...The oft-misunderstood "rule of proportionality" is usually cited, wrongly, by the left in critique of Israel's operations against Hamas in Gaza.

One must recognize that the "rule" is, in fact, no rule at all. It is not clearly defined in any statute or treaty. Rather, it can best be described as the resulting synthesis of "customary international law" which is derived from a reading of the ancient Hague Conventions (written in an era when warfare was defined as set-piece battles, conducted by brightly-clad armies amassed on the sunlit fields of Europe) and the 1949 Geneva Conventions which, in part, proscribe armed reprisals against civilians. Sadly, the "rule" is frequently bent or twisted to meet the ends of the particular sophistry at hand...