Lawyering Up
CNN reports that Israel prepares legal defense of soldiers
JERUSALEM (CNN) — Israel’s government on Sunday approved a measure that will give legal protection to its military officers if they are accused of war crimes during the Gaza incursion, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said.
“The state of Israel will completely back anyone that acted in its name,” Olmert said Sunday at the beginning of the weekly Cabinet meeting. “The soldiers and commanders that were sent on missions in Gaza need to know that they are safe from different tribunals.
The best way a government can protect its military is not to encourage or require it to commit war crimes in the first place, and not to prevent independent reporting on the conflict. The only reasonable explanation for these actions by the Israeli government is that the military believes that war crimes charges will be forthcoming.
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What a terrible irony…. 🙁
The Israeli PM is paraphrasing Hermann Goering ..
Decree for the Protection of the German People’, promulgated by the Reich President on 4th February and the ‘Emergency Decree for the Protection of People and State’ of 28th February (the Reichstag Fire Decree).
Goering said…… (absolving uniformed men of all responsibility…)
‘any bullet that now comes out of the barrel of a police pistol is my bullet. If people call that murder, then I have murdered, I have ordered it all, I shall defend it, I bear the responsibility or it and have no need to shrink from it.’
The actions of leaders of the state of Israel in lawyering validate that they knew that they were committing war crimes and they committed them, anyway. Guilty as charged along with George W. Bush and Co. Were is the Nuremberg Trials of today, were is the Justice?
“The only reasonable explanation for these actions by the Israeli government is that the military believes that war crimes charges will be forthcoming.”
And they should be forthcoming!! They are guilty of war crimes. Not to mention, Israel should also be thrown out of the United Nations for knowingly and willingly bombing UN buildings in Gaza not once, not twice, but several times.
No one is guilty of anything until after a trial, but if guilt is determined it should fall more heavily on the politicians than the military. Military commanders don’t do this without orders from their government, which is why the government is acting. I don’t doubt that the IDF officers have made it exceedingly plain that they are not going to take the blame for these decisions, and that’s why the politicians are rushing to cover them.
Israel is preparing for the inevitable event, viz., war crimes accusations, as an ordinary affair in the historical sequence. The Palestinians have been the excuse and proverbial crying towel for people and governments who hate the Jews. This will never change, as this sequence of events will never change.
Israel doesn’t need lawyers, they never do, if anyone says anything about the Israeli wrongdoings they will be called anti-Semitic or a terrorist sympathizer, and if that doesn’t work the US will give them a pass. I’m still waiting for the results of the banned munitions the Israelis used on the civilian population in Lebanon that is considered a war crime. I Believe it was the Nazis that said they where only following orders, that didn’t seem to work for them either.
OK, Davo, listen up as you apparently know nothing about Israel.
Not all Israelis are Jews and not all Jews are Israeli. Got that. Israel is a country, just like any other with exactly the same obligations of any other country. They don’t get a free pass because of what happened at a different place, in a different time, on a different continent. They are required to observe the rules of war, and if it is determined that they didn’t, they are liable for their actions. War is not a religious observance.
This one is a bit easier to prove, Sailingwindward, because they attacked UN facilities, so there are independent observers on the ground to witness what happened. The UN will push it, if no one else does.
During the Hezbolah war in Lebanon, Israel used cluster bombs which also were illegal, same will apply, the United States will stand on Israel sides. As far the UN. Israel has the habit to blow up UN buildings and Observation Posts during the least conflict, and in Lebanon where I believed 5 UN officers died. And nothing happened. Someone tells me that Israel next conflict going to be with Iran, it’s worse enemy according to the Israeli Amb. Mr. Meridor. Then maybe something will happened that will change the geography of that area, for the benefits of the Palestinians. I personally will not give them the benefit of defending a subhuman race that should have been instinct years ago.
It’s funny how Israel always needs to defend itself. Where were the lawyers when Hamas was firing rockets at Israel for 8 years? Where’s the UN when a kidnapped soldier is held prisoner without seeing a single red-cross agent for 2 years? Why is Israel ALWAYS blamed for everything? They left Gaza and not a single solitry Israeli was there for 2 years. Couldn’t they smuggle in anything other than weapons?
Since its very birth, legