Proportionality

Israel has been criticized in some quarters (including a speech by Kofi Annan) for using too much force in Lebanon and Gaza. Without meaning to excuse Israeli acts that have seemed to me to be insensitive, misguided or callous, that criticism is wide of the mark.

Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni got it right when she said, "Proportionality is not compared to the event, but to the threat." (A letter in The New York Times made the point in a more sardonic fashion: "This bizarre calculus implies that if only more Israelis had been killed by Hezbollah rockets, there would be no moral quandary. ") The fact--not disputed by anyone--is that Hamas and Hezbollah have the destruction of Israel as their basic policy objective. It is also undisputed that both of those groups committed what international law defines as acts of war by firing rockets into Israel and by coming into the country to attack Israeli positions, kill Israeli troops and take prisoners.

True, neither Hamas nor Hezbollah are close to their goal of wiping Israel off the map, but should that lead the Israeli response--fully justified in international law--to be held back? When would Israel be justified in using the force it has been employing these past weeks? When hostile forces are at the outskirts of Beersheba, Haifa and Tel Aviv? Would any nation--even one much larger than Israel--tie its hands in that manner?

At the risk of boring you, I'll repeat what the Isaelis have said time after time (but which much of the world does not seem to be able to assimilate, although it is undisputed): Israel voluntarily withdrew from South Lebanon in 2000, to a border recognized by the UN. In 2005, Israel withdrew from Gaza, to a line recognized by the UN in the armistice of 1948. The UN called upon the Lebanese government (of which Hezbollah is a part) to disarm Hezbollah. Lebanonn has not done so. (It is probably unable to do so, but does that excuse the fact that a hostile army is in Lebanese territory, on Israel's border?) Israel has no territorial designs on Lebanon and has signified its acceptance of the idea of a Palestinian state. Hamas and Hezbollah have resolutely refused to take reciprocal positions vis-a-vis Israel.

News reports give casualty figures showing that a lot more Lebanese (and Gazan) civilians have been killed than Israeli citizens. Any death is a tragedy and I would not suggest that Palestinian or Lebanese lives are worth less than Israeli lives. But Israel has spent a lot more to protect its citizens than Arab nations have. After the First Gulf War, Israel instructed its citizens to construct "safe rooms" in every house and apartment. To deal with more serious threats, underground shelters have been built all over the nation. Those shelters are a big reason why more Israeli citizens have not been killed.

It strikes me that the world has stood by while Hamas and Hezbollah act like children reaching into a cage to tease the bear inside. The first twenty or thirty times, the bear may ignore them, or merely brush the bothersome hands away. But having done nothing to stop the teasing, the adults should not be shocked when the bear chomps down and takes of an arm.