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Intervc view with Michael Walzer
September 19, 2003 09:04 AM
This interview with Michael Walzer is an interesting one. I will cut out the bit on Israel Palestine because he makes some good points in terms of just/unjust war. It helps to cut through some of the fog.
He makes the distinction this way:
"These are the four wars: there is a Palestinian war to destroy and replace the state of Israel, which is unjust, and a Palestinian war to establish a state alongside Israel, which is just. And there is an Israeli war to defend the state, which is just, and an Israeli war for Greater Israel, which is unjust. When making particular judgements, you always have to ask who is fighting which war, and what means they have adopted."
How does this distinction apply in practice? Walzer is very clear:
"Palestinian terrorism, that is, the deliberate targeting of civilians, should always and everywhere be condemned. And Israeli settlement policy in the occupied territories has been wrong from the very beginning of the occupation. But this second wrongness doesn't mitigate the first: Palestinian attacks on the occupying army or on paramilitary settler groups are justified – at least they are justified whenever there is an Israeli government unwilling to negotiate; but attacks on settler families or schools are terrorist acts, murder exactly."