While international organizations, courts, and human rights groups set high standards for the protection of civilians, Israeli military officers, rabbis, and security experts ask which duty takes precedence: the moral one toward the citizens of the enemy, or the duty of care toward one’s own soldiers?
The question of how a people defends itself without losing its moral standards has accompanied Israel since the days of the Bible. The Bible demands responsibility and restraint in war. But does it also require risking the lives of one’s own soldiers for the sake of enemy civilians?
Rabbi Oury Amos Cherki answers this question with remarkable clarity:
“The Americans were the first to bring the atomic bomb to operational readiness in World War II. There were two options: either to force Japan to surrender through conventional warfare, which would have required deploying a very large number of soldiers, or to kill hundreds of thousands with the two atomic bombs. The latter ultimately ended the war.
“In my view, there is no doubt that the Americans acted correctly....
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