Michael Walzer’s Failure of Nerve

In “Israel Must Defeat Hamas, But Also Must Do More to Limit Civilian Deaths,” political philosopher Michael Walzer joins the chorus arguing that Israeli soldiers are guilty of “disproportionality” for killing Palestinian civilians—or rather those defined by the Hamascentric-orchestrated media as “civilians.”

A generation ago, Walzer made a similar argument in “Just and Unjust Wars” (1977, 1992, 2006). Then, he claimed that Israel had “overreacted” to the First Intifadah which, after all, was perceived as a David vs. Goliath stone-throwing affair.

That argument enjoyed a patina of plausibility then—before the suicide bombings of the Second Intifadah or today’s indiscriminate missile and terror tunnel attacks.

Now, Walzer’s argument is a capitulation to the siren song of anti-Israel hypocrites, mostly on the left.
Walzer’s ending his career with a failure of nerve and moral imagination.

See http://www.newrepublic.com/article/118908/2014-gaza-war-how-should-israel-fight-asymmetrical-war-hamas