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Israel's Right to Self-Defense

(Jerusalem Post) Harry Reicher - Article 51 of the UN Charter enshrines "the inherent right" of self-defense. The occurrence of "an armed attack" triggers the right. Israel's incursion into Gaza last year was in response to several thousand rockets which had been fired from there into Israel over a period of years. Does it make sense, and is it realistic, to expect a country - any country - to sit passively and not respond as thousands of missiles rain down on it or as suicide bombers wreak their ghoulish horror? Does it make sense to give terrorist organizations carte blanche to use civilian populations as human shields with impunity, secure in the knowledge that that is enough to prevent a military response? And is all of this consonant with the most basic human instinct of self-preservation? To articulate these questions is sufficient. They really answer themselves. The writer, an Australian barrister, teaches international human rights at the University of Pennsylvania Law School and is scholar-in residence at Touro Law Center.
2010-01-12 09:58:35
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