Israel's "Greatest Generation"

The "greatest generation" of Americans--those who defeated German and Japanese Nazism--found it necessary to kill some civilians in order to destroy military targets. They went even further, sometimes targeting German and Japanese civilians in retaliation for the targeting of civilians by our fascist enemies. I cannot justify the firebombing of Tokyo and Dresden, or the nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but I can say with confidence that if our greatest generation had imposed on it the rules that some in the international community, the media and the blogs would impose on Israel, we would have lost World War II. Listen to the absurd statement made by Louise Arbour, the UN's High Commissioner for Human Rights. She claims that international law prohibits "the bombardment of sites with alleged military significance, but resulting invariably in the killing of innocent civilians."

If this constraining principle had been applied to the U.S. during World War II, we would not have been able to bomb any enemy military targets that were close to any civilians. That is not the law, nor should it be. If the law was as Arbour and others say it is, that would wonly encourage terrorist armies like Hezbollah to fire its anti-personnel rockets from behind civilians, thus resulting in even more civilian deaths. It would also tie the hands of democracies seeking to protect their civilians from being targeted. A nation defending its civilians has the right and obligation to destroy all rocket launchers that target its civilians, even if some civilians may be killed in the process. The only obligation is to warn the civilians and to try to minimize civilian casualties, consistent with the military objectives.

I urge you all to read this proposed speech from Israel's Ma'ariv newspaper.