The following is an excerpt of an editorial by SaveTheWest contributor Samuel Solomon that first appeared in the Times of Israel on May 16, 2015. Solomon is an American entrepreneur and business executive who now lives in Israel.
From the Times of Israel:
Real vs. Memorex: Israel, asymmetric warfare and the laws of war
I just attended an amazing first time conference called “Towards a New Law of War” by Shurat Ha’Din, the legal organization dealing with “lawfare” and other tactics used to cast a very negative light on Israel and its conduct during war with terror organizations such as Hamas and Hezbollah. These legal issues also encompass the current debate as to whether Judea and Samaria are “occupied” or “disputed”.
The basic premise of the conference is to address the emergence of “non-state” actors (though “non-state” is somewhat misleading since, for the most part, these non-state terror organizations are being sponsored and funded by States, such as Iran), asymmetric warfare and the use of civilians and their homes as part of a military and political strategy.
Based upon these emerging realities, the Laws of War need to be reconsidered – realities much different from the post-WW II experience in which these laws were birthed. It is also critical to examine the underlying assumptions and realities of accusations of Israel (as well as Hamas and other terror groups) related to “war crimes”, “human rights violations”, “illegal occupation” since these are not actually universally accepted or defined terms yet are used with impunity and, quite often, incorrectly by NGOs and other organization that believe they are the keepers of the “human rights” family jewels.
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