This study of the Jewish attitude toward weapons of mass destruction presents the classical sources and principles on war and its conduct, followed by contemporary applications on the subject of WMD in America and Israel.

SOURCES AND PRINCIPLES

Types of wars

The Jewish ethics of war focuses on two issues: its legitimation and its conduct. The Talmud classifies wars according to their source of legitimation. Biblically commanded wars are termed mandatory (mitzvah). Wars undertaken with the approval of the Sanhedrin are termed discretionary (reshut). There are three types of mandatory wars: Joshua's war of conquest against the seven biblical Canaanite nations, the war against the biblical Amalek, and defensive wars against an attack in progress. Discretionary wars are usually expansionary efforts undertaken to enhance the political prestige of the government or to secure economic gain.

The first type of mandatory war is only of historical interest, as the Canaanite nations lost their national identity already in ancient times. This conclusion, which appears repeatedly in rabbinic literature, is part of a tendency to blunt the impact of the seven-nations policy. The Bible points out that these policies were not implemented even during the zenith of ancient Israel's power. Indeed, a pronouncement in the biblical exegetical literature of late antiquity known as Midrash explicitly excludes the possibility of transferring the seven-nations ruling to other non-Jewish residents of the land of Israel.