Is it possible to win an asymmetric war against the likes of Hamas? When Hamas terrorists – or terrorists from other organizations operating in the Gaza Strip – fire rockets indiscriminately at Israeli civilians and then hide behind Palestinian civilians, Israel faces a horrible moral dilemma.

If Israel retaliates, and causes the deaths of Palestinian noncombatants, it not only risks losing the “battle for the hearts and minds” of its own citizens, including soldiers who represent a cross section of Israeli society, it exposes itself to charges of war crimes directed at it by the international community.

That is precisely what is expected to happen when the UN Human Rights Council presents the findings from its probe into last summer’s Operation Protection Edge to the International Criminal Court.

On the other hand, if Israel refrains from retaliating against terrorists out of a desire to prevent deaths on the Palestinian side, it is being negligent in its duty to protect Israeli citizens from Hamas’s aggression.

To strike the right balance, the US and other Western countries that have faced similar dilemmas in places such as Afghanistan and Iraq have developed the doctrine of double effect and the rule of proportionality.

Read the article in full at Jerusalem Post.