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Late Friday night, an alleged shooting in a San Jacinto County, Texas neighborhood resulted in the death of five victims, leaving the small community in shock and grief. Francisco Oropeza, a 39-year-old Mexican national, is the prime suspect in this heinous crime.

Witness details of the account report the heartbreaking moment that started the tragedy–when one victim asked Oropeza to stop firing his rifle outside his house, saying a baby was trying to sleep. Then, Oropeza was said to have walked up to the front door and opened fire.

The victims have been identified as Sonia Argentina Guzman, 25; Daniel Enrique Laso, 8; Diana Velazquez Alvarado, 21; Julisa Molina Rivera, 31; and Jose Jonathan Casarez, 18. Three other people were evaluated for injuries but eventually released.

The Belgrade Police Department launched an extensive search and deployed a team of dogs, officers on horses, and a drone to aid the uphill search. The investigation yielded a warrant with a $5 million bond issued on Oropeza, but authorities believe the prime suspect could be anywhere by now.

Adding to the tension of the investigation, the FBI Houston Field Office announced that Oropeza should be considered “armed and dangerous” and poses a “threat to the community.” Sheriff Greg Capers also expressed his fears that the search area could cover 20 square miles.

Heavily invested in their search for Oropeza, Texas Rangers have already seized a shotgun, two rifles, one .223 caliber rifle, and a pistol.

In a press conference, Capers asked his community to bear the burden together, and no adult or child should ever have to witness or live through such a tragedy.

The Orwellian doublespeak of the Israeli opposition is so blatant that it’s putting regular propaganda to shame and managed to sow self-doubt in coalition circles.

By Ruthie Blum, JNS

Those of us who were among the hundreds of thousands of participants in the right-wing rally in Jerusalem on Thursday evening weren’t surprised when the “resistance” bloc pulled a two-fer: downplaying the significance of and attendance at the event, on the one hand; and treating the happening as evidence that Israeli democracy is in danger of annihilation at the hands of fanatics, on the other.

Nor did we imagine that coverage from most media outlets would be accurate, let alone fair, since they’ve been acting all along like a branch of the protest movement. Instead, we drew encouragement from the throngs of fellow members of the national camp who turned up to bolster the government and urge it not to be bullied into backtracking on its mandate.

Both were necessary under the circumstances, with the Orwellian doublespeak of the opposition having become so blatant that it’s putting regular propaganda to shame. Indeed, the projection on the part of the protest instigators isn’t merely jaw-dropping (calling the government, rather than those trying to topple it, a “coup,” for instance); it’s actually been successful at sowing self-doubt in coalition circles.

Ahead of the opening of the Knesset’s summer session on Sunday, then, it was particularly crucial for lawmakers to be reminded of the populace that isn’t drinking the Kool-Aid—those still expecting and demanding judicial reform, with or without a broad consensus. It was also important to highlight that compromise on this or any other issue isn’t on the agenda of the forces spearheading the weekly demonstrations.

The points were made amid much good cheer and lots of applause for the speakers. Justice Minister Yariv Levin was given an especially warm welcome, in addition to cautionary chants of “Don’t be afraid!”

The message was that he shouldn’t cave on the judicial-reform process that the government had put on hold. This was done to allow for negotiations to bring about an agreement and prevent civil war.

Levin’s speech was aimed at reassuring his base that he hadn’t abandoned the mission, and assuaging the fears of opponents.

“We are told that the reform is intended to take over the Supreme Court, but the truth is the opposite,” he said. “We want a court for everyone: liberals, conservatives, right and left. Everyone.”

He went on: “They say that the reform is intended to impose the lifestyle of one public on another. The truth, of course, is the opposite. There is nothing in the reform that involves coercion or an infringement on the individual rights that are important to all of us. We are told that if the reform passes, there will be a dictatorship. There is no bigger lie than that.”

He also addressed Labor Party leader Merav Michaeli and the many feminists who’ve been wearing costumes from the Netflix series, “The Handmaid’s Tale,” based on the dystopian novel by Margaret Atwood.

“Join us so that we have a court that punishes rapists and doesn’t seek ways to make it easier for them; a court that cares for an elderly woman in south Tel Aviv and not for infiltrators who harm her; a court that protects the lives of IDF soldiers not terrorists.”

