Is Israel Justified In Attacking Hamas? | One Jerusalem

    [12.28.2008]
    Is Israel Justified In Attacking Hamas?

    The news media appears to be inundated with Arab talking heads and some Europeans who are
    clamoring to tell the world that Israel is morally wrong in defending itself against Hamas.
    Dore Gold, Israel's former Ambassador to the United Nations, answers Israel's critics.
    Below is a summary of his persuasive case:

      * Israeli population centers in southern Israel have been the target of over 4,000
        rockets, as well as thousands of mortar shells, fired by Hamas and other organizations
        since 2001. Rocket attacks increased by 500 percent after Israel withdrew completely
        from the Gaza Strip in August 2005. During an informal six-month lull, some 215 rockets
        were launched at Israel.

      * The charge that Israel uses disproportionate force keeps
        resurfacing whenever it has to
        defend its citizens from non-state terrorist organizations and the rocket attacks they
        perpetuate. From a purely legal perspective, Israel's current military actions in Gaza
        are on solid ground. According to international law, Israel is not required to
        calibrate its use of force precisely according to the size and range of the weaponry
        used against it.

       * Ibrahim Barzak and Amy Teibel wrote for the Associated Press on
        December 28 that most
        of the 230 Palestinians who were reportedly killed were "security forces," and
        Palestinian officials said "at least 15 civilians were among the dead." The numbers
        reported indicate that there was no clear intent to inflict disproportionate collateral
        civilian casualties. What is critical from the standpoint of international law is that
        if the attempt has been made "to minimize civilian damage, then even a strike that
        causes large amounts of damage - but is directed at a target with very large military
        value - would be lawful."

      * Luis Moreno-Orampo, the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, explained
        that international humanitarian law and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal
        Court "permit belligerents to carry out proportionate attacks against military
        objectives, even when it is known that some civilian deaths or injuries will occur."
        The attack becomes a war crime when it is directed against civilians (which is
        precisely what Hamas does).

      * After 9/11, when the Western alliance united to collectively topple the Taliban regime
        in Afghanistan, no one compared Afghan casualties in 2001 to the actual numbers that
        died from al-Qaeda's attack. There clearly is no international expectation that
        military losses in war should be on a one-to-one basis. To expect Israel to hold back
        in its use of decisive force against legitimate military targets in Gaza is to condemn
        it to a long war of attrition with Hamas.