Israel Matzav

Is suicide bombing ever moral?

I was out this evening listening to eulogies for Rav Elyashiv ztk"l (May the memory of the righteous and holy be a blessing). They made me wonder what I am doing practicing law and writing a blog with so many hours of my day....

Alas, I can only aspire to that level....

James Kirchik has a fascinating piece about the morality of suicide bombing. The jumping off point is last week's suicide bombing in which several high ranking members of the Syrian government were killed.

There are really two questions here: the practical one of what a suicide bombing portends, and the metaphysical one of whether or not a suicide bombing can ever be justified. The answer to the first, I believe, hinges upon the person who decided to take his own life in the process of taking the lives of those whom Goldberg correctly identifies as “war criminals.” If the suicide bomber is a member of al-Qaeda or a like-minded jihadist organization, then that would indeed be a disturbing sign of the increasing influence of Islamic extremists over the Syrian revolution.

But suicide bombing is not necessarily a tactic anywhere and everywhere employed by Islamic fanatics. We don’t know the logistics of operation, but perhaps there was no other way, other than through the taking of his own life, for the Damascus bomber to kill his targets. In that case, his “suicide” should be seen as one of martyrdom and not religious salvation. People throughout history have sacrificed their lives through violence for worthy goals—the Union cause in the American Civil War is an obvious example—and while their tactic might not have been the suicide bomb, is there much difference, in effect, with the man who rushes towards enemy lines from the front of a column?

As for the morality of the act, what determines it is the cause in which it is employed and whom it is employed against. A suicide bombing against Israeli civilians on a tour bus in Bulgaria (which occurred on the same day last week as the attack in Damascus) is unquestionably evil. As is the kamikaze pilot who crashes his plane into an American warship on behalf of the Emperor Hirohito and Japanese imperialism. A suicide bomb detonated amidst Bashar Assad’s coven of mass-murderers is an act of heroic sacrifice.

Read the whole thing.

Labels: suicide bombers, Syrian uprising

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:44 AM