A “just war” is a concept that goes back to classical and medieval philosophy, and it’s used to determine when a nation or state has a right to go to war and how it should conduct itself during the conflict. The idea is to ensure that war is morally justifiable through a series of criteria, which are usually split into two categories: ‘jus ad bellum‘ (the right to go to war) and ‘jus in bello‘ (right conduct within war).
- Jus Ad Bellum:
- Just Cause: War is only permissible to confront a real and certain danger.
- Competent Authority: Only duly constituted public authorities may wage war.
- Comparative Justice: The injustice suffered by one party must significantly outweigh that suffered by the other.
- Right Intention: The intention must be to secure a just peace for all involved.
- Last Resort: War can only be used after all peaceful and viable alternatives have been seriously tried and exhausted.
- Probability of Success: There must be a reasonable chance of success.
- Proportionality: The anticipated benefits of waging a war must be proportionate to its expected evils or harms.
- Jus In Bello:
- Distinction: Combatants and non-combatants must be distinguished. Actions should only be directed towards enemy combatants.
- Proportionality: The force used must be proportional to the harm caused by the enemy.
- Military Necessity: Military action can only be taken if it is necessary to achieve a military objective.
- Fair Treatment of Prisoners of War: POWs must be treated fairly and humanely.
- No Means Malum in Se: Weapons and tactics must not be “evil in themselves”. These include those that cause unnecessary suffering, such as biological or chemical weapons.
Examples of what some consider just wars include World War II, when Allied forces fought against the Axis powers who were committing mass atrocities, and the American Civil War, which was fought to end slavery.
Israel is not waging a just war
Israel is not waging a just war. That’s why men and women of goodwill must oppose it.
The war declared by Israel against Hamas does not fulfill any of the ‘jus ad bellum‘ criteria for a just war. Hamas is not a competent authority representing the Palestine people. However, Israel is waging war against all Palestinians in Gaza (and in the West Bank since before October 7). The Palestinian right of self-determination in their occupied land is not a “real and certain danger” to the Jewish people, but only to the Zionist supremacists. The true intention of the war effort is not to secure peace through right human relations with the Palestinians, but to ethnically cleanse Palestinians “from the river to the sea,” as evidenced in the criminal collective punishment of Gaza. Moreover, peaceful negotiations have not been exhausted, there is nil probability that anti-Zionistic terrorism will be eradicated in the region, and the current “exchange rate” of 100 to 1 Palestinians killed relative to the October 7 terrorist attack is disproportionate. True, civilians were killed in WW-II as unintended collateral damage, but not in a 100:1 proportion, a disproportionate rate increasing every day.
Therefore, based on the principles of legitimate authority, just cause, right intention, last resort, reasonable chance of success, and proportionality, we must conclude that Israel’s actions towards Hamas do not justify this war. Recapitulating,
- Hamas is not a competent authority: This criterion demands that war can only be waged by a legitimate and recognized authority. Hamas, as an organization, does not adequately represent the Palestinian people.
- Comparative justice is absent: The right of Palestinians to self-determination is not a real and certain danger to the Jewish people, thus questioning the just cause for war.
- Right intention is not present: The true intention is not peace but rather the displacement of the Palestinians, which would violate the criterion of right intention.
- Peaceful negotiations have not been exhausted: The principle of last resort requires that all non-violent options must be exhausted before the use of force can be justified. This is evidently not the case.
- There is little probability of success: The eradication of anti-Zionist sentiment and actions in the region is unlikely, thus failing the criterion of reasonable chance of success.
- The response is disproportionate: The principle of proportionality demands that the violence used in war must be proportional to the injury suffered. The high casualty rate among Palestinians compared to Israelis demonstrates a lack of proportionality.
For all these reasons Israel is not waging a just war. But there is a more fundamental reason: this war is simply not right.
The rational (legal) mind is usually lost in a labyrinth of reasonings ending in either right or wrong inferences, but can’t ascertain a moral truth as self-evident. Only the intuitive mind can discern right from wrong with certainty. This war is simply not right.
