The war on Gaza in US politics and in international law

Simone Zimmerman discusses her film Israelism (1), which looks at how many young develop a complicated relationship with Israel, whose actions in the current war have drastically affected the view Americans including Jews take of Israel.

... one of the founders of the organization, IfNotNow (one of the leading Jewish organizations advocating for justice in Israel-Palestine), and who served as the national president of J Street U. Zimmerman was deeply involved with Zionist organizations in the Conservative branch of Judaism in her youth and as a member of her campus Israel Action Committee in her early days in college. (2)

Benjamin Wittes, editor-in-chief of Lawfare, reviews international-law questions raised by the current Gaza War (3):




One of Israel’s standard talking points to justify any military action or atrocity it commits is to simply repeat, “Israel has the right to defend itself.” Which pretty much nobody disputes. This is a more effective talking point in a short war. But the war on Gaza civilians that began after the Hamas attacks of October 7 is already the longest war Israel has had, and there is currently no end in sight. Their standard PR lines have worn very thin.

So it’s helpful to hear Wittes’ (somewhat frustrating) explanations of the legal context. In an essay of his less than two weeks after the October 7 attack, (4) he gives a brief description of the complicated situation of Gaza under the governance of Hamas, “which won a legislative election in 2006 and seized executive power in a kind of coup the following year.” Facts like that are important, because some defenders of Israel’s current war argue that Gazans are collectively guilty for Hamas’ actions because the population elected them.

Wittes explained how he viewed the conflict in its historical context:

... I start with this portrait [of the legal and historical background] to emphasize the extreme asymmetry of the conflict now unfolding in Gaza: the truly deranged nature of Hamas’s decision to initiate a war against the region’s preemin(3)ent military power—and to do so in a fashion of almost unimaginable brutality that necessarily brings the full weight of Israeli military power against a territory, teeming with civilians, which the militia cannot possibly hope to defend; the impossibility of an effective Israeli military operation in Gaza without horrifying civilian death and destruction; and the concurrent impossibility of refraining from conducting such an operation given the extreme proximity of these two populations across this line and the need to prevent similar atrocities in the future.

These are the conditions against which we have to consider the strategy, law, and morality of Israeli military operations in Gaza ...

It is important both to separate strategy, law, and morality, for they are not co-extensive with one another, but also to consider them in interaction, for they do not exist in isolation from one another in a situation like this one. There are steps, for example, that are lawful but not moral. Conversely, there may be steps that are morally defensible but are prohibited by international humanitarian law. And there are, in my judgment anyway, a great many steps that are moral in the context of a viable strategic framework but not outside of it. [my emphasis]

And he argued that:

... Israel’s friends do it no favors in excusing brutality in the current campaign because of the legitimate self-defense rationale that lies behind the operation. Indeed, in acknowledging that self-defense justifies military actions in which civilians are going to die, I do not mean in any way to argue that Israel is morally or legally entitled to respond however it sees fit. There are significant legal constraints on Israeli action. And there is, in my view anyway, even before those come into play, a high-level moral proposition that people often skate over because it has no enforcement mechanism other than politics and because it is not embedded in any known legal principle. [my emphasis]

Notes:

(1) Why so many young Jews are turning on Israel-Simone Zimmerman-The Big Picture S4E7. Middle East Eye YouTube channel 04/25/2024. <https://youtu.be/Zqg0IvUiVWY?si=XKe7UxnAt8xSnoDl> (Accessed: 28-04-2024).

(2) Hess, Tobias (2024): American Jewish Peace Archive: Simone Zimmerman. The Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and Humanities/Bard College 02/03/2024. <https://hac.bard.edu/amor-mundi/american-jewish-peace-archive-simone-zimmerman-2024-02-03> (Accessed: 28-04-2024).

(3) Benjamin Wittes — Israel, Gaza and Implications for U.S. Foreign and Domestic Policy. Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs YouTube channel. <https://youtu.be/TfBkqP7OTVA?si=5haAF0LgAaPU7g6Y> (Accessed: 28-04-2024).

(4) Wittes, Benjamin (2023): On Strategy, Law, and Morality in Israel’s Gaza Operation. Lawfare 10/17/2023. <https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/on-strategy-law-and-morality-in-israel-s-gaza-operation> (Accessed: 2024-01-05).