Fighting the Moral Fight

Title: Beyond Proportionality: Israel’s Just War in Gaza By: Thane Rosenbaum Wicked Sun Publishers 304 pages

Professor Thane Rosenbaum’s extraordinary book is a must-read for those who care to understand Israel’s justifiable response to the October 7 massacre by Hamas of 1,200 innocent Israelis and the kidnapping of another 250.

The word “proportionality” in the context of October 7 is a dog whistle to those who wish to blood libel the State of Israel and Jews around the world. The now familiar global accusation that Israel had no right to overwhelmingly besiege and destroy Gaza and its so-called innocent population in its mission to defeat Hamas is an integral part of Hamas’s strategy for waging war against Israel and the Jews.

The book deals forcefully and candidly with Israel’s military response in Gaza – its mission to free the hostages and to rid itself, the Middle East, and the Western world at large of the scourge that is Hamas. Rosenbaum seeks to defend Israel from the libelous accusation by the international community that its response has been “disproportionate.” In this eye-opening book, the reader finds the legal and moral justification for Israel's response, which is shown to be not disproportionate at all.

As Rosenbaum, a prolific writer, legal scholar, and a professor at Touro College, where he directs the Forum on Life, Culture & Society, points out, for Hamas, waging war against Israel has never been, nor is it now, a local war. Not at all. The accusations of “disproportionality” are an integral part of the war playbook of Hamas and its “fellow travelers,” including Hezbollah, the Houthis, Iran, and their allies at the United Nations.

Indeed, the October 7 massacre was no more and no less than a blip on the radar screen for Hamas, which has been waging war against Israel since its creation in 1987 – in Israel proper and against the Jews the world over, and against the Western nations as well. These Western societies are not only identified as allies of Israel, they are also perceived by Hamas as infidels, who must be eliminated so that a Muslim caliphate can be established across the world.

This is a religious war. A battle to the death. A zero-sum game in which only one side will survive.

Thus, it is not disproportionate for Israel to defend itself in Gaza with overwhelming force to send their own proportionate message: that Israel will leave no stone unturned until every last Hamas terrorist is either brought to justice or brought to his grave, wherever he may be – in Gaza, Israel, Europe, or anywhere else.

The book cites the famous progressive left-wing Israeli writer Amos Oz, who has, in my opinion, finally come to his senses in realizing that even he cannot make peace with an Arab enemy who seeks only to murder him, his family, and his people. Oz, Rosenbaum shares, was interviewed by a major German media outlet, Deutscher Welle. He was asked by the interviewer what he thought about IDF strikes that resulted in the deaths of Palestinian children, and whether Israel’s response was excessive. Oz turned the tables by asking his own two questions: “Question one: What would you do if your neighbor across the street sits down on his balcony, puts a little boy in his lap, and start firing a machine gun into your nursery? Question two: What would you do if your neighbor across the street digs a tunnel from his street in order to blow up your home or in order to kidnap your family?” When this famous left-wing author is prepared to admit that Hamas is an existential enemy, and Israel’s very existence and the lives of its citizens are hanging in the balance, there is no issue of proportionality.

The book references Hiroshima, where the Americans wiped out hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children in a desperate attempt to finally end the war and save the lives of hundreds of thousands of American soldiers who would otherwise have been killed by the Japanese, who were never going to surrender otherwise.

The book also references the carpet-bombing of Dresden, a city in Germany, where the British created wind tunnels in order for the fire generated by the bombs to blow inside the houses and intentionally incinerate civilians living in their homes.

We all know that “History is written by the victors,” and therefore nobody was going to call the Americans or the British into the Nuremberg trials for committing war crimes. Every right-minded person realized that World War II was a just war, and everything possible needed to be done to defeat the Germans and the Japanese and end the war as quickly as possible. This, in order to break the resistance of the enemy – the soldiers as well as the civilians – who cheerfully sent their children to war, even as they realized that their battle was lost.

This book covers a lot of ground. It describes, in law school fashion, the articles of international law under scrutiny, and reminds us of the unrelenting attacks against Jews by Hamas and its agents throughout the world. The 10 chapters cover subjects such as the laws of war concerning fighting terrorists shielded by civilians and how the United Nations is always ready to condemn Israel, actually a euphemism for antisemitism.

Professor Rosenbaum has taught us all a lesson: that where there is an existential threat, and the enemy does not confine its battle to one location, but wages its war against worldwide Jewry, this enemy must be totally destroyed, and proportionality is nothing more than a feeble excuse to prevent Israel from protecting itself.