World War II and the American Civil War were justified as valid exceptions to the general rule of the evil of war. A rational mind fixed on the ideology of pacifism would consider such valid exception as subjective and arbitrary. However, the intuitive mind would see the truth of the lesser of two evils to justify the valid exception of a just war. Israel’s vengeful retribution for the October 7 terrorist attack is not a valid exception to justify the evil of war. This war is simply not right.
Only a Adept of the fifth initiation, a Master of Wisdom and Compassion, can ascertain truth with perfect intuition. All spiritual aspirants, disciples and initiates under the 5th degree are in the process of calibrating their intuitive sense in a trial and error (quality improvement) process until perfection is attained. That’s why the Master’s viewpoint is useful as a reference, until we can directly see the truth.
The planetary spiritual Hierarchy approved the just war of the Forces of Light against Fascism from 1939 through 1945, culminating in the creation of the United Nations. However, the spiritual Hierarchy did not approve the creation of the state of Israel in land stolen from the Palestinians. Today, we are facing the consequence of this initial fatal error of the United Nations, further flawed by the veto power of its Security Council opposing the liberation of Palestine. The supremacist racial agenda of the Zionists in Palestine is wrong, as evidenced by the greater than 100:1 exchange rate of civilians casualties since the creation of the state of Israel. That’s why this war is simply not right.
May we recite the Gayatri every sunrise, and constantly work, to the best of our ability, to seal the door where evil dwells. The evil of Zionism, and its consequence, barbaric acts of terrorism by Hamas, must be defeated by “the unconquerable nature of goodness and the inevitability of the ultimate triumph of good.”
The Gayatri
O Thou Who givest sustenance to the universe,
From Whom all things proceed,
To Whom all things return,
Unveil to us the face of the true Spiritual Sun
Hidden by a disc of golden Light
That we may know the Truth And do our whole duty
As we journey to Thy sacred feet.
The Great Invocation
From the point of Light within the Mind of God
Let light stream forth into the minds of men.
Let Light descend on Earth.
From the point of Love within the Heart of God
Let love stream forth into the hearts of men.
May Christ* return to Earth.
From the centre where the Will of God is known
Let purpose guide the little wills of men –
The purpose which the Masters know and serve.
From the centre which we call the race of men
Let the Plan of Love and Light work out
And may it seal the door where evil dwells.
Let Light and Love and Power restore the Plan on Earth.
*Many religions believe in a World Teacher, a “Coming One”, knowing him under such names
as the Lord Maitreya, the Imam Mahdi, the Kalki Avatar and the Bodhisattva. These terms are
sometimes used in versions of the Great Invocation for people of specific faiths.
The United States Must Stop Military Aid to Israel
The United States must not approve military aid package to Israel as it pummels Palestinian civilians, most of them refugees and children.
The US is planning to transfer $320 million worth of precision-guided bomb equipment to Israel, according to three people familiar with the matter, amid Israel’s aerial bombardment of Gaza as part of its war on Hamas.
The sale of the Spice Family Gliding Bomb Assemblies – a type of precision bomb kit that can turn unguided bombs into GPS-guided munitions – to Israel was approved by the relevant US congressional committees several months ago, before Hamas attacked Israel on October 7 and sparked a war, one of the sources said.
But the State Department did not formally notify congressional leaders that the transfer was moving forward until October 31, according to the sources and a formal notification reviewed by CNN.
US plans to transfer $320 million in precision bomb equipment to Israel in sale approved earlier this year | CNN Politics
The stock prices of weapons manufacturers have skyrocketed over the recent period and continue to rise as Israel bombards Gaza. These are obscene profits of the US Industrial Military Complex.
In the immediate aftermath of the Israel-Hamas War, shares of military contractors spiked as both institutional and retail investors bought in, according to VandaTrack research.
The iShares U.S. Aerospace & Defense ETF, which tracks companies including Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, General Dynamics and Northrop Grumman, has surged by about 7% since the initial attacks on Israel earlier this month.
What the Israel-Hamas war means for defense stocks | CNN Business
It is imperative for the United States to uphold its responsibilities under International humanitarian law and human rights law, along with its commitments outlined in the declaration on explosive weapons in populated areas. By doing so, the nation would demonstrate its unwavering dedication to promoting justice and protecting the well-being of all.