All well and good. But his words were far less noteworthy than the reaction they elicited from protest leader Moshe “Bogie” Ya’alon. The former defense minister, who used to be politically and ideologically aligned with Levin, is now a key promoter of the above-mentioned slurs.

“The fact that he who bears the title of ‘justice minister’ has not yet been fired and arrested, after the mendacious incitement speech that spilled the blood of Israeli judges, is a normalization of the insanity,” Ya’alon tweeted on Friday. “The fact that at the head of the Israeli government, which is trying to carry out a coup d’état, is under indictment for serious crimes and prohibited from dealing with the judiciary due to a clear conflict of interest, is a normalization of the insanity; the fact that the heads of the opposition are conducting negotiations under the auspices of the president of the country on the coup d’état proposal (the Levin-[Simcha] Rothman legislation) is a normalization of the insanity squared.”

So, in Ya’alon’s view, Levin deserves to be sacked and hauled off to jail. Talk about lunacy.

As if any of these statements weren’t sufficient to warrant a psychological examination for their author, he proceeded to command of the representatives engaged in talks at the President’s Residence that they “get out of there and let the criminal government, which has caused and is causing unprecedented damage to the country and its citizens, deal with [its own mess] so that its days will be numbered.”

His next cynical feat was to invoke and appropriate Ze’ev Jabotinsky—the father of Revisionist Zionism, precursor of the Likud Party heading the current government—by using the title of the latter’s famous 1923 essay.

“Join the ‘Iron Wall’ of the mighty protest, which will not allow a dictatorship! Democracy will win,” he wrote, before going on in his lengthy thread to describe the scenes from Thursday’s “extremist messianic incitement demonstration” as “shocking,” and accusing Levin of inciting “blood-curdling libels against Israeli judges, as if they support rapists and terrorists!”

Never mind that Ya’alon is fully cognizant of the specific cases in question, each of which actually did favor the perpetrators. On a roll, he told his “friends in the opposition” that they are the “messengers of the vast majority that supports democracy and independent judges. … The inciters won’t get their way. Israel will not become a messianic dictatorship with an inciting regime. The huge democratic majority—the democratic ‘iron wall’—will defeat this craziness! Democracy will win.”

What he and his ilk have been trying to obfuscate, however, is that democracy never lost; the left did, at the ballot box in November. The 600,000 Israelis who arrived in the capital on Thursday from around the country were simply reasserting this reality. Let the government not forget it.

Ruthie Blum is a Tel Aviv-based columnist and commentator. She writes and lectures on Israeli politics and culture, as well as on U.S.-Israel relations. The winner of the Louis Rappaport award for excellence in commentary, she is the author of the book “To Hell in a Handbasket: Carter, Obama, and the ‘Arab Spring.’ ”

The post The Jerusalem rally was a reminder that democracy didn’t lose; the Left did appeared first on World Israel News.

Protest leaders also claimed that the pro-reform demonstration on Thursday included “incitement,” although the event was completely peaceful, with no calls for violence.

By World Israel News Staff

The anti-government protest in Tel Aviv on Saturday night for the 17th week in a row reached a new level of brazenness with the video screening of the socialist Spanish prime minister pleading their case on video.

“Dear Israeli friends, we as Socialist International have always fought for freedom, equality, justice and democracy. Yet, as many of you already know, these are values that we cannot take for granted, and that we have to promote and defend on a daily basis.

“As such, now as always, the Socialist International stands in solidarity with the people of Israel. Dear friends, you will always find us in the fight for democracy,” Pedro Sanchez stated.

השבת ה-17 להפגנות | ראש ממשלת ספרד פדרו סנצ’ס בסרטון שהוקרן בפתח המחאה בתל אביב: “תמיד תמצאו אותנו במאבק על הדמוקרטיה”. עם תחילת ההפגנה, הודיעו המארגנים על החרפת המחאה ביום חמישי הקרוב | עדכונים שוטפים >> https://t.co/ZjS4Ujgvnp@hadasgrinberg @daniel_elazar @YoavYoavkrak pic.twitter.com/YsjX5Kf1Eo

— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) April 29, 2023

“For the opponents of the reform, there are no red lines, including the attempt to harm [Israel’s] international status. No foreign entity will decide for the public in Israel, and I am sure that Sanchez has no such intention,” Foreign Minister Eli Cohen tweeted.

