| The evaluation of the value of the target of a military attack is inherently a political one. In this case, the target was a commander of terrorist forces that were at the time targeting Israeli civilians. Moreover, the judgment of target value versus value of collateral damage is prospective one, not retrospective, i.e., it is to be based on the information in the hands of the people attacking at the time of the attack, not on what was later discovered. You can bet, however, that the application of the law in the Spanish court will be made in a political way, using retroactive analysis and minimizing the value of the target. The propensity of local judges to be biased in favor of local views and opinions is exactly why Western jursisprudence has *always* placed limitations on the jurisdiction of courts, and is why the application of "universal jurisdiction" in any but the most egregious cases, i.e., genocide, is so problematic. |
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