Is collective punishment justified in Lebanon?

Question

Don't say 'it's never justified'...consider the following example: A botched surgery where only the doctors and nurses know precisely who made the mistake. No one wants to testify against a colleague. The court will punish them ALL unless one of them turns in the guilty party.

So is collective punishment justified only when we have a 'closed group' like this where everyone knows who the bad one is?

When it's an open group, like a country, is it justified if MOST people know who the bad people are... but do nothing to stop their behavior?

Is bad behavior measured by who is TARGETED by the other's attacks?
(I think this justifies Israel's holding Lebanon responsible for Hezbollah's attacks but does not justify Hezbollah's holding Israeli civilians responsible for Israel's govt's attacks.)

Is being too weak to stop bad behavior a legit excuse for Lebanon? Do they have a duty to try?

Answer 1

Punishment? No. What Israel is doing? Yes.
Hez has been a problem for a while. Obviously it is unacceptable to have Hez sporatically attacking Israel without provocation. That problem needs to be taken care of. Since Hez is in Lebanon, it is reasonable for Israel to expect Lebanon to eliminate (or at least be diligently working to eliminate) the problem. If they are either unable or unwilling to get rid of Hezbollah, Israel has every right to come in and do what needs to be done.
I don't believe Israel's intent is to hurt Lebanon or the Lebanese poeple. So their action isn't punitive (toward Lebanon) in nature. The fact the Lebanon has been hurt is an unintended consequence of getting rid of Hezbollah. To make another medical analogy; when doctors want to make sure they kill a cancer in someone's body, some good healthy tissue may also be killed accidently.

Answer 2

Israel has the right to protect its people. They have a right to destroy those people that are launching rockets into Israel. They have a right to put in place measures that stop the rocket fire ie a buffer zone of a couple hundred miles--maybe to the eastern border of the country that used to be Iran. Are innocent people going to die yes. Is that acceptable? If you ask a person in Israel that had a rocket explode inside their home yesterday I'm sure that they would say yes. If you ask someone in Lebanon that has a tank run their house over I'm sure they would disagree. For Israel to be safe they are going to make a lot of people unhappy. No it is not a legit excuse for the Lebanese gov not being strong enough to solve the problem of Hezbollah. But who is paying the price? Not the UN. Israel and some innocent people in Lebanon.

I agree with Chapin below. Just to throw in another idea. Say the government of Lebanon decided to rid its country of Hezbollah tomorrow. Would they be able to do it without bloodshed? Of course not. Hezbollah, Syria and Iran are fixed on the destruction of Israel and no amount of diplomatic gibberish is going to change that fact.

Answer 3

Is collective punishment justified upon Israelis? The Hezbollah and other terror gangs sure think is it.

Answer 4

all of us be conscious of all that and that i finished searching for fairness reason that is not existed anymore whilst it includes Israel American coverage, however the concern is that even punishing the gang who abducted 2 infantrymen is bigoted as properly, Israel Killed Rafeek Hareri and Jobran Twaini, and various greater and no person stated something, Israel killed 4 UN peace keepers and comparable tale, Israel killed 2 brothers who lives in Lebanon (in the previous the abduction) who belong to hammas (the recent government in Palestine) and no person stated something to Israel, Israel arrested lots of Hamas Minsters without expenditures and no person stated something, Israel shop killing the Palestinians on a daily basis very brutally and no person asserting something, and the international is indignant for 2 stupid infantrymen, F U C ok the infantrymen and Israel.