What is legitimate defense?

While correctly decrying Israel’s use of “half-hearted, indecisive” responses to Hamas violence (“The next Israeli War,” Observations, April 13), Lior Akerman pejoratively calls these weak responses “proportional force.” Others claim that the number of Palestinians who have died at the Gaza border in recent weeks is proof that Israel is guilty of using disproportionate force.

It is reasonable to view the current demonstrations as part of Hamas’s violent efforts to destroy Israel. The law of proportionality in war speaks to the way combatants conduct or respond to attacks, not to comparative casualty figures.

Israel has the right to defend itself. The general rule is this: Defensive actions must be proportional to the overall legitimate objective of ending aggression. There is no absolute prohibition on civilian deaths. Proportionate attacks against legitimate military targets are permitted even if civilians inevitably will be harmed.

A defending force is not required to wait to suffer harm (e.g., Israel doesn’t have to wait for Hamas to break through the Gaza fence and infiltrate the surrounding area), nor is it required to inflict only the level of casualties that it has suffered (otherwise, the aggressor would control the conflict by inflicting only the level of damage it is willing to absorb in response).

Protecting one’s country is not a fencing match in which both sides are required to use the same weapons. The strategy of a defensive war is to inflict heavy military losses on the other side as quickly as possible so that the enemy will stop its aggression. The fact that Hamas members and supporters have ratcheted up the intensity of their violence at the border demonstrates that IDF actions have not yet achieved that goal.

Indiscriminate shooting would be inexcusable, if this is what happened. The extent to which the IDF employed non-lethal crowd-dispersal methods before resorting to live fire is unclear. Innocent civilian deaths are regrettable and must be avoided wherever possible. However, the mere fact that they occurred is not, in itself, proof that the IDF acted improperly in attempting to prevent violent incursions.