Posted by
Cary Wesberry on Thursday, March 13, 2008 3:58:20 PM
Article 51 of the United Nations Charter guarantees its members “the inherent right to…individual self defense” against “an armed attack.” In January of 2006, Hamas was elected to govern the Palestinian Authority. After Israel ended its occupation of Gaza and removed all of its settlers, Hamas threw the Palestinian Authority out of the Gaza and assumed de facto as well as de jure control over the entire Gaza Strip. Its leaders then instructed its military wing to direct rockets at civilian targets in southern Israel. At first these rockets were Qassams with a relatively short range. Now they include Katyushas, which can reach to Israel’s large cities, including Ashkelon, with its population of 120,000 civilians. Hamas has officially declared that its policy is to develop or smuggle even longer range missiles capable of reaching Israel’s largest city Tel Aviv and its lifeblood, Ben Gurion Airport. It has promised to keep aiming its missiles at civilian targets until the Jewish state is finally destroyed.
If this is not an “armed attack” under Article 51, then I don’t know what is. The only argument against it being an armed attack is that rocketing civilian population centers, as Hamas is doing, is a war-crime. International law prohibits, even during a declared war, the deliberate targeting of civilians or the bombing of areas of civilian population centers with absolutely no military significance. But war-crimes may also constitute an armed attack: Hitler’s invasion of Poland was both, as the Nuremberg Tribunal determined. If anything, an armed attack that is also a war crime justifies the right of self defense even more than a mere armed attack.
Nor can it be said that these attacks on Israeli towns and cities are merely the work of individual terrorists or terrorist groups. The military wing of Hamas is in fact a terrorist organization, as the Untied States and the European Community have recognized. But since Hamas is in political and military control of the liberated Gaza Strip, the military wing of Hamas is also the official army of that government, as Hamas itself has proclaimed.
What then are Israel’s rights under international law, under the law of war, under historical precedents and under various treaties and human rights concepts? What have, and what would, other nations whose cities and towns were attacked by enemy rockets do? Israel certainly has the right to counterattack its enemy, destroy its capacity to fire rockets and engage in “belligerent reprisal.” The only constraint on Israeli action is “proportionality.” Israel’s military actions must be proportional. But proportional to what? Certainly not to the actual number of people who have thus far been killed or injured by rocket attacks. Israel has spent an enormous amount of money building shelters to protect against rockets. Close to a thousand rockets have been aimed at southern Israel in recent years. Each one of them had the capacity to kill dozens, if not hundreds of civilians. The fact that no Hamas rocket has yet hit a school bus, a kindergarten, an ambulance, a synagogue, or a school yard is simply happenstance. It is only a matter of time until this happens. No nation has to wait until the goals of its enemy are fulfilled before it engages in a proportional response. Proportion must be defined by reference to the threat posed by the enemy and not by the harm it has produced. No nation need allow its enemies to play Russian Roulette with its children.
Alan Dershowitz, the author of the article excerpted above, is correct in his assertions of Article 51 and Israel's availability of appropriate actions under the article. He's also correct about the fact there's no constructive criticism or suggestion about what Israel should do to defend its people. According to the UN, Israel has an obvious right to defend itself in the war declared on it by Hamas and the Palestinians. The world constantly tells Israel what it must not do, but never gives a clue as to what would be tolerable in the face of hundreds of missile attacks upon its civilians.
Apparently Israel is to sit and do nothing while, as Mr. Dershowitz states, it allows its "enemies to play Russian Roulette with is children." If just one of our cities here in America were under rocket attack from across the border (forgetting the chaos on the U.S.-Mexico border for a second) those civilians would be marching on Washington demanding a quick and final halt to those attacks by whatever means necessary. Can you imagine what the people of Miami would do if Cuba was lobbing rockets into schools and public parks on a daily basis, or at all? Do you have any idea what the military's response would be regardless of Democrats controlling Congress? George Bush would utterly destroy Cuba's ability to fire missiles ever again. Of that I can be pretty damn sure.
What does the government of Israel do to Palestine? I can assure you they're no better than the United Nations itself. The Knesset is run by the UN and other assorted liberal idiots who have only one thing on their minds; retaining power. It doesn't matter how many Jews die or how many missiles are launced at their people. Playing politics with lives is the best they will do under any circumstance it seems. Israel will receive no constructive criticism from the nations of the UN or from Condi Rice. No one is going to tell them they can fire back and defend themselves. The Palestinian terrorists must be protected at all costs, even at the cost of dead Jews and the fall of Israel.
If Israel won't defend itself then no one else will.