“As someone who supports the reform, I have no doubt that it will strengthen democracy and balance the authorities,” he added.

למתנגדי הרפורמה, אין קווים אדומים, לרבות הניסיון לפגוע במעמד הבינלאומי. אף גורם זר לא יחליט בשביל הציבור בישראל ואני בטוח שלסנצ׳ס אין כוונה כזאת. בתור מי שתומך ברפורמה אין לי ספק שהיא תחזק את הדמוקרטיה ותאזן את הרשויות.

— אלי כהן | Eli Cohen (@elicoh1) April 29, 2023

Ahead of the protest, the organizers claimed that the pro-reform protest in Jerusalem Thursday evening, which brought an estimated 600,000 Israelis, included “serious incitement.”

“The serious incitement in [Thursday] night’s demonstration, which included shocking scenes of images of Supreme Court judges being trampled on, reminds us of the demonstrations of the Ayatollah regime in Iran. That’s where the Israeli government is dragging us. We have to stop it,” the statement read.

Yisrael Beyteinu party leader Avigdor Liberman said, “”On Thursday we saw representatives from the coalition continuing to incite and divide the people.”

Those claiming incitement at Thursday’s demonstration based the claim on Justice Minister Yariv Levin’s comments at the event.

“The time has come for a High Court that does not give rights to the families of terrorists and does not permit fake memorial services together with terror supporters…a court that protects IDF soldiers and not the terrorists’ neighbors,” Levin stated.

Smaller protests were held in other cities across the country.

National Unity party MK Gideon Sa’ar, who spoke in Herzliya, said Levin delivered a “speech of incitement and lies that defamed the system he heads.”

Considering the incitement against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other government officials by left-wing protesters, along with threats of violence, these claims of incitement seemed hypocritical.

In fact, the Jerusalem demonstration was completely non-violent, and unlike the Tel Aviv protests, no one was blocking traffic illegally. The main chants were: “The nation demands judicial reform”; “64 mandates,” referring to the November election victory; and “Don’t be afraid,” directed at the government.

The atmosphere was also somewhat festive, apparently due to the widespread feeling of satisfaction over finally getting their message out after months of mass protests against the elected government.

On Saturday night, police detained five demonstrators in Tel Aviv for blocking traffic.

The post ‘No red lines’: Tel Aviv protesters screen video message from Spanish PM against reforms appeared first on World Israel News.

“I’m proudly wearing my Star of David,” said Councilwoman Inna Vernikov, who introduced the bill, urging fellow Jews to continue “displaying their symbols of Jewish identity.”

The New York City Council voted on Thursday to establish April 29 as the “End Jew Hatred Day.”

Although antisemitic attacks have been skyrocketing in recent years, four members abstained and two voted against the resolution.

“Your antisemitism is showing,” Jewish Councilwoman Inna Vernikov told the six members who refused to support the resolution.

At least two members of the NY City Council voted against the official recognition of #EndJewHatred day on April 29, in NYC, where incidents of antisemitism have been skyrocketing.

Luckily the resolution passed anyway but insane nonetheless @InnaVernikov pic.twitter.com/hbJ0zLhpp5

— Emily Schrader – אמילי שריידר امیلی شریدر (@emilykschrader) April 28, 2023

The post WATCH: NYC votes to recognize End Jew Hatred Day, councilwoman blasts 6 who rejected resolution appeared first on World Israel News.

Iranians in the city of Mashdad were filmed last week chanting, ‘Long live Israel, down with Palestine.”

A video going viral today shows Iranians in Mashhad, one of the most religious cities, chanting:

“Long live Israel, Down with Palestine.” pic.twitter.com/Ymdr6u3KIM

— Adam Albilya – אדם אלביליה (@AdamAlbilya) April 22, 2023

The post UNBELIEVABLE: Iranians defy Mullahs, rally in favor of Israel appeared first on World Israel News.

“Israel should use this moment to step up anti-missile and anti-drone support to Ukraine and help protect civilians from Russia’s war of aggression,” Yermak said.