Political Zionism Is Racism
Anti Zionism Is NOT Anti Semitism
An invited essay
A Plea: Please Don’t Look Away. We Are Not Powerless.
Today like every day, we are seeing the horrible traumas of life and death in the multiple areas of conflict around the globe. And they are not decreasing. There are those whose loved ones are far away from them and are suffering this pain of war and famine whilst they themselves remain safe. Their worry is beyond belief. Then there is us, we who just watch. We do not know the names; we do not know the faces. But we see them, and we hear them, and we know this is Not Right. This is not the kind of world we want to live in.
All over the world, hearts are breaking, lives are taken, for nothing. For an idea. That you and I are separate. That you are wrong, and I am right. That we are not one human race.
But please don’t look away. We are not powerless. Our power, first and foremost, is in our steadfastness and peace. Please do not lose your peace. Please do not let the virus of rage, hate and sorrow overtake you.
Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh once said: “Our enemy is never another person. Our enemy is the wrong perceptions within him. When a doctor sees a person who is suffering, he tries to identify the sickness within the patient and remove it. He doesn’t try to kill his patient. The role of the doctor is to cure the illness which is within.”
But how do we cure the extreme illness of hate, fear and separation that has infected our planet, which overtakes us and our nations? The cure has to begin with me. It has to sincerely begin with me, here and now, in my own life. Every human being is a cell in the planetary being. We need to make our cells healthy. Only our peace and deep understanding will put out the fire of the virus raging within. Hate and anger is an enormous waste of energy, an illness in itself. We hold it at a distance.
Then, as His Holiness the Dalai Lama said: “Don’t just pray; do something.” There are, thankfully, a multitude of groups, organizations and individuals doing something to right the wrongness in the world in every kind of way.
So, we are not powerless. We can all do something. If we ourselves are suffering ill health, overwhelment or busyness, we can know that taking good care of ourselves and those around us, is doing something.
But if we have any time and space in our minds, it behoves all of us to not look away, to do something, any little thing. It begins with understanding and awakening from our self-focussed little lives into the greater whole.
Do we know what is going on, and why? Do we know what other human beings are enduring? History never begins yesterday. Everyone can find an unbiased, easily-understood source about any given event in history. Even one, clear source of information can help us understand. We will never find this through popular media. Please question and question again your sources. Please understand the narrative you are hearing, and why. When we put true information to our own hearts, we can see how to act.
Some people say the old world is dying and the new is being born. This, then, is surely the time to act. There are voices being heard in the thousands all over the world. This is not political. This is: Just Stop the Killing. Stop the Wars. Give Peace a Chance. Now.
We can join with and talk to people; we can write a letter; we can speak the truth. We don’t even need to elucidate who is good and who is evil. How often the enemy is within, within ourselves, within our own borders? Do we need to see enemies everywhere? We need to transform the anger, rage, and sorrow within ourselves to positive action of any kind.
At the very least, and yet this is very great, we can light a candle, send up and out a hope and a prayer and a thought for the suffering. Once a day, once a week, once a month. “We know you are there, and you are not forgotten.” Mother Theresa said, “We cannot all do great things, but we can do small things with great love.”
So please do not look away. Not from the facts and truth about the world, about ourselves and what is being done in our name, the human race. Those out there need to know, “Your suffering is my suffering. We hear you and we see you.”
So we are not powerless. As for those perpetrating the killing: Stop it. Listen to us. You are infected. You will never, ever be well this way. With every human life you take, you are killing a part of yourself, you are killing our beautiful planet. You will never ever have peace. Who are you anyway? A killing machine? You are a human being, with divine potential. Give up this drug of hate and violence. Lay down your arms. Sit with us.
So please, world, do not look away.
We can hold their suffering in our hearts. And raise our candles high, so we don’t stay dark against the night. And not just pray, do something.
Alexandra Ratcliffe (meditator, peace activist, educator in English, History, Government and Politics). Revised 4 DEC 2023
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