Let's address the philosophy of proportionality.

Now that a lot of the discussion about the fight between Israel and Gaza has gotten people attacking Israel for a "disproportionate response", let's actually address the philosophy of proportionality.

If somebody says, "I'm going to kill you." and stabs you in the stomach, and you have a gun, and manage to draw it, and shoot the guy in the head, any state that follows the tradition of English Common Law would view your actions as lawful self-defense.

There are simpletons who think that proportionality is as...well...simple as a body for a body. That's why you're seeing so many posts by people showing the death counts between Israel and Gaza, as if that were some kind of ethical point.

That's not how this works.

If that were how proportionality worked in regard to moral philosophy regarding self-defense, you would have to let your attacker kill you before you'd be justified in killing him.

See how that doesn't work?

Still, yeah, if your brain isn't cranking at full speed, you can say that the dude who stabbed you and didn't kill you received a disproportionate response from you when you killed him.

Even ignoring the reality of human shields, and the fact that many of the Arab deaths in the conflict are from missiles fired by Hamas that struck their own people, Israel is the dude that was carrying the gun without wanting the fight, Hamas is the dude shouting that he wants to commit a murder and did the stabbing, Israel is attempting to shoot Hamas in the head before Hamas stabs him again, and useful idiots are defending Hamas.