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C a s e 2  JUSTIFICATIONS FOR W AR Case 2: Justfications for War 49 Case Study A. Just War Since 1941, the United States has engaged in a variety of military conflicts, some of that were clearly justifiable, and some less so. They have included: World War II (1941–45), the Korean War (1950–53), the Vietnam War (early 1960s–1975), the invasion of Grenada (1983), the first Iraq invasion in 1990–1991 (Operation Desert Storm), the Bosnian War (1995), the War in Afghanistan (beginning in 2001), and the second Iraq invasion, which began in 2003. Since its founding in 1948, Israel has also engaged in a variety of military actions, including: The War of Independence (1948–49), the Suez Canal Crisis (1956), the Six-Day War (1967), the Yom Kippur War (1973), the invasion of Lebanon (1982), responses to the First Intifada (beginning in 1989) and the Second Intifada (beginning in 2000), the second Lebanon invasion (2006), and the invasion of Gaza (2008–2009). What are the criteria that make a war just? Have they changed in light of modern technological developments in weapons and communications? Given those developments, which, if any, of the following would be just rationales for abandoning diplomacy and engaging in war? • Your country is being invaded by another country. • Your country has been subjected to a blockade of all of your points of entry. • Your country has been subjected to an economic boycott by all surrounding countries. • Citizens of your country have been taken hostage by another country and threatened with execution. • Your country has been made a subject colony by another country that will not relinquish control peacefully. • Some of the population in your territory wants to secede and establish their own country, but the majority does not want to let them. • Another country in which your country has a vested interest is invaded by a third country. 50 Jewish Choices, Jewish Voices: WAR AND NATIONAL SECURITY • Another country in which your country does not have any economic interests or to which your country has no treaty obligations is invaded by a third country that has threatened genocide. • Your country is aware that another country’s government is committing acts of genocide against its own people. B. Self-Defense When the State of Israel was founded, David Ben-Gurion decreed a doctrine of tohar ha-neshek, saying that military force may be used only in self-defense. Known as “purity of arms,” this principle is encoded in the Israel Defense Forces’ code of conduct, which calls for a proportional response to violence and humane behavior in combat. This doctrine raises many questions concerning the justifications for war. For example: • What is the moral principle behind Ben-Gurion’s doctrine? • What constitutes self-defense? • What constitutes a proportional response? • Can offensive or preemptive actions be part of a strategy for self-defense? • What new developments in weapons technology make this doctrine difficult to follow? • Is Ben-Gurion’s doctrine feasible in today’s world? Case 2: Justfications for War 51 Traditional Sources Compiled by Uzi Weingarten and the Editors The Centrality of Peace 1. Midrash, Numbers Rabbah 11:7 Great is peace, for all blessings are contained in it … Great is peace, for God’s Name is peace. 2. Psalms 34:15 Seek peace and pursue it. 3. Jerusalem Talmud, Pe’ah 1:1 [4a] The Law does not order you to run after or pursue the other commandments , but only to fulfill them on the appropriate occasion. But peace you must seek in your own place and pursue it even to another place as well. 4. The Kaddish May the One who brings peace to the universe bring peace to us and to all the people Israel. And let us say: Amen. The Nature of Peace 5. Isaiah 2:3–4 For instruction shall come forth from Zion, The word of the LORD from Jerusalem. Thus He will judge among the nations And arbitrate for the many peoples, And they shall beat their swords into plowshares And their spears into pruning hooks: Nation shall not take up Sword against nation; They shall never again know war. 6. Micah 4:2–5 (same as Isaiah 2:2–4, and then the following:) But every man shall sit Under his grapevine or fig tree With no one to disturb him. For it was the LORD of Hosts who spoke. Though all the peoples walk 52 Jewish Choices, Jewish Voices: WAR AND NATIONAL SECURITY Each...

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