By Associated Press

Russia fired more than 20 cruise missiles and two drones at Ukraine early Friday, killing at least 23 people, almost all of them when two missiles slammed into an apartment building in a terrifying nighttime attack, officials said. Three children were among the dead.

The missile attacks included the first one against Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, in nearly two months, although there were no reports of any targets hit. The city government said Ukraine’s air force intercepted 11 cruise missiles and two unmanned aerial vehicles over Kyiv.

The strikes on the nine-story residential building in central Ukraine occurred in Uman, a city located around 215 kilometers (134 miles) south of Kyiv. Twenty-one people died in that attack, according to Ukraine’s National Police. They included two 10-year-old children and a toddler.

Another of the victims was a 75-year-old woman who lived in a neighboring building and suffered internal bleeding from the huge blast’s shock wave, according to emergency personnel at the scene.

The Ukrainian national police said 17 people were wounded and three children were rescued from the rubble. Nine were hospitalized.

The bombardment was nowhere near the war’s sprawling front lines or active combat zones in eastern Ukraine, where a grinding war of attrition has taken hold. Moscow has frequently launched long-range missile attacks during the 14-month war, often indiscriminately hitting civilian areas.

#RussiaIsATerroristState pic.twitter.com/goXNmKYsAw

— Andriy Yermak (@AndriyYermak) April 28, 2023

Ukrainian officials and analysts have alleged such strikes are part of a deliberate intimidation strategy by the Kremlin.

The Russian Defense Ministry said the long-range cruise missiles launched overnight were aimed at places where Ukrainian military reserve units were staying before their deployment to the battlefield.

“The strike has achieved its goal. All the designated facilities have been hit,” Lt. Gen. Igor Konashenkov, the Defense Ministry’s spokesperson, said. He didn’t mention any specific areas or residential buildings getting hit.

Survivors of the Uman strikes recounted terrifying moments as the missiles hit when it still was dark outside.

Three body bags lay next to the building as smoke continued to billow hours after the attack. Soldiers, civilians and emergency crews searched through the rubble outside for more victims, while residents dragged belongings out of the damaged building.

Yulia Norovkova, spokeswoman for emergency rescue crews on the scene, said local volunteers were helping nearly 150 emergency personnel. Two aid stations, including psychologists, were operating, she said.

A 31-year-old woman and her two-year-old daughter were also killed in the eastern city of Dnipro in another attack, regional Governor Serhii Lysak said. Four people were wounded, and a private home and business were damaged.

Zelensky, Chinese leader have ‘long, meaningful’ talk

The attacks came days after President Volodymyr Zelensky said that he and Chinese leader Xi Jinping held a “long and meaningful” phone call where Xi said his government will send a peace envoy to Ukraine and other nations.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Friday’s bombardment showed the Kremlin isn’t interested in a peace deal.

“Missile strikes killing innocent Ukrainians in their sleep, including a two-year-old child, is Russia’s response to all peace initiatives,” he tweeted. “The way to peace is to kick Russia out of Ukraine.”

Czech President Petr Pavel, on a visit to Ukraine, was unconvinced by the Kremlin’s past denials of responsibility for such bloodshed.

“The number of attacks on civilian targets leads to an only conclusion that it is intentional,” Pavel told Czech media. “It’s a clear plan intended to cause chaos, horrors among the civilian population.”

Shortly after Moscow unleashed the barrage, the Russian Defense Ministry posted a photo on Telegram showing a missile launch and saying, “Right on target.”

The message triggered outrage among Ukrainians on social media and some officials, who viewed it as gloating over the casualties.

“The Ministry of Homicide of the Russian Federation is happy that it hit a residential building with a rocket and killed civilians,” said Andriy Yermak, the head of Ukraine’s presidential office.

In Kyiv, fragments from intercepted missiles or drones damaged power lines and a road in one neighborhood. No casualties were reported.

In Ukrainka, a town about 10 kilometers (6 miles) south of Kyiv, debris from shot down missiles or drones left holes in the walls of some apartment buildings, and a smashed pink stroller in the street.

“It feels like this nightmare has been going on for two years, but I still can’t wake up,” local resident Olena, 62, said. She asked for her surname not to be used, saying her son lived in a sensitive military area.

