World Politics News   Articles for World Politics Course

The New York Times ran an op-ed piece today entitled “Europe’s New Fascists.”  The essay runs through some of the reasons why the right-wing in Europe is on the rise.  It’s an important piece on an issue that deserves greater attention.

One of the principles of the Just War Doctrine is proportionality of violence.  The Israelis claim that rocket attacks against Israel justifies their actions in the Gaza as consistent with the right of self-defense, an argument that is no doubt true.  But it is difficult to determine how much the rocket attacks have affected Israel, and whether the current actions in Gaza are consistent with that level of violence.  Mondoweiss is a blog with clear Palestinian sympathies, but it has run an analysis of the rocket attacks that seems to be very rigorous and validated by outside sources.  I recommend that everyone read the posting carefully and with a skeptical eye.  But, if accurate, the analysis suggests that the current attacks by Israel are clearly disproportionate to the violence inflicted by Hamas on Israel.