"Proportionality"

Merv at Prarie Pundit looks at the accusation that Israel has been responding in a "disproportionate" manner.

Let's have a pointless discussion about Gaza and begin it by talking about whether Israel's bombing is “disproportionate”.

To illustrate the meaninglessness of such a debate let us attempt to agree what “proportionate” would look like.

Would it be best if Israel were to manufacture a thousand or so wildly inaccurate missiles and then fire them off in the general direction of Gaza City? There is a chance, though, that since Gaza is more densely packed than Israel, casualties might be much the same as they are now, so although the ordnance would be proportionate, the deaths would not. Of course, if one of Gaza's rockets did manage to hit an Israeli nursery school at the wrong time (or the right time, depending upon how you look at it), then the proportionality issue would be solved in one explosion. Would you be happy then?

Hamas is a product of a dysfunctional Muslim society. That is not Israel's fault. Dealing with dysfunctional people is difficult anytime. When they are profound religious bigots who want only your destruction, then negotiations are not a viable answer to dealing with them. Ultimately Hamas must be destroyed for the Palestinians to have peace.

James Robbins has more on the "excessive force" argument.

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Regarding Israel’s excessive use of force (which Gen. Sec. Ban Ki-moon, and others, have alleged), one might ask for a definition of "excessive." If the definition is "more than necessary to be effective," then Israel has actually used insufficient force, since Hamas is still launching rockets (though nowhere near the “thousands” they threatened).

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That is a good argument.

I've read (and heard) any number of accusations leveled against Israel. Lack of proportionality is one. Another accused Israel of engaging in "collective punishment" (in violation of the Geneva Conventions) by their act of shooting back.

To me, it's obvious that the core of the argument is not based on any kind of misbehavior on the part of Israel, but on the mere fact that Israel exists. The stated arguments are window dressing, cited to justify hatred of Israel.

According to these people, Israel can do no right. If Israel had not done whatever triggered the latest criticism, the critics would have found something else to pick on.