's previous reaction is any gauge, he'll likely be responsive to that request.

At the time of the invasion, Obama remained serene amid the slaughter. When the Israelis bombed a school where people had gathered — killing 42 — he broke his silence to tell the press that "the loss of civilian life in Gaza and Israel is a source of deep concern."

Not outrage or horror, but "concern." Meanwhile, men, women and children were buried alive in their own homes under a barrage of bombs landing in one of the most densely populated areas of the earth.

The debate about Gaza and Israel is often presented not in terms of the war crimes of Israel, but the terrorism of Hamas. Now, a lot of very good people — including Israelis — were and remain outraged at what happened last year in Gaza. That doesn't mean they endorse Hamas. It means it is actually possible to not support war crimes done under the justification of fighting terrorism.

But too often, people turn away from this. Matters of religion and the historic crimes committed against the Jewish people cloud judgment. All these things swirled when Israel launched its murderous campaign in Gaza last winter. This report opens up that hornets nest and is full of uncomfortable truths. That's what makes it important.

Aaron Leonard is a columnist.