National Security | Military Ethics | Global Far-Right Extremism | Counter-Terrorism | Antisemitism

Iron Dome’s Impact on the Military and Political Arena: Moral Justifications for Israel to Launch a Military Operation against Terrorist and Guerrilla Organizations

The military and political arenas are closely linked in Israel’s fight against terrorist and guerrilla organizations. Israel is a democratic country subject to legal and moral constraints and restraints, and therefore, when it initiates a military operation against such organizations, its justifications are important, as they will later affect its international legitimacy or lack thereof. This article discusses the Iron Dome system, which is designed to provide active protection for Israeli citizens. It attempts to answer the question whether there can be moral justi!cation for Israel to launch a
comprehensive military operation against a terrorist organization when it possesses such a system. The discussion of the question makes reference to a system of moral principles (jus ad bellum), which is part of just war theory and can help in making judgments about when there is moral justification for going to war.

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Image by IDF Spokesperson’s Unit, CC BY-SA 3.0

Liram Stenzler-Koblentz PhD

Dr. Liram Koblentz-Stenzler a scholar and practitioner with a wealth of experience in fields of counterterrorism, antisemitism studies and global far-right Extremism. She is senior researcher and head of the Global Far Right Extremism Desk at the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT), Reichman University, Israel and lecturer at Yale University. She advises security agencies, technology companies, other organizations, and communities to achieve better understanding of the language, global connections, and action patterns of right-wing extremists in order to prevent acts of terrorism, incitement to violence, and antisemitism.

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