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Source: http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110004129
International Law Does Not Permit Deliberate Targeting of Civilians
(Wall Street Journal) Ruth Wedgwood - Under the mandate of UN Security Council Resolution 1373, states are no longer at liberty to serve as a landlord or a supply house in aiding terrorist groups. They must shut down terrorist financing and training, and arrest or exclude the actors who seek to maim and kill civilians as a political technique. Yet Syria has elevated the Arab League convention on terrorism, adopted in Cairo in April 1998, above its obligations to the UN. Syria and the Arab League are in a legal cul-de-sac. The international law of armed conflict does not permit the deliberate targeting of civilians by suicide bombings, no matter what the occasion or cause for struggle. Damascus must understand that it is not safe or sane to allow guerrilla leaders to set up command posts or training camps on its territory. Sovereign borders will not serve as a one-way valve for guerrilla attacks abroad. September 11 has changed the standards of state responsibility. All civilians, Israeli and Palestinian alike, deserve protection against suicide attacks. Terrorism is the deliberate use of force against protected persons. It is not defined by the political objectives of the actor. The standards of international humanitarian law and the law of armed conflict, set by treaty and international custom, make no exception for passionate liberators who wish to target seaside cafes crowded with Arab and Jewish civilians. The identity of the suicide bomber points out the tragedy of this intellectual and moral confusion. The bomber was a young Palestinian woman, with a life ahead of her. She was also a lawyer.