Ukraine officials said last week that they had taken delivery of American-made Patriot missiles, providing Kyiv with a long-sought new shield against Russian airstrikes, but there was no word on whether the system was used Friday.

The city’s anti-aircraft system was activated, according to the Kyiv City Administration. Air raid sirens started at about 4 a.m., and the alert ended about two hours later.

In a statement on Friday, the Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Andriy Yermak appealed to Israel for more support and weapons, The Jerusalem Post reported.

“The latest chapter in Russia’s war crimes epidemic has seen missiles rain down indiscriminately on civilians as they slept in the holy city of Uman,” he said.

“So far, 18 people have been killed. Among them are three children, and the numbers are climbing. All Israelis – those who visit Uman” – where thousands of Israelis visit the grave of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov each Rosh Hashana – “and those who never have but know what missiles raining down on civilians feels like, should take note.

“There is a new genocide in Europe and it is being executed by the Kremlin. Israel should use this moment to step up anti-missile and anti-drone support to Ukraine and help protect civilians from Russia’s war of aggression,” Yermak said.

Uman. 23 dead, including 5 children.

We need more support, more weapons to stop the Russian missile rain. Russia kills civilians everywhere, even in the holy city of Uman.

We need more support from Israel. Said it to @Jerusalem_Post.https://t.co/3DtDobKPZq

— Andriy Yermak (@AndriyYermak) April 29, 2023

The missile attack was the first on the capital since March 9. Air defenses have thwarted Russian drone attacks more recently.

The missiles were fired from aircraft operating in the Caspian Sea region, according to Ukrainian Armed Forces Commander in Chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi.

Overall, he said, Ukraine intercepted 21 of 23 Kh-101 and Kh-555 type cruise missiles launched, as well as the two drones.

The war largely ground to a halt over the winter, becoming a war of attrition as each side has shelled the other’s positions from a distance. Ukraine has been building up its mechanized brigades with armor supplied by its Western allies, who have also been training Ukrainian troops and sending ammunition, as Kyiv eyes a possible counteroffensive.

Meanwhile, the Moscow-appointed mayor of the Russia-held city of Donetsk, Alexei Kulemzin, said a Ukrainian rocket killed seven civilians in the center of the city Friday. He said the victims died when a minibus was hit.

World Israel News contributed to this report.

The post Russian attack in Uman kills 21; Ukraine appeals to Israel for help appeared first on World Israel News.

“We are told that if the reform passes there will be a dictatorship. There is no bigger lie than that,” Israeli Justice Minister Yariv Levin told the crowd.

By David Isaac, JNS

The “March of the Million” near the Knesset in Jerusalem on Thursday evening may not have hit its target (organizers say 600,000 attended; police say 200,000), but it succeeded in putting to bed opposition claims that Israelis are united against judicial reform. It also provided much-needed backing to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s beleaguered government.

Supporters of reform have been slow to respond to months of protests against it, which have forced the coalition back on its heels, leading Netanyahu to pause the process and enter into negotiations with the opposition under the auspices of President Isaac Herzog.

Those favoring reform worry that the result will be a watered-down version of the legislation. Among the crowd’s chants at the rally: “Stop being afraid” and “We don’t want compromise.”

Of the many politicians and right-wing figures who addressed the assembled, the biggest cheers went to the chief architects of judicial reform: Justice Minister Yariv Levin of Likud and Knesset Member Simcha Rothman of the Religious Zionism Party, who chairs the parliament’s Constitution, Law and Justice Committee.

“Over 2 million Israelis voted six months ago in the real referendum: the election. They voted in favor of legal reform,” declared Levin. “We are here on this stage with 64 mandates to right an injustice. No more inequality, no one-sided judicial system, no court whose judges are above the Knesset and above the government.

“We are told that if the reform passes there will be a dictatorship. There is no bigger lie than that. Show me a single democracy in which the legal advisers decide [government policy] instead of the government,” said Levin, adding to cheers, “I will do everything in my power to bring the desired change to the judicial system.

“If someone were to tell me a few years ago that in 2023 there would be such a broad consensus in Israeli society for the need for judicial reform and that the situation today isn’t democratic, I would have told him he was delusional,” Rothman said. “Correcting the judicial system is my life’s mission and I will continue to promote it in every way.”

