Just War?

When I studied the theory of a just war many years ago, I recall reflecting on the way in which one of the traditional conditions for a just war is understood today. It is sometimes expressed today in the form that the expected war must not inflict more harm than would otherwise be suffered, or that the harm inflicted by the war must be "proportionate" to the evil that it is intended to resist. This suggests some kind of calculation of harm, which seems impossible to do effectively.

This never seemed to me to really get to the point of what "proportionate" meant in this case. To me, the point seemed to be that, if a nation was attacked, it was entitled to take up a military defense that really was a resistance to the evil being perpetrated against itself. So, if Israel is being attacked by rockets and mortars from the Gaza strip, they are entitled to take actions that will prevent or alleviate the launch of those rockets and mortar shells. This might take the form of targetting launching sites and units, and perhaps storage and logistical supply lines for those sites and units. Wholesale, generalised air strikes against targets in the Gaza strip fail to meet this demand of actually, fairly directly resisting the evil being perpetrated. Indeed, listening to the BBC radio news today, one Israeli spokeswoman explicitly referred to "retaliation" as a way of characterising the Israeli action. [Her context was one of asking whether or not Britain would stand by and not retaliate if her territory was being subjected to attack by some 150 rockets and mortars within a 24 hour period.]

The current situation in Gaza is reminiscent of that in Lebanon, when Israel decided to attack Hezbollah. Widespread air strikes, and ground incursions, did not prevent the rocket attacks against Israel, and caused a huge extent of suffering to the Lebanese people.

So, I condemn the Israeli action completely. The actions of those who are launching the rocket and mortar attacks on Israel are also to be condemned, and they must be considered partly responsible for the situation that has arisen. But I feel that the Israeli action is particularly to be condemned because of its systematic nature, sanctioned by a well established mandate from a political leadership in a democratic nation.