ISRAEL
vs
HAMAS
DILEMMA

Andrew…

Isn’t the legal/moral analysis of present day Gaza and Israel much simpler than the views expressed in the article you sent. Link to article.

As we learned in first week Law School in Criminal Law 101, the man who bombs the King’s carriage “intending” to kill the King (but not the Queen) is also responsible for the murder of the Queen via “transferred intent.” When Israel bombs and bombs Gaza intending to kill Hamas operatives, isn’t it also legally/morally responsible for the foreseeable deaths of the “innocent” Palestinians killed ??? How would anyone representing Israel (for the killing fields of Palestine) defend the “transferred intent” murder charges for the “innocent” Palestinians killed, maimed and starved ???

My heart and emotion go out to the Innocents of Israel and Palestine (for the War Hamas started). And, I am all for tracking down all of Hamas involved in and/or supportive of the unimaginable, Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023 (now, almost three years ago). And I acknowledge that America (like Israel in Palestine and Russia in the Ukraine) does the same thing, to wit …

• America’s bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki,
• America’s “Shock and Awe” bombing of innocent, Iraqi civilians in Gulf War II,
• America’s renditions of Iraqi’s for off-site torture by the CIA in Gulf War II.
• Trump’s bombings in the Iran War (a War America has already lost thanks to the immaturity of Commander Bone Spurs and his Secretary of War, Hegseth).

 

But the argument, “Well, everyone does it,” should not end the discussion on Israel’s (or any other country’s ) repetitive “disproportionate” overkill of the innocents (now going on three years), especially where Netanyahu precariously clings to power in Israel with the support of the right wing, religious hawks (a power that has protected Netanyahu from the continuation of his “ongoing” corruption trial in Israel).

About a year ago (or so) the New Yorker magazine published an article about Israel’s decision making on collateral loss of innocent lives in “bombing” the bad guy/despicable Hamas group. My interpretation of the article was that Israel fully legitimized some unknown ratio of bad guys dead to good guys (and women and children) also killed.

That legitimization of Israel’s actions in Gaza is not recognized under current Common Law (nor under the common view of morality). Yeah it helps with the war effort if we can disregard the collateral damage of the suffering and dead innocents (as Bush II, Putin, Netanyahu, Trump, Hegseth did and do), but all those who live by the Sword of Overkill are just keeping the slogan “The Flame of Life is Cheap” burning bright… so bright that many lose focus of the basic arguments of law and morality. Ask Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Mother Theresa, Muhammed Ali, Nelson Mandela, Father Solanus Casey, Father Livius Paoli, Father Clement Kern, Rosa Parks and the Man in Sandals from Judea (now Palestine).

I am not Jewish. You are. Maybe your voice is, therefore, more relevant. Maybe not. But I give you the last word after which I fall silent.

You are my friend from Northwest Detroit.

 

Fred Lauck
Copyright 2026