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March 2009

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"Now, About That “Proportionality”"

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Abstract –

The charge that Israel’s incursion into Gaza led to a “disproportionate” use of force against Palestinians, issued by the likes of former President Jimmy Carter and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, met with surprising rhetorical resistance in unexpected quarters (on this continent, at least) in the first few weeks after Israel began its operation at the end of December. “Anyone who knows anything about the Middle East knows that proportionality is madness,” wrote Richard Cohen of the Washington Post, who is better known as a critic than as a defender of Israel. “These calls for proportionality rankle. They fall on my ears not as genteel expressions of fairness, some ditsy Marquess of Queensbury idea of war, but as ugly sentiments pregnant with antipathy toward the only state in the Middle East that is a democracy.”


About the Author

Ruth R. Wisse is the Martin Peretz professor of Yiddish and professor of comparative literature at Harvard. She is the author most recently of Jews and Power (Nextbook/Schocken).

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