War & Responsibility
Who is to blame for the deaths of innocents in Gaza..
Who's to blame for the civilian deaths casued by Israel's latest air-strike against a Hamas leader? Perhaps Hamas? Interesting reading, citing "international" law.

From the article.....

The criticism that focuses on the noncombatant Arab deaths in the Gaza raid contains within it a moral posturing that asserts that Israel was wrong to endanger Arab noncombatants in its strike against Shehadeh. On the contrary, I suggest that it would have been supremely immoral to have allowed an opportunity to eliminate one of the heads of the Hamas to pass by, even if he attempted to use his family and other noncombatants as human shields. Any decision to forego the strike because of the fear of killing noncombatant neighbors of the enemy leader would have been tantamount to sacrificing Israeli civilians for the sake of Arab civilians. Israeli defense minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer revealed today that Shehadeh was in the process of planning a mega-terror attack. The strike against the Hamas leader, therefore, was timed to prevent that eventuality, with the understanding that hesitation may have cost many Israeli lives. Clearly, the potential Israeli victims of Shehadeh-masterminded terrorism are, properly, the priority of the Israeli government, not the Arab lives that PLO and Hamas terrorists endanger by their choice of headquarters.

This understanding of the Israeli raid is not just the province of Israelis. International law, according to Professor Louis Rene Beres of Purdue University, supports the right of a state to strike its enemies, even as they hide among noncombatants. In an article entitled, "Atrocities, Retaliations and the Laws of War," Prof. Beres explains, "The Hague Regulations in the Laws of War allow 'ruses,' but disallow treachery or perfidy." What is "perfidy" in war? "Perfidy." the professor writes, "includes such treacherous practices as improper use of the white flag, feigned surrender or pretending to have civilian status. It especially constitutes perfidy to shield military targets from attack by placing or moving them into densely populated areas or to purposely move civilians near military targets." The result of the act of "perfidy" on the part of the PLO and Hamas is "[e]xemption (in this case, for Israel) from the normally operative rules on targets." In short, Professor Beres concludes, "the legal responsibility for this tragedy lies entirely with those whose perfidious conduct brought about such harms. [While] Israel has the right and the obligation under national and international law to protect its citizens from criminal acts of terrorism."