Regarding "Self-Defense"

The US and other Western countries provide carte blanche support—financially, militarily, by UN voting, by public statements, by leaders' personal visits—to Israel's "right to self-defense." However, US and other Western countries at best equivocate regarding any right of Palestinians in the West Bank and in Gaza to defend themselves against decades-long, militarily-enforced Israeli expansion into Palestinian territory and confinement of Palestinians themselves. Current US claims that Israel's war is against Hamas and not against Palestinians is wishful thinking and actually no more than verbal hair-splitting.

Here are some representative quotes from various linked commentaries—listed chronologically from latest to earliest—followed by my own brief [bracketed] comments:

Michael N. Schmitt, Lieber Institute - West Point (Oct 10, 2023): “Israel – Hamas 2023 Symposium – The Legal Context of Operations Al-Aqsa Flood and Swords of Iron”

“Concluding Thoughts

I believe that Hamas had no international law right to launch Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, while Israel was entirely within its rights to mount Operation Swords of Iron. The hostilities that have resulted are best classified as a non-international armed conflict. At the time of the attack, Israel was not occupying Gaza but may qualify as an occupying power if it moves into that area and controls it effectively. Each of these conclusions, however, is subject to reasonable disagreement or qualification. Sadly, much of the commentary on the conflict, especially on social media, has been far from reasonable and often inflammatory.” [I appreciate the penultimate sentence’s acknowledgement about being “subject to reasonable disagreement or qualification.” This commentary is written from the author’s U.S. military viewpoint. Viewed from within the towering separation walls snaking through the West Bank and from within blockaded Gaza (now being militarily decimated)---as well as from most of the rest of the world’s position, evidenced by countless proposed UN resolutions opposed by the US alone—the legal, moral, humanitarian, economic, military, and historical aspects of the matter look quite different.]

Ihsan Adel, Law for Palestine (October 8, 2023): “Do Palestinians have the right to resist, and what are the limits? Short article”

“Right to resist, including armed resistance: Yes. Right to indiscriminately kill or target civilians: No. It’s as simple as that.” [While published a day after the October 7 Hamas attack in southern Israel, clearly this “short article” was composed earlier. There is no mention of what transpired on October 7, but surely the article would have condemned how Hamas fighters “indiscriminately kill[ed] or target[ed] civilians.”]

Greg Shupak, The Wire (May 16, 2021): “Palestinians Have A Right To Defend Themselves”

“In a statement issued Monday, US State Department spokesperson Ned Price condemned ‘in the strongest terms’ the rockets fired from Gaza into Israel. Urging ‘de-escalation on all sides,’ Price then delivered the standard recognition of ‘Israel’s legitimate right to defend itself and to defend its people and its territory.’ When the Washington bureau chief for Al-Quds daily asked whether Palestinians shared in the right to self-defense, Price’s response was equivocal, affirming that ‘the concept of self-defense,’ should apply ‘to any state.’ To the stateless Palestinians, one can then conclude, the State Department extends no such rights. This is a double standard shared by much of the corporate media, as well as among politicians, across Western democracies…. Implicit in this double standard is the idea that Palestinians should simply submit to their own murder, assault, and dispossession.” [Key to this and many other discussions is how one views the ongoing Palestine-Israel situation, particularly whether or not to consider it an Israeli colonial-military occupation of Palestinian land (at least vis-a-vis post-1967 territories).]

Servet Gunerigok, Anadolu Ajansi (May 13, 2021): “White House avoids question on Palestinians' right to self-defense”

“Biden said on Wednesday that Israel ‘has a right to defend itself when you have thousands of rockets flying into your territory’ as violence escalates between Israel and Palestine. When the reporter asked whether the Biden administration also condemns forced evictions of Palestinians from their homes, Psaki said US officials have raised the issue at many levels but avoided answering the question directly.” [Such vague equivocation by the US is consistent with the US’s enormous military and financial aid to Israel—in effect a commitment to give Israel whatever it requests to be by far the strongest military force in the Middle East (directly connected to US strategic interests).]

Ibrahim Fraihat, The Brookings Institution (July 11, 2014): “Palestine’s Right to Defend Itself”

“To forestall another war, and to prevent further brutality against civilians, Washington needs to take immediate measures to avoid the hypocrisy of legitimizing Israeli violence against Palestinian civilians under the guise of ‘self-defense’.” [The US has simply continued its “self-defense” mantra over the years, and today we are seeing the horrific ramifications. As Noam Chomsky has noted, the US—including those of us who are US taxpayers—are as responsible as anyone for the carnage in Israel-Palestine.]