Michael Walzer

With Israeli special forces starting operations in Gaza to complement the IDF’s surgical air campaign against the indiscriminate, increasingly long-rage terror barrage from “Hamastan,” the international community , quite predictably, is beginning to rev up its favorite mantra, i.e., that the Jewish state is guilty of “disproportionate response.” After all, Palestinian civilians—ordered by Hamas to stay in their homes rather than evacuate terror targets in residential areas as well as in mosques and hospitals—have begun to die as “collateral damage” in Israel’s anti-terror campaign to protect its own civilians, so far psychologically traumatized but not slaughtered because of Iron Dome and the option of bomb shelters or safe rooms. Hamas prefers to use its cement to build terror tunnels rather than bomb shelters for Gazans.

Such protections that Israelis enjoy are not available to the exposed Jews of France where synagogue goers were terrorized by an enraged French Muslim mob, at first barely contained by five gendarmes whose initial orders seem to have been to act more like World Cup soccer refs than enforcers of the law. Did they have implicit orders from the French government whose commitment to be in neutral in “thought and deed” in the Mideast may have translated into a policy of semi-neutrality against terror in the Paris streets”? Was this a case of “disproportionate response” on the domestic level, but in the sense of inadequate response by a twenty-first century western government that has forgotten that the fundamental definition of the state is “the monopoly over the means of legitimate violence within a given territory” (Max Weber’s definition) and which doesn’t understand that failing to defend that monopoly by the use of force against violent challengers will ultimately undermine the survival of the state as well as the security of its law-abiding citizens?

Internationally, in the Mideast, Israel is, to some extent, being hoisted on its own petard by its ritual adherence to a strict self-imposed code of military ethics, devised primarily by Moshe Habertal, something of a peacenik professor, who believes it is better for Israel soldiers to die than to recklessly risk the lives of Palestinian innocents in ways that dishonor the Jewish state. Despite the aspersions of its critics, Israel is the only country in modern history that in wartime has avoided intentionally using its air force to target the enemy’s civil population. Israel refuses to practice vendetta against Palestinian civilians (as distinguished from Hamas’ terror operatives) for complicated reasons. It doesn’t want to betray Jewish values, alienate international opinion, or encourage civil strife between Israeli Jews and Israel’s Muslim minority. (more…)

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Washington, D.C. – The Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, a national civil rights organization dedicated to eradicating anti-Semitism on college campuses, has appointed Joshua Sol Brewster, Esq.. to its Legal Advisory Board. Joshua was previously a senior civil rights legal fellow with The Brandeis Center.

Joshua S. Brewster received his Juris Doctorate from Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law in Indianapolis in 2002. Mr. Brewster practiced civil rights law with the Indiana Civil Rights Commission for ten years, where he most recently held the position of Deputy Director and Chief Staff Counsel. In his years with the statewide civil rights enforcement agency, Mr. Brewster investigated, litigated and mediated claims of discrimination in employment, housing, education and public accommodations. Brewster maintained close working relationships with housing providers, educators and employers providing training and advice on compliance with state and federal law. Brewster also worked closely with other state and federal agencies to coordinate efforts in the enforcement of sometimes overlapping laws and regulations. Joshua has received extensive training in the enforcement of the federal Fair Housing Act and federal Equal Employment Opportunity laws. Brewster subsequently moved to St. Mary’s County in southern Maryland with his wife and 18-month old daughter, where he is developing a private practice in the area of civil rights.

LBD President Kenneth L. Marcus commented, “We are very pleased to announce Joshua Sol Brewster’s appointment to our Legal Advisory Board. Mr. Brewster has served with distinction as an outstanding Senior Civil Rights Legal Fellow with our organization, and we are pleased that he will continue to work with us in this new capacity.”