Letters to the Editor
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‘Roth’s Supersessionism’
If you are going to allocate a full-page, double-column editorial to attacking my letter [Editorial, July 31, 2006], the least you could do is address its points. You devote nearly half the editorial to proving the obvious — that Iran and Syria support Hezbollah. It would have sufficed to cite Human Rights Watch’s public letters to those governments pressing them to use that influence to rein in Hezbollah’s indiscriminate rocket attacks on northern Israel. But as I said in my letter to the Sun, for the purpose of analyzing Israeli conduct under international humanitarian law, Israel is in an armed conflict with Hezbollah, not Iran and Syria. Economic support and arms transfers don’t change that — unless you want to amend half a century’s worth of law.
You justify Israel’s attack on a Red Crescent convoy carrying food and medicine because in the past Palestinian groups allegedly have used ambulances to transport weapons or suicide bombers — a clear humanitarian law violation. But, of course, that wasn’t happening in the large convoy that Israel targeted. Is your point that Palestinian misdeeds in the West Bank and Gaza absolve Israel of its duty to attack only military targets in Lebanon — that medical and relief convoys there are now fair game? Fortunately, no government in the world would accept that one.
You cite Hezbollah’s placement of troops and materiel near civilians to justify Israeli attacks on civilians. Sometimes Hezbollah does act that way, and that’s clearly wrong. But as Human Rights Watch researchers have found, there were no Hezbollah soldiers or arms anywhere in sight of a very large number of the civilians killed in their homes or vehicles by Israeli bombs. Hezbollah’s disregard for civilian life doesn’t justify Israel’s.
Finally, you suggest that “an eye for an eye” is the wrong way to describe Israeli conduct in Lebanon because “the sages” have made clear that the phrase refers only to “monetary compensation.” One problem, though: Israel isn’t asking for monetary compensation. It is taking the phrase literally and, through insufficient care and indiscriminate fire, killing civilians. You also take great umbrage at my suggestion that Israeli conduct should be guided by international humanitarian law rather than Biblical injunctions, going so far as to accuse me of modern-day “supersessionism.” If your point is that extremist interpretations of religious doctrine should take precedence over international legal efforts to protect civilians, I know a few terrorist groups that would be happy to sign on.
KENNETH ROTH
Executive Director
Human Rights Watch
New York, N.Y.
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