Read Michael Walzer's response.

FOR THE LAST thirty years Michael Walzer has been acknowledged as the most eminent and authoritative political philosopher dealing with questions of war and morality. In his most important work in this vein, Just and Unjust Wars (1977), Walzer argues that we must make two separate evaluations of the morality of war: the justice of the cause or purpose for which war is fought and the morality or justice of the methods of warfare. After developing his just war theory with great sophistication and persuasiveness, Walzer then applies his analysis to many specific cases of warfare, from the ancient world until the present. No informed and serious discussion of morality and warfare can take place today without reference to Just and Unjust Wars and the debate it has engendered.

Walzer has also been a prominent supporter of Israe...

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FOOTNOTES:

• [1] The full recording of the APN statement and subsequent comments are available on the Americans for Peace Now Web site, under “Hot Issues.”
• [2] Ha’aretz carries almost daily stories on Israel’s actions in Gaza. Here are just a few recent examples: Amira Hass, “Can You Really Not See?” August 30, 2006; Gideon Levy, “Gaza’s Darkness,” September 3, 2006; Danny Rubinstein, “A Commission to Investigate the Occupation,” September 4, 2006; Gideon Samet, “The Curse of Living by the Sword,” September 8, 2006. As well, Jessica Montell, the leader of the B’tselem, the most important Israeli human rights organization, wrote that “the suffering of the [Palestinian] population is not merely a byproduct of Israel’s attacks against militants. It is an intentional part of Israeli policy. The clear intention of the practice is to pressure the Palestinian Authority and the armed Palestinian organizations by harming the entire civilian population.” (“A Form of Collective Punishment,” bitterlemons, July 17, 2006).
• [3] “UN Trade Agency Warns of Palestinian Economic Collapse,” Ha’aretz, September 12, 2006.
• [4] Aside from a number of Ha’aretz and other Israeli media commentaries, see Craig S. Smith, “Freeing Prisoners Key Goal in Fight Against Israel,” New York Times, August 4, 2006; Jon Lee Anderson, “The Battle for Lebanon,” New Yorker, August 7 and 14, 2006.
• [5] As has been argued by editorials and columns in Ha’aretz. See especially the editorial “Escalation Before the End,” August 6, 2006, and two columns by Zvi Bar’el, “Hezbollah/Nasrallah Has Time,” August 4, 2006, and “The Deterrence Thing,” August 6, 2006.
• [6] “When it followed with its raid, Hezbollah said it was acting in solidarity with the Palestinians” (Smith, “Freeing Prisoners”). Also, Robert Malley, formerly a high State Department official dealing with the Israeli -Palestinian conflict, observes that the raid “enabled Hezbollah to show that it alone in the Arab world would come to the Palestinians’ defense,” in “A New Middle East,” (New York Review, September 21, 2006), p. 86.
• [7] Amos Harel, “Syria Still Transferring Supply of Rockets, Missiles to Hezbollah,” Ha’aretz, August 13, 2006.
• [8] Interview with Gur in the Israeli newspaper Al Hamishar, May 10, 1978.
• [9] Ha’aretz, May 15, 1978
• [10] “An Integral Part of This Conflict, “ bitterlemons, July 17, 2006
• [11] “A Strategic Mistake,” Ha’aretz, July 20, 2006.
• [12] The quote is from a news story by Craig S. Smith, “Israel to Discuss Foreign Troops as Border Guard,” July 24, 2006.
• [13] Summary of Human Rights Watch Report, “Fatal Strikes: Israel’s Indiscriminate Attacks Against Civilians in Lebanon,” August 2006.
• [14] “Amnesty: Israel Committed War Crimes in Lebanon Campaign,” Ha’aretz, August 23, 2006; John Kifner, “Human Rights Group Accuses Israel of War Crimes,” New York Times, August 24, 2006.