Imagine a war without battlefields. There are no uniforms. Civilians and combatants are indistinguishable. Homes, schools, hospitals, and religious buildings are used as command centers and for the warehousing of weapons. Apartment rooftops are launching pads; the civilians who live inside . . . human shields. There are over 300 miles of reinforced tunnels, all outfitted with weapons, communications, and surveillance equipment. Such passageways enable terrorists to travel freely.

Everywhere a soldier turns presents a threat. Collateral damage is the unavoidable consequence of a right of self-defense in a war where enemy combatants are standing behind their own civilians. The situation is madness, and a moral morass. And, yet, every time Israel is forced to defend itself against terrorists who shield themselves among civilians, it is blamed for causing disproportionate death, when the legal principle of proportionality is not violated at all.

Beyond Proportionality examines the relevant legal standards, as embodied in the UN Charter, international humanitarian law, and, most especially, the principle of proportionality, as codified in the Geneva Conventions, and concludes that Israel's war in Gaza is lawful and just.