Likud Knesset member Avichay Boaron acted as master of ceremonies. “The purpose of the demonstration is to remind and demand from our elected officials in the government and the coalition that the people want judicial reform, that the people are behind them, that the people give them strength,” he said.

Netanyahu ‘deeply moved’

Netanyahu, who didn’t attend for security reasons, tweeted, “I am deeply moved by the tremendous support of the national camp that came to Jerusalem this evening en masse. All of us, 64 mandates that brought on our victory, are first-class citizens. You warmed my heart very much, and I thank each and every one of you.”

Twenty-nine NGOs sponsored the protest, foremost among them Tekuma 23, an NGO founded by political activist Berale Crombie together with Boaron. Its mission is to build support for judicial reform in the wake of the protests against it.

The pro-reform rally was different in tone from its anti-reform counterparts, which are grim affairs with warnings of pending dictatorship, clashes with police, solemn torchlit marches and women dressed as Margaret Atwood-inspired handmaids with heads lowered.

This rally was boisterous, resembling a giant block party. Music pumped through large speaker systems. Protesters danced and sang. Strangers backslapped one another. It was festive. The optimism was palpable.

‘Deterrence against terrorists’

Encountering Herzl Hajaj of Choosing Life, a forum of Israeli terror victims and bereaved families, JNS asked him to explain the difference.

“The right is always happier,” he said. “There’s a lot of money driving the left’s protests. The folks who make all the noise and confusion do it for a payment. People here have left work. They came from Eilat, Metulla, Dimona because their hearts are with this government.”

Another notable difference was the age of the protesters. At Thursday’s rally, youth was the rule with thousands of teens in attendance. Young families with infants were not uncommon.

Israel’s right argues that the Supreme Court turned activist starting in the 1990s under then-Supreme Court President Aharon Barak, who orchestrated what he termed the “Constitutional Revolution.” The government says its judicial reform program seeks to fix the problem that has grown over the years and restore the balance of power between the three branches of government.

Rothman told JNS earlier in the week that for the opposition the protests aren’t really about judicial reform but a clash between two visions of what Israel should be—a secular state on the lines of Denmark or a Jewish state deeply connected to its particular religious and cultural traditions.

If such is the case, the young teens chanting “Rothman” at Thursday’s rally symbolize opponents’ fear that demographics are against them. They see the Supreme Court as a check on right-wing ascendance, which explains their determination to defend its power.

Reformers are just as determined to drive through changes to the court, which they say rules according to a left-wing, globalist worldview.

‘Bereaved families, victims of terror, are here’

Hajaj said, “Bereaved families, victims of terror, are here because the Supreme Court plays a big role in undermining deterrence against terrorists. They give them rights that no other country gives them. And we paid with the blood of our children. And the citizens of Israel will continue to pay with their blood until we change this.”

JNS also met Lt. Col. (res.) Maurice Hirsch, director of legal strategies at Palestinian Media Watch, who served in senior positions in the IDF Military Advocate General’s Corps.

“What brings me here is the understanding that the legal system has to change. I was part of that ecosystem for 20 years. I was an assistant district prosecutor. And I understand that the legal system as it is today has completely failed,” he told JNS, highlighting the self-selection process that goes on in the judicial system and precludes a diversity of views on the bench.

“We have members of the Bar Association appointing judges, lawyers appointing their friends to be judges with the assistance of Supreme Court judges, ensuring that they only appoint lawyers who are the same as they—in their image. Nothing changes. There’s only one way of thinking,” said Hirsch.

Im Tirtzu, an NGO and one of the rally organizers, oversaw street theater highlighting the Supreme Court’s power. It featured people lined up in orange prison jumpsuits, representing a nation imprisoned by the court’s rulings. Each carried a sign with a different ruling: “The Supreme Court requires National Insurance payments to terrorists,” “The Supreme Court rejected petitions against the building of illegal mosques on the Temple Mount,” “The Supreme Court prevents the removal of illegal [aliens] even when they’re violent.”

One protester wearing a mask of current Supreme Court president Esther Hayut held a stick with which he pretended to threaten and beat the uniformed protesters should they get out of line.

