"The evidence confirms that NGOs in Gaza do not operate independently or neutrally," NGO Monitor found. "Rather, they are embedded in an institutionalized framework of coercion, intimidation, and surveillance that serves Hamas' terror objectives.... NGOs – both local and international, including ones operating under the auspices of UN projects – are not permitted to provide services or operate projects in Gaza without Hamas' approval."

On an everyday basis, NGOs need permission from Hamas to do their work in Gaza.

Hamas also inserted "guarantors" – local Gazans approved by Hamas, or themselves Hamas members or affiliates – into high positions in the respective NGOs to serve as points of contact between Hamas and the NGOs. Hamas required its "guarantors" to be placed at the highest administrative levels of the NGO, such as director, deputy director, or board chair.

The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), for instance, an Oslo-based NGO operating in Gaza, among other places, chose to simply ignore concerns from a Gazan that his floor was collapsing because of a terror tunnel being built underneath.

The mainstream media has largely refused to acknowledge that, as reported in a recent study by the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, 60% of the "journalists" killed during the fighting in Gaza were Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad operatives or affiliates.

No legal system could anticipate all imaginable cases of an illegal action. That can be done only if and when an act contravenes a clearly defined law that also envisages a clearly defined punishment. Neither of those caveats applies to the foggy notion of national sovereignty, let alone to the foggier concept of international law.

Leaving aside virtue-signalers and blame-America cabals attacking the US, the truth is that international law is as exposed as the Wizard of Oz was at the end of Dorothy's journey.

Perhaps the most accurate description of Operation Absolute Resolve came from Beijing, with the term "hegemonic act". True, the US acted as a hegemon, that is to say, a power capable of enforcing its laws against foes.

The late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez called Maduro "my bus driver". Maduro drove the Venezuelan bus into a ravine and made himself easily kidnappable. Venezuela doesn't cry for him.