Jerome Slater/International Security.
The 2008–09 Israeli military campaign in Gaza, commonly known as
Operation Cast Lead, is best understood in the context of Israel's “iron
wall” strategy. During the 1930s, the strategy emphasized the need for
overwhelming military power to break Arab resistance to the
establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine; since the creation of
Israel in 1948, it has continued to be at the core of Israeli policies
in the overall Arab-Israeli conflict.
From the outset, the strategy has
included attacks on civilians and their crucial infrastructures. Such
attacks violate the just war moral principles of discrimination and
noncombatant immunity. In addition, Cast Lead violated the just war
principles of just cause and last resort, which state that wars must
have a just cause and even then must be undertaken only after nonviolent
and political alternatives have failed.
Israel did not have a just
cause in 2008–09, because its primary purpose was to crush resistance to
its continuing de facto occupation and repression of Gaza. Further,
Israel refused to explore the genuine possibility that Hamas was
amenable to a two-state political settlement. Thus, the iron wall
strategy and Operation Cast Lead, in particular, have been political as
well as moral failures, undermining rather than serving Israel's genuine
long-term security needs.