 

The post ‘March of the Million’ shatters opposition claim nation opposes judicial reform appeared first on World Israel News.

When viewed in the current context, the war on Iraq, the 2006 war on Lebanon, the 2011 war on Libya, the ongoing wars on Syria and Iraq, the war on Yemen, must be understood in relation to the Zionist Plan for the Middle East

The post “Greater Israel”: The Zionist Plan for the Middle East appeared first on Global Research.

In recent months, the social and political situation in Mparntwe/Alice Springs has been making headlines internationally and across Australia. Facing pressure from business groups, the government introduced alcohol purchasing restrictions in the city as well as blanket bans on alcohol in town camps and remote communities in the Northern Territory. Arrernte activists and supporters have […]

The Just War 101 Archive

The previous essay on proper authority took its bearings from the fact that human beings, as human beings, have a divinely appointed responsibility to care about order and justice. We see this at the very beginning, in the cradle garden. God says to Himself, “Let us make mankind in our image.” Precisely what this means is multi-faceted and complex. Some of it, however, is quite plain and can be found in the clause that immediately follows: “Let us make mankind in our image and let him have dominion over all the earth.” Dominion is not domination. Human beings were never meant to simply lord over creation and to bend it arbitrarily toward their will. Instead, human authority is always marked by responsibility and a participant in Divine Law. Human authority is a vehicle for the proper exercise of stewardship.

That, of course, is merely part one of the Edenic plotline. Immediately following the mandate to exercise stewardship is the human refusal to do so. God man mankind in order that He might love mankind and that mankind might love him. Love, however, must be freely given or it is not, in fact, love. Freedom has costs. One of those costs is risk, including the risk that human beings might choose not to love God. I presume it is not a spoiler to observe that humanity did, in fact, rebel. From that moment onward, stewardship—dominion—has to account for the fact of ongoing human rebellion.

In light of the fall and of human responsibility to maintain the conditions of justice, order, and peace, the fundamental question before us is, “when might just societies have to employ force against those who violate order, justice, and peace?” In response, the just war framework, taking its cue from Thomas Aquinas, envisages three causes: protection of the innocent, recovery of what has been wrongly taken, and the punishment of evil.

The qualifier in each of these causes—‘innocent,’ ‘wrongly,’ ‘evil’—is crucial. The reason can be most easily seen by examining the first cause. It would be insufficient to declare—as positive international law declares—simply self-defense, as such, as a just cause. When commenting on just cause, Thomas explicitly lists only recovery of what has been wrongly taken and punishment of evil. It is not that he does not believe a sovereign has the right to defend his realm against attack. On the contrary, Thomas makes a greater allowance than Augustine for private self-defense.

But, in the classical just war view, the defense of the common good is the central rationale for just war as a whole. Insofar as the need for defense provides a just cause, it does so on the basis of the sovereign’s responsibility to protect order and justice. The reason that the qualifier in “protect the innocent” is so important is now clear: only the innocent have a right to be defended. To insist otherwise, to propose national sovereignty without qualification as a human good, and thereby to make national self-defense simply the model of justified war, is amoral. It ignores questions of motive, intention, cause, and the moral quality of the regime. It implies, as Nigel Biggar has insisted, for example, that as soon as the Allies invaded the borders of Germany in 1945, Hitler’s belligerency became self-defensive and so justified, and the Allies’ war-making became aggressive and so unjustified. A more domestic-oriented popular example concerns an armed burglar who has taken hostage the residents of a home he is robbing. When the police arrive and fire at him, he does not have a “right” to fire back. He has no moral permission to defend himself. Only the innocent do. Of course, if the details of the example scenario change significantly enough then the robber’s right to defend himself might return.

For reasons including these, a Christian realist view of just war refuses to take national self-defense as its paradigm. The Christian view is that since justified war is always a response to a grave injustice, it must always aim to rectify that injustice. This response may take defensive or aggressive forms. It may move seamlessly from defense to aggression, or it may begin with aggression. Justified aggression is what so-called “humanitarian intervention” is all about. The doctrine of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) is, in effect, an attempted reassertion of the Christian paradigm of justified war. Luther’s—and others’—cautions against making matters worse, often through unintentionally swapping tyranny for anarchy, remain important considerations.

In any case, this responsive, reactive posture is essential. The just war view can never countenance the initiation of violence. Force, justly deployed, can only ever be reactionary—never inaugural. When given a simple choice between violence or non-violence, in which either will equally effectively requite an injustice, protect the innocent, or mete out appropriate punishment, the just warrior will always choose non-violence. The point is that just war analysis kicks in only when unjustified violence or the clear and credible threat of unjustified violence is already unjustly perpetrated, and the only thing now in question is the manner of response.

Put another way, the Christian view of just cause allows that a war is justified only when it intends to stop and correct a grave injustice that threatens genuine and important human goods or those social and political matrices upon which the flourishing of individual persons depends. Because it reacts against injustice and defends justice, the just war use of force is also, in essence, punitive. This makes war a necessarily moral enterprise. It is not about defending, Biggar insists, without evaluation, “whatever borders history or positive law happens to have posited, nor about maintaining a stable regional status quo, regardless of the evils behind those borders or the justice that could be done in transgressing them.”

Some argue that such a view of war risks fostering moral self-righteousness and loosening the reins of war. It is true that the Christian just war tradition has most often encouraged intervention, but it is untrue that it encourages conflict. The fact that there is cause to intervene in the first place means that the opportunity to avoid conflict is already past. Conflict has already erupted someplace. Of course, it is not necessarily the case that the just response to conflict has to be, itself, violent. Intervention can begin and end with a rebuke. Escalation will depend almost entirely on whether, at what point, and under what terms the aggressor is willing to stand down. 

While it is also true that this will require some to make moral judgments over others, this ought not to deter us. The political ethicist Jean Bethke Elshtain once quipped that “human nature is a complex admixture…good Harry Potter with a bit of evil Voldemortian temptation thrown in.” Knowing something about the poor condition of their own souls, Christians, above all others, Biggar stresses, should be allergic to simple binaries in thinking that the just warrior stands against the unjust perpetrator as simply righteous against unrighteous, clean against unclean. In fact, the punitive nature of just war is grounded in the recognition of the dignity of those punished. To respond appropriately to the moral choices of others is to take their status as moral beings seriously. It is to acknowledge that what they decide to do actually matters. It says they and their choices are significant.

It is here that the rather uncomfortable idea that punishment of evil is a justified cause for going to war. Justice might be a single thing, but it has many species—including retributive. Retribution is, in essence, moral payback. We can tell it is a species of justice because you are paying back what is owed to someone. In this case, what is owed is correction—also known as punishment. Ideally, punishment is not its own end. We punish—we correct—because we want not only to keep the innocent safe from someone else’s misdeeds, but also because we desire what is best for the person being corrected. If we understand sin correctly, then we understand that the person most harmed by sin is, in the end, the sinner.

There are likely no morally neutral actions when it comes to human relations. Everything we do either nudges or propels others closer toward or further from being that kind of creature likely to say “yes” to Christ. Everything we do shapes our own heart into that kind of creature that either longs for heaven or who longs to continue trying to drag the universe into orbit around themselves for all of eternity. A part of correcting those around us from doing evil is to help shape their lives into that kind of creature that lives to be pleasing to God.

While this might seem reasonably clear when it comes to using war as a means to punish monsters such as Hitler, Pol Pot, or bin Laden or—on a group scale–terrorists, it is not likely to be the case that war is a means to punish the typical rank and file soldier arrayed against us. But war is not typically waged against the average soldier as such, but only against their regime—of which they find themselves, to varying degrees of willingness, a representative of. How a just warrior relates to one such as these is a matter for a future essay.

For now, it is enough to close with an assertion. The presence of a justified cause for war is not, in most cases, merely a mild permission for the mobilization and deployment of sufficient to address and rectify the just cause—it is likely a mandate. Stewardship requires that we do not let the innocent be trampled, injustice to go unrequited, or evil to remain unpunished. The rest of the ad bellum framework, including proper intention, proportionality, probability of success, and whether there are less destructive means available to right the wrong help the authority to decide whether the only thing likely to reestablish order, justice, and peace is proportionate and discriminate force.

Then, and only then, is there cause–even mandate–to unleash the dogs of war.

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