Asa Kasher

Asa Kasher (Hebrew: אסא כשר‎, born on June 6, 1940) is an Israeli philosopher and linguist working as a Professor at Tel Aviv University and at Shalem College, Israel.

Biography

Asa Kasher is the grandson of talmudist Menachem Mendel Kasher. He is noted for authorship of Israel Defense Forces's Code of Conduct. He wrote an influential defense of Israel's 'law of return', justifying it as a form of affirmative action, following periods in which Jews were not allowed to immigrate to many countries.

He also wrote about possible meanings to a Jewish and democratic state, the meaning of a Jewish collective and many other essays. His essays on Jewish subjects are collected in a book titled Ruach Ish (Spirit of a Man), published in Hebrew by Am Oved publication house. He is also the editor of the philosophy journal Philosophia. Kasher has contributed as well to the fields of psychology and ethics.

Awards

In 2000, Kasher was awarded the Israel Prize for philosophy.

Criticism

Uri Avnery criticised Kasher for arguing in favour of targeted killing by the IDF, in those cases in which it knowingly fires on targets where civilians are present or nearby if enemy forces are also known to be present, and that "it is justified to kill a Palestinian child who is in the company of a hundred 'terrorists'" because the terrorists might kill children.