|
Trending Topics
|
Source: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1061377.html
The War Crimes Fiction
[Ha'aretz] Yehuda Ben Meir - The use of the terms "war crime" or "crime against humanity" in connection with Israel's act of self-defense against an armed terrorist organization acting from an area crowded with civilians is not only a distortion of the truth, it is also a moral perversion of the first order. People who say international law was violated during the Gaza operation are the ones using international law cynically for purposes that have nothing to do with concerns about the morality of warfare. The true moral question is who is the aggressor and who has implemented the right to self-defense. President Harry Truman ordered the dropping of two atomic bombs on Japan to spare the lives of American soldiers; the justification for this was anchored in the fact that Japan was responsible for the war. Of course it must be regretted that women and children were killed. But the responsibility for all the killing and suffering is solely that of the aggressor, Hamas. No civilian who was harmed is weighing on the Israeli conscience. This is the truth that lets us walk with our heads high. The writer is a senior research fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies.