Philosopher Yitzhak Melamed at the University of Chicago writes:
If anyone is wondering what motivates the Israeli army in bombarding civilians as in the recent massacre in Qana, read the following piece from Friday’s Jerusalem Post. Professor Asa Kasher, an Israeli philosopher and ethics expert explains why it is justified to obliterate villages by aerial bombardments - after the residents are ordered to run away - in order to avoid the use of infantry and possible casualties to the Israeli army. Indeed, it is possible to criticize the current Israeli policy of bombarding civilians - from the right.
Here is the article from the Jerusalem Post:
The man who wrote the IDF code of ethics, Professor Asa Kasher, has indicated
that in the current circumstances in southern Lebanon, provided the appropriate
precautions are taken, it may be "morally justified" to obliterate areas with high
concentrations of terrorists, even if civilian casualties result."I don't know what the truth is about the circumstances," Kasher stressed. "But
assuming that we warned the civilians and gave them enough time to leave, and
that the civilians who remained chose, themselves, not to leave, then there is no
reason to jeopardize the lives of the troops," he told The Jerusalem Post on
Thursday....Kasher admitted that the decision to bomb a house or town was quite
complicated, especially if there are citizens who wanted to leave but were
prohibited from doing so by Hizbullah."We should take into consideration that people want to leave and aren't allowed
to leave, and that changes the situation, but not on a grand scale," he said."There you can justify certain infantry attacks... but only if it doesn't dramatically increase the jeopardy of our troops. Something which is a slightly higher level of risk is acceptable, but something drastically higher is not acceptable."
Kasher told the Post that the IDF acts according to two sets of moral considerations. The first is the IDF's code of ethics, The Spirit of the IDF, which was written by Kasher and a committee of generals in the early 1990's. The guidelines enumerate such values as sanctity of human life, human dignity, and purity of arms. Additionally, the IDF takes international law into consideration, although Kasher noted that international law is directed more toward two countries fighting each other rather than a country fighting a guerrilla or terrorist group.
"There is an ingredient of international law that is well developed concerning classical wars to draw a distinction between combatants and civilians...However, in cases of acting against terror or guerrillas it is simply inapplicable, because the people on the other side are not combatants of a military organization."
Professor Kasher's views bear comparison (not favorable) to those of Alan Dershowitz.
Professor Kasher's primary work, outside "military ethics [sic]," appears to be in philosophy of language. At least Hezbollah commits its war crimes without window-dressing from philosophers.
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