Recently, as Israeli security forces have often responded to knife-wielding Palestinian attackers by shooting them dead, they have been criticized, not just by Arabs and Palestinians, but even by U.S. government officials and international and even Israeli humanitarian organizations for utilizing “excessive force”.1 Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon considers this preposterous: "We are using excessive force? If someone is wielding a knife and killing people, [then our response is considered] excessive force? What are we talking about here? This is nonsense."2 In this article, we consider halachah's perspective on the use of lethal force to counter a lethal threat where non-lethal action would be sufficient to neutralize the threat.
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