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Should Israel Have Cooperated with Goldstone?

[Middle East Strategy at Harvard] Walter Reich - It will continue to be necessary to fight an enemy part of whose military strategy is to hide behind civilian shields. This is indeed the new face of war, and countries, even as they do everything possible to limit civilian casualties to a minimum, must find ways of defending themselves, their interests and especially their citizens. In his Nov. 5 debate with Dore Gold, Richard Goldstone seemed at a loss as to what would have constituted a "proportionate" response on the part of Israel. The definition of "proportionality" he had in mind seemed to make no sense in military terms. If a country, confronted with the challenge of this kind of warfare, concludes that it just can't fight, then that country will be unable to defend itself. In the case of Israel, such a decision would result in its destruction. It, and other countries facing this dilemma, will have to devise, in response to this new face of war, a new way of dealing with it - one that enables it to defend itself even as it minimizes, to the extent possible, civilian casualties. The writer, a former director of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, is Professor of International Affairs, Ethics and Human Behavior and Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at George Washington University.
2009-11-16 06:00:00
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