On Monday’s “CNN News Central,” CNN Military Analyst former NATO Supreme Allied Commander Gen. Wesley Clark (Ret.) stated that there isn’t much more Israel can do to avoid civilian casualties and accomplish the objective of eliminating Hamas and “the blame needs to be placed on Hamas. All they have to do is to surrender, unconditional surrender, it’ll stop immediately. That’s where the blame rests.”

After listening to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin saying that you can’t drive civilians into the arms of the enemy because that would be a strategic loss, Clark stated, “Secretary Austin is exactly right on doctrinal grounds. The problem [with] Hamas and in Gaza is that the civilian population has been either hostile or indifferent or overtly hostile to Israel. So, the horse is out of the barn on this, honestly. It would be great if the civilian population would say, look, we’re against Hamas, we’ve had all this destruction, and really, it’s not Israel’s fault. But, unfortunately, this is a wartime situation. This is really no different than when the United States had to attack Japan in World War II, British and American bombers flying over Nazi Germany, a lot of innocent civilians who had nothing to do with the war effort were killed [as a] consequence of this. And, unfortunately, I don’t know that there’s that much more that the Israelis can do to avoid harming these civilian populaces in Gaza and still accomplish the military objective.”

He continued, “And so, they’re going to go after the military objective now as hard as they can, and they’re going to do whatever they can do. And it’s important for the United States to take the posture it’s taking. I understand that politically and strategically. But the fact of the matter is, on the ground, the Israeli military’s going to do what it has to do to eliminate Hamas or do the best they can to eliminate Hamas. It’s going to be a tough fight, it’s going to escalate, there are going to be more casualties, and it’s just unfortunate. But here’s the thing, the blame needs to be placed on Hamas. All they have to do is to surrender, unconditional surrender, it’ll stop immediately. That’s where the blame rests.”

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