Just war
In his eloquent speech accepting the Nobel Peace Prize today, Pres. Obama acknowledged that although war itself is terrible, there is such a thing as a "just war." Of course, Obama was trying to justify receiving the Peace Prize while at the same time being the Commander-in-Chief of the US Army that is engaged in two wars, Iraq and Afghanistan. While the war in Iraq is "winding down" he categorized the war in Afghanistan as a Just War in which a group of allies are responding to unprovoked attacks by a ruthless enemy.
Obama said that "the belief that peace is desirable is rarely enough to achieve it." He acknowledged that "evil exists in the world" and so the civilized nations must be prepared to defend themselves. He noted that "a non-violent movement could not have halted Hitler's armies." And Obama admitted that diplomacy may not be enough to halt Iran and N. Korea.
A Just War is defined as one that is justified for self-defense or for overall maintenance of peace. To be just, a war must be fought as a last resort, i.e. after all attempts have been made to avoid war and to placate an enemy, and it must be fought in such a manner as to avoid loss of civilian life, and should be fought in a proportional manner, i.e without attempting to totally destroy an enemy, its culture or its habitations.
Israel's war for survival as a Jewish State from 1948 to Operation Cast Lead in 2008 in the face of constant Arab attacks has been just such a Just War! In this continuously ongoing war, the Arabs have tried on every occasion to destroy the State, its civilian population, its culture and its habitations. In contrast, Israel has responded in self-defense, has avoided civilian casualties (hence the small number of Arab casualties overall) and has not tried to destroy their villages, towns or cities.
Contrast the degree of destruction in Gaza and the West Bank with that of the destruction of the Kurdish areas in Iraq under Saddam Hussein. During the "Anfal campaign" of Arabization of Kurdish Iraq between 1987-8, Saddam had 4,000 Kurdish villages razed to the ground, murdered ca. 100,000 Kurdish men, women and children, and transferred the rest of the population. Israel has never done anything like this and so cannot be accused of anything other than waging a just war of self-defense and survival.
One of the criticisms of Israel in Operation Cast Lead was that the attack on Gaza was "disproportionate," but in fact relatively few civilians were killed (ca. 300-750 depending on the source), and while the destruction of property was extensive, it was not part of a campaign undertaken to destroy Gaza, but rather only in direct response to firing from those locations, i.e. in self-defense.
In the Goldstone Report, allegations of 36 serious cases of Israeli "war crimes" are cited, usually based only on Palestinian eyewitnesses without any corroboration. The IDF has investigated these 36 cases and by interviewing the participants (Arabs and IDF soldiers), and using photos and video taken at the time, has found 30 of these cases to be "baseless accusations" and the remaining 6 to have been "operational errors." These findings were presented to the UN Secty. General and the Head of the UN Commision of Human Rights and to ten other countries in a meeting in New York this week. A full Report will soon be finalized and distributed by the IDF. Israel is a civilized democracy that fights only if and when it has to for self-defense and survival and Israel's wars are just.
Happy Hanukkah to all my readers.
Obama said that "the belief that peace is desirable is rarely enough to achieve it." He acknowledged that "evil exists in the world" and so the civilized nations must be prepared to defend themselves. He noted that "a non-violent movement could not have halted Hitler's armies." And Obama admitted that diplomacy may not be enough to halt Iran and N. Korea.
A Just War is defined as one that is justified for self-defense or for overall maintenance of peace. To be just, a war must be fought as a last resort, i.e. after all attempts have been made to avoid war and to placate an enemy, and it must be fought in such a manner as to avoid loss of civilian life, and should be fought in a proportional manner, i.e without attempting to totally destroy an enemy, its culture or its habitations.
Israel's war for survival as a Jewish State from 1948 to Operation Cast Lead in 2008 in the face of constant Arab attacks has been just such a Just War! In this continuously ongoing war, the Arabs have tried on every occasion to destroy the State, its civilian population, its culture and its habitations. In contrast, Israel has responded in self-defense, has avoided civilian casualties (hence the small number of Arab casualties overall) and has not tried to destroy their villages, towns or cities.
Contrast the degree of destruction in Gaza and the West Bank with that of the destruction of the Kurdish areas in Iraq under Saddam Hussein. During the "Anfal campaign" of Arabization of Kurdish Iraq between 1987-8, Saddam had 4,000 Kurdish villages razed to the ground, murdered ca. 100,000 Kurdish men, women and children, and transferred the rest of the population. Israel has never done anything like this and so cannot be accused of anything other than waging a just war of self-defense and survival.
One of the criticisms of Israel in Operation Cast Lead was that the attack on Gaza was "disproportionate," but in fact relatively few civilians were killed (ca. 300-750 depending on the source), and while the destruction of property was extensive, it was not part of a campaign undertaken to destroy Gaza, but rather only in direct response to firing from those locations, i.e. in self-defense.
In the Goldstone Report, allegations of 36 serious cases of Israeli "war crimes" are cited, usually based only on Palestinian eyewitnesses without any corroboration. The IDF has investigated these 36 cases and by interviewing the participants (Arabs and IDF soldiers), and using photos and video taken at the time, has found 30 of these cases to be "baseless accusations" and the remaining 6 to have been "operational errors." These findings were presented to the UN Secty. General and the Head of the UN Commision of Human Rights and to ten other countries in a meeting in New York this week. A full Report will soon be finalized and distributed by the IDF. Israel is a civilized democracy that fights only if and when it has to for self-defense and survival and Israel's wars are just.
Happy Hanukkah to all my readers.
posted by Jack Cohen at 1:22 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home