The President of France, Sarkozy practically tripped over his underwear rushing to call Israel’s Gaza incursion a disproportionate use of force. David Miliband, Britain’s Foreign Secretary, said Israel was causing a “dangerous and dark moment” he went on to say “that any innocent loss of life is unacceptable”. Doing his best to imitate Koffi Annon, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon complained about the “the disproportionate use of force” on the part of Israel and condemned “excessive use of force by Israel in Gaza. Even Israel’s “friend” India was disappointed at “the use of disproportionate force is resulting in a large number of civilian casualties on the one hand and the escalating violence on the other.”
So lets examine that for a second, how many Jews had to die to make Israel’s response proportional, 5, 10, 100? Should the UN develop a system that gives a value to each life and when they could be protected? How many Israelis, equals the self defense “Tipping Point?” How many English? Since they never have the guts to fight, would the French be more or less?
The NUMBER ONE OBLIGATION OF ANY GOVERNMENT IS TO PROTECT THEIR PEOPLE. In his book the Leviathan the Philosopher Thomas Hobbes said ”
To escape this state of war, men in the state of nature accede to a social contract and establish a civil society. According to Hobbes, society is a population beneath a sovereign authority, to whom all individuals in that society cede their natural rights for the sake of protection.
Hobbes never mentioned just how many individuals could be protected.
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John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau were classic philosophers who’s work formed the theoretical groundwork of democracy suggested that any government that does not protect the life, liberty, and property of their people, should be overthrown.
At the expense of its People Israel has not been fulfilling its end of the social contract, the basis of what gives a government the right to rule. Finally after 8,000 rockets/ mortars fired into the country, Israel has decided to stop the rocket fire and protect her people.
So I ask again, how many rockets makes it OK to protect your citizens? Was Americas response to the bombing of Pearl Harbor “Disproportionate?” What about England’s response to the bombing of London during WWII? The Nazis were trying to Destroy England the same way Hamas is trying to destroy Israel.
Before other democracies start calling a response disproportionate, maybe they should define what is proportionate. How many bombs can land in Britain before they can respond, how many terrorist attacks in Mumbai can occur before India can try to stop them. If Paris is bombed can the French surrender right away? If Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s home country of South Korea was bombed from the north, would they be allowed to put a stop to it? That is the questions that need to be answered before anyone attacks Israel for protecting her citizens.
