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There Are Times when Civilization Depends on the Use of Lethal Force

(Telegraph-UK) Charles Moore - On Thursday, 809 former judges, KCs, barristers, solicitors and academic lawyers wrote an open letter to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak "reminding" him of his "obligations" under international law in relation to Israel's actions in Gaza and called for him to suspend "the provision of weapons and weapons systems to the government of Israel." By way of legal justification, the letter cited the "provisional order" of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in January which, it alleged, "concluded that there was plausible risk of genocide in Gaza." No, that is wrong, says Joshua Rozenberg, the Telegraph's former legal affairs editor. The phrase "plausible risk" does not occur in the ICJ's order. The court could not possibly have come to this view, as it had not heard evidence and made a judgment. All it decided was that South Africa's arguments for making a case before it were plausible enough to be heard. This suggests that the letter is political, and part of a wider political campaign. The help we get from the Israelis is greater than what we give them. We have a deep level of trust and technological synergy in intelligence. Do we want to break that trust? By breaking our arms trade with Israel, we would be sending a signal to other clients that when they get into difficult situations, we are ready to drop them. To resist the power of evil, it is sometimes absolutely necessary to use lethal force. Unfortunately, it is not the case, particularly when fighting people such as Hamas who have no scruples about murdering civilians or using them as human shields, that lethal force can always be neatly contained. If our societies cannot accept this, our own armies will be reduced to toothless peace-keeping forces and there will be precious little peace for them to keep.
2024-04-09 00:00:00
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