Moral quagmire, Part 2

This piece — posted on Juan Cole’s informed comment is worth reading, following on what I wrote earlier today.

Here is moral fallacy No. 1, starring the Israelis:

Look at this logic: since Israel has asked civilians to leave, any that disobeyed have forfeited their status as civilians. Because the United States and its British followers have blocked the resolution to stop the killing, Israel will continue until Hezbollah “is no longer present.” But remember Hezbollah has been redefined to include all those “still in south Lebanon.” This crude logic renders all the people of southern Lebanon hominus sacres.

Moral fallacy No, 2, starring Hezbollah:

On his web log informedcomment.com, Juan Cole argued on Monday that since Hezbollah fighters cannot effectively aim their rockets, and since they must understand they are most likely to hit civilians, they are therefore guilty of war crimes themselves. Hezbollah leaders would undoubtedly respond that they are not intentionally targeting civilians. From the beginning of the war, Israeli leaders have justified the deaths of Lebanese civilians by claiming that they also never target civilians; it is simply that Hezbollah fights from civilian areas and there is a lot of collateral damage when they are targeted.

Hezbollah is guilty in this regard, therefore, on two counts: It knows that it is likely killing civilians, but opts to shoot its rockets; and it fires from civilian areas guaranteeing that Israelis will fire back, targeting civilians — an ugly calculus.

If Israel can claim the moral high ground — and that is one huge if — it is only by virtue of its being attacked first, though it has engaged in plenty of bad behavior leading up to the crisis in the first place.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press

Author: hankkalet

Hank Kalet is a poet and freelance journalist. He is the economic needs reporter for NJ Spotlight, teaches journalism at Rutgers University and writing at Middlesex County College and Brookdale Community College. He writes a semi-monthly column for the Progressive Populist. He is a lifelong fan of the New York Mets and New York Knicks, drinks too much coffee and attends as many Bruce Springsteen concerts as his meager finances will allow. He lives in South Brunswick with his wife Annie. View all posts by hankkalet