Israel's Military Action is Appropriate

Ever since Israel struck back in the last two weeks at Hezbollah and Palestinian terrorist groups that have kidnapped Israeli soldiers and kept up an incessant barrage of rockets and missiles upon Israel from Gaza and southern Lebanon, various governments have criticized Israel's response as "excessive"' and "disproportionate."

Although several of Israel's critics have said Israel has a right to self-defense, they have not even hinted in which ways Israel should exercise it, except urging it to desist from its current military operations.

The reason for this is simple: the claims of disproportionate use of force are legally false and politically motivated. Claiming Israel has behaved disproportionately sidelines the real issue of Israel pursuing justifiable self-defense. Instead, it subjects Israel to a bogus test of proportionality which actually distorts the international legal concept of proportionality in war.

Proportionality is defined by the military objective, not the strength of the original aggression. For example, the unprovoked Japanese assault on Pearl Harbor did not limit America in its response to sinking a dozen Japanese warships and killing 2,500 Japanese, the size of the American losses sustained at Pearl Harbor. The US was entitled to wage unremitting war upon Japan until it achieved its objective, which was to have Japan relinquish its dreams of conquest and deprive it of the means to wage war on America - which is precisely what President Franklin Roosevelt did.

Therefore, if Hezbollah attacks Israel, as it has done here, it would be absurd to claim that Israel may return fire with only one bullet or one rocket or one artillery shell for each fired at it. Yet, in criticizing Israel for being disproportionate, this is essentially what its critics are saying.

All countries possess the right and duty of self-defense and the protection of their citizens from armed assault from external forces under Article 51 of the UN Charter. If Israel, as in the present case, is under such attack, proportionality means it can respond militarily with whatever use of force is reasonably required to deal with the assault to eliminate the danger and prevent its recurrence.

The claim that Israel is behaving excessively or disproportionately because more Lebanese than Israelis have been killed or because Israel has used more firepower than Hezbollah is false as a matter of law, history and morality.