What Does Disproportionate Action Have To Do With Israel?

Some may find disproportionate Israel’s response to terrorists’ recent mortar and rocket attacks and kidnappings. Terrorists and criminals, however, have been slaughtering Israeli civilians with impunity for decades. The Israeli government’s response has always been proportional to action against the state, but rooting out the ongoing slaughter has proven problematic. One can reason, then, that Israel’s response to recent events perpetrated against the state is not disproportionate because the recursive slaughtering of Israeli civilians has brought Israel to this position. Now, the state is overwhelmingly moving to cut the problem out at the root. Whether Israel has been its own worst enemy in the way it has dealt with its Arab residents and neighbors over time has overarching meaning, but has no immediate relevance. What is relevant is whether the state’s actions are disproportionate. The answer is clearly that they are not.