After years of terror — and thousands of rocket attacks — Israel is now waging a war of self-defense. But that war is, unfortunately, being undermined by the so-called international laws of war. So argues ARI fellow and director of policy research Elan Journo on Breitbart.com:

The UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights has expressed “serious doubt” that Israel’s military strikes comply with international norms of war. But it is the laws of war themselves that must be questioned.

The international laws of war are widely esteemed as necessary to civilize warfare by limiting the humanitarian impact of armed conflict. They mandate, for example, the avoidance of harm to noncombatants and the “proportional” use of retaliatory force.

We can all agree that civilian casualties are an unwelcome fact of war, but these laws are rigged against Israel in this conflict — rigged against any free nation acting in self-defense. The more scrupulously Israel complies with these norms, the more it abets Hamas and undercuts its self-defense.

The only beneficiaries of the “norms of war” are terrorist groups like Hamas — not the innocent Israeli civilians whose lives and security are being compromised by the “humanitarian” restraint of Israel’s military. In the name of justice, Journo argues, it is high time to question the laws of war.

Make sure to read the whole thing here.