Israel and her neighbors practiced a form or war known as "?erem," which is a war of total destruction.
(1) Explain this kind of warfare and what possible rationales might justify it. We discussed three rationales in class - check the PowerPoint.
(2) Address these issues: is this kind of war morally defensible? Are there any circumstances in which it might be?
(3) Most importantly, how do we deal with the issue that, according to biblical texts, it is God who commands indiscriminate killing?