Israel Can Claim Moral High Ground (in spite of the media)
Can any war be fought with a semblance of claiming the moral high ground? Maybe a better way to put that would be to ask can ANY action of war be considered “just?”
Augustine answered this centuries ago saying basically that “when it came to individual self-defense, Christian charity demanded that one's own life or property was never a justification for killing one's neighbor. But when one speaks of rulers of nations they have the obligation to maintain peace. This obligation gives them the right to wage war.”
He went on to posit numerous criteria that if met, would constitute a “just war.”
War is an inevitable fact of life on a fallen planet and God Himself even instigated and demanded various wars throughout history. That’s a little fact of Biblical review of which most people would rather remain ignorant.
As it happens, the modern historical record of Israel shows it uses tremendous restraint when it defends itself, but defend itself it will. It is beyond argument—when one considers fact and not ideological fiction, that Israel is and always has been defensive.
The current war with Lebanon is but one example. After Israel received indisputable proof of Hezbollah rockets being launched from within the confines of a civilian community, Israel had every moral right to remove those weapons. To their credit they did not do so until they warned the citizens of those communities to leave, as attack was imminent.
Two gigantic points to be noted; Hezbollah purposely set those rocket launchers amongst their own civilian population making that community a valid military target. To these Islamic extremists, the only thing that matters is exterminating infidels, defined as anyone who does not believe in Allah. The collateral damage that occurred should be directly assigned to the Hezbollah, not Israel.
Never the less, when it was discovered that civilians were killed in the attack, Israel halted further attacks and apologized for the death of civilians. That is something you never hear from Islamic terrorists for they have no compunction about killing men women and children and in fact, actually target them then brag about their deaths celebrating the like as a successful attack.
Yes, you can fight a war in a moral way. Israel is a good—I didn’t say perfect—example.
Augustine answered this centuries ago saying basically that “when it came to individual self-defense, Christian charity demanded that one's own life or property was never a justification for killing one's neighbor. But when one speaks of rulers of nations they have the obligation to maintain peace. This obligation gives them the right to wage war.”
He went on to posit numerous criteria that if met, would constitute a “just war.”
War is an inevitable fact of life on a fallen planet and God Himself even instigated and demanded various wars throughout history. That’s a little fact of Biblical review of which most people would rather remain ignorant.
As it happens, the modern historical record of Israel shows it uses tremendous restraint when it defends itself, but defend itself it will. It is beyond argument—when one considers fact and not ideological fiction, that Israel is and always has been defensive.
The current war with Lebanon is but one example. After Israel received indisputable proof of Hezbollah rockets being launched from within the confines of a civilian community, Israel had every moral right to remove those weapons. To their credit they did not do so until they warned the citizens of those communities to leave, as attack was imminent.
Two gigantic points to be noted; Hezbollah purposely set those rocket launchers amongst their own civilian population making that community a valid military target. To these Islamic extremists, the only thing that matters is exterminating infidels, defined as anyone who does not believe in Allah. The collateral damage that occurred should be directly assigned to the Hezbollah, not Israel.
Never the less, when it was discovered that civilians were killed in the attack, Israel halted further attacks and apologized for the death of civilians. That is something you never hear from Islamic terrorists for they have no compunction about killing men women and children and in fact, actually target them then brag about their deaths celebrating the like as a successful attack.
Yes, you can fight a war in a moral way. Israel is a good—I didn’t say perfect—example.
posted by PB at 12:50 PM
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