Dorf on Law

In my last essay for this blog , I explained why the U.S. violated international law by initiating its war on Iran. I did not directly discuss whether Israel also violated international law by initiating the war, but I arguably implied that it did. Israel faced (and continues to face) more serious threats from Iran than the U.S. did (or does), but under the truce that more or less held until a couple of days ago, Iran's proxy Hezbollah was not attacking Israel, so that Israel wasn't being attacked or under threat of imminent attack. (Likewise with respect to Hamas, which has also received support from Iran). Therefore, Israel could not claim self-defense under Article 51 of the U.N. Charter. However, if I was mistaken about that assumption and Israel acted in lawful self-defense, then the U.S. attack would also have been lawful under Article 51 as collective self-defense. To be clear, I don't believe the war is lawful. Moreover, even if we could regard Israel as under actua...