Quote:
Originally posted by Dragonlich
Can one actually declare war on a subgroup of people in a certain country?
|
Only one way to find out.
Quote:
|
If the Palestinians have their own state, Israel could justifiably blame the Palestinian government for any and all hostile actions against Israelis by Palestinian citizens - that'd be an act of war, after all. However, as long as the Palestinians are technically Israelis, I don't see how we can find a legal framework that would allow it.
|
The workaround here is for Israel to unilaterally declare a Palestinian state, then give it some time to get it's act together, with the stated understanding that, when that time is up, if they can't or won't control their terrorists, then they are waging an undeclared war (which it seems to me they are), and Israel could then declare war on them.
Quote:
|
IF we do find a way of (legally) declaring war on terrorists, it'd solve a lot of legal and moral problems for Israel, but it wouldn't solve the underlying problem, which is that Israel would still be killing poor, innocent, friendly and very Islamic Palestinians (as seen from their side). Israel's opponents wouldn't really care about the technicalities, because they're convinced Israel is evil, which makes everything she does evil, regardless of legal status.
|
The problem is not so much that Israel can't do what needs to be done to fix the problem, as it is that they won't do it without at least some diplomatic cover. Right now, the EU sides with the Palestinians, mostly, IMO to counterweight the US siding with the Israelis. In a declared war, I think that would change. Couple more al-Qaeda bombings in Europe would accelerate that.