Proportionality

Critics have been complaining that Israel's attacks in Gaza violate the principle of proportionality. The same complaint was made during the Lebanon war of 2006. Now, I'm not a big fan of Israeli policies. Settlements in occupied territory are a crime against humanity, for example. But the principle of proportionality is not applicable in Gaza.

Think of it this way. Someone who hates you comes up to you and offers to let you cut off his pinky if he can cut off yours. Of course you refuse. Quick as a wink he pulls out a cleaver and lopps your finger off. When the police show up they say you have the right to cut off his finger, and no more. Somehow this proportionality principle is making your enemy pretty happy. Tomorrow he will come take another finger.

A better way to justify how much force is acceptable is the principle of minimal deterrence. You should retaliate with the least force which will deter future aggression and no more. In many cases the retaliation can be less that the original attack and still provide a sufficient deterrent. Nuclear weapons among civilized nations fall into this category.

But against Palestinian militants, 1 to 1 is certainly not a sufficient deterrent. They would be thrilled to have such a ratio and would gladly sacrifice martyr after martyr for the opportunity to kill Israeli civilians.

Hopefully the minimal ratio is not too large.