Israel’s ground invasion into northern Gaza last weekend was surprising for many people. Unfortunately, the ground war had to occur in light of Hamas’ failure to cease bombing Israeli citizens. Palestinian sympathizers are already depicting the struggle as a David vs. Goliath conflict. In a strange biblical reversal the Israelis are now being painted as Goliath because of their superior military power. In reality, the Palestinians have been the aggressors who hope to win the war for public approval and sympathy.
As I have analyzed the situation, it seems to me that Israel’s recent escalation of the conflict is ironically the only way they can actually hope for peace. Israel’s goal is obviously to topple, impair, or reform the Palestinian government. They hope that a governing entity will emerge from this ground invasion with which someone can reason. Once Israeli leaders decided that they had to stop the killing of their citizens immediately, this course of action became inevitable. Even a casual observer understands that Hamas cannot be trusted to negotiate peace in good faith. Despite these facts, no one wants Israel to create their own version of Iraq. Many ministers believe that Israel did the most moral thing in a morally confused dilemma. 
I am not advocating war. Neither am I suggesting that all Palestinians are evil. Other the other hand, I do believe that peace-loving Christians should advocate that all nations deal harshly with terrorists. Despite my strong sentiments, a reasonable person may still ask, “Aren’t the Israelis stooping to the same moral level as Hamas, because their violent retaliation will result in the loss of innocence, civilian life? The answer is “no.”
Unfortunately, there are times, in a fallen world, when war cannot be avoided. Bible believing Christians are universally slow to endorse war, but sometimes it is the only option to defend innocent life.
St. Augustine, known as a father of modern Christianity, is often credited with developing foundational, biblical premises of how national armed conflict should be viewed. He did not promote war because of self-defense. Augustine believed that it was never permissible to kill someone in order to defend our personal lives or property. Rather, based on Jesus’ teaching of turning the other cheek (Matt. 5:39; Luke 6:29), he felt that Christian love required a nonviolent response to imminent personal danger. But this rule of “turning the other cheek” did not apply to the Christian obligation to care for the defenseless and weak. Therefore, according to Augustine, Christian rulers were obligated to make peace in order to protect subjects—even if force of arms was the only way to stop an attack upon the defenseless.
Augustine’s biblical views became the basis of the medieval Christian doctrine called the Just War Theory. St. Thomas Aquinas built on the writings of Augustine as he crystallized this doctrine. He taught that there were three conditions necessary for a morally legitimate war:
1. Legitimate authority
2. Just cause
3. Right intention
In the interest of time I will not attempt to trace the concept of just wars from Aquinas’s day to the present. I will simply summarize the modern principles derived from Augustine’s and St. Thomas Aquinas’s doctrines that are accepted by most nations. These principles are divided into two categories:
1. Jus ad bellum (justice in resort to war) principles, which apply to political leaders. These include:
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