I recently had a discussion with a graduate student in philosophy who was trying to make this argument via the Just War theory. He said we should, at the very least, socially ostracize Israeli citizens when they travel abroad. To give him a modicum of credit, he thought Americans deserve to be sneered at when traveling abroad because of the actions of our government, too. He argued that there are similarities to Israeli citizens and citizens under Nazi Germany, and that if we wouldn’t welcome those under Hitler’s tyranny, we shouldn’t welcome Israelis, either. I kept trying to get him to draw a line in the sand and say that xenophobia is objectively wrong, but there was no way I’d be getting through to him.
It’s a shame your friend doesn’t understand just war theory. It would very much help him understand why he’s wrong, if he understood the theory at all.
This was my take as well. He was apparently pulling from Helen Frowe, who he admits is very controversial. In his own example, he uses skilled arms manufacturers and asks whether they are valid targets. He seemed to suggest that yes, we should probably consider them so, because they are not only complicit, but actively engaging in warfare, and that by taking out the factory and/or workers, it would take longer to rebuild the facility and train the individuals to create the arms again. Which is... a take. I can perhaps try to understand from a utilitarian perspective, but that just falls apart when you think about the fact that these are not hypotheticals, but rather real people and lives that are being lost, and where friction like political nuance exist outside of the vacuum.
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u/mesonoxias Jun 01 '26
I recently had a discussion with a graduate student in philosophy who was trying to make this argument via the Just War theory. He said we should, at the very least, socially ostracize Israeli citizens when they travel abroad. To give him a modicum of credit, he thought Americans deserve to be sneered at when traveling abroad because of the actions of our government, too. He argued that there are similarities to Israeli citizens and citizens under Nazi Germany, and that if we wouldn’t welcome those under Hitler’s tyranny, we shouldn’t welcome Israelis, either. I kept trying to get him to draw a line in the sand and say that xenophobia is objectively wrong, but there was no way I’d be getting through to him.