Gaza: War Crimes or a Just War?

5 April 2024

Some would say that war itself is a crime; how can it be waged without murder?

In the 17th C Hugo Grotius affirmed St. Augustine’s (4th C) proposition that targeting non-combatants was evil, that suffering should be minimized, that the benefit of the war should exceed the cost, that if it could not be won it should not be initiated, etc. But there was no significant understanding of war crimes until the long world war in the 20th C.

The famous Geneva Conventions are the consensus of how “civilized” states conduct war without commission of barbarous brutality, either toward the combatants rendered helpless, or to the non-combatants. The Conventions establish war as the purview of states; non-states cannot conduct a Just War nor can persons not in the uniform of their state.

The media are totally propagandistic these days. Witness the meme of Gaza.

Hamas is the only one committing war crimes. Israel has been sacrificially fastidious to minimize innocent deaths, while Hamas has a goal of increasing its own civilian casualties. The Hamas charter is explicit in basing its own existence on genocide – annihilation of Israel is the raison d’etre.

Russia is conducting similar crimes in Ukraine, but is never condemned for targeting civilians or using non-uniformed combatants or the taking of hostages.

The Palestinians have never accepted the existence of Israel. Ever. Therefore, those who speak of a “Two State” solution are irrational at best, or deceitful. Here’s the history [1]:

* 1937: Palestinians were offered 70% of territory, which they rejected with violence

* 1947: Zionists accepted the 55% that is desert. Palestinians rejected the fertile 45% and went to war.

* 2000: Palestinians offered about 20 % but launched the second intifada

Historical note: Prior to 1918, Jews and Arabs lived throughout the Middle East. Most of the territory belonged to the Ottoman Empire, which divided the area we now call “Palestine” into three: Mutasarrifflak of Jerusalem. The Beirut Wilayah, and the Damascus Wilayah.

After 1918, the British Mandatory Palestine was created to govern what was to become Israel, Jordan, Gaza, Judea, and Samaria. During this period. “Palestinian” was used for the Jews who purchased land there. The Arabs living there self identified as “Syrians” before WW I and as “Jordanians” until Israel won the 1967 War. “On June 4, 1967, I was a Jordanian, and overnight I became a Palestinian.” [2] BTW, Yasser Arafat, leader of the PLO for decades, was born in Egypt.

1. Interview with Benny Morris, “History Goes to War in the Holy Land,” by Elliot Kaufman, Wall Street Journal, March 30-31, 2024.

2. Ed Weintraub , “Here’s how the Palestinians got their name,” in The Jewish Star, April 3, 2023.