(Ph.D., Princeton, 1971), Emeritus Professor of International Law I Purdue University : “The safety of the people,” declares Cicero in The Laws, “is the highest law.
” For Israel, this sentiment has always made sense, but never more than after the October 7, 2023 Hamas terror attacks. Now, because Iran (1) is Hamas’s dedicated state sponsor; (2) is continuing on its single-minded path to nuclear weapons status; and (3) is engaged in intermittently direct conflict with Israel, Jerusalem will need to focus on plausibly effective preemption options. If Israel should decide that it no longer has any reasonable alternative to launching appropriately defensive attacks against specific high-value military/industrial targets in Iran, this non-nuclear strike would need authoritative justifications under binding international law.
In the following essay, Professor Louis René Beres, who was Chair of Project Daniel (Israel, PM Sharon, 2003-2004), analyzes Israel’s right and capacity to act in “anticipatory self-defense” against Iran, a near-nuclear state adversary. Prima facie, the Islamic Republic of Iran is a continuously law-violating foe that (4) openly supports jihadist terror against Israeli noncombatants; and (5) openly acknowledges genocidal intentions. To fully understand what is happening between Israel, Iran and mutually reinforcing Islamic terrorist groups, especially Hezbollah in Lebanon, all conflicting policies should be examined “in context.
” Accordin.
