haaretz/opinion/.premium-1.614989 a friend sent me this: Not simply citing Hamas statistics. Also citing anti-Israel propaganda, eg, “Can you wage war when the population has no place to escape to, in violation of Maimonides’ clear dictum that refuge must always be available even to our worst enemies – and certainly to a civilian population?” (it’s worth sending him the handy map of strikes on Gaza. Of course they had places to which to escape.) But I would like to ask him to ask one more question: When he asks What is the Jewish justification – I see none – in dropping a bomb when it is known that it will certainly kill the wife and eight month-old baby of a terrorist leader, is he aware that such an action is considered both ethical and lawful by all non-Jewish cultures and under international humanitarian law? Is he aware that collateral harm to civilians is a part of all modern warfare, and despite a fairly extensive Jewish literature on the ethics of war, there is not a single source supporting his intimation that Jewish ethics demands zero collateral damage in warfare (indeed, as Rabbi Bleich wrote in an essay “there exists no discussion in classical rabbinical sources that takes cognizance of the likelihood of causing civilian casualties in the course of hostilities)? What are the moral implications of denouncing as unethical all realistic forms of militarily defending the civilian population of Israel? What are the moral implications of publicly denouncing as immoral — on the basis of zero sources — an action that the non-Jewish world is already hypocritically (and inaccurately) calling illegal on the basis of a double standard against the Jewish state? Does the self-righteous denouncer bear any responsibility for strengthening the double standard? Does it make a difference when we know that the double standard imposes penalties on the innocent, in the form of economic and penal sanctions (against Israelis)? Does it make a difference when we know that the double standard imposes penalties on the innocent in the form of violent antisemitism?
Posted on: Thu, 11 Sep 2014 10:05:55 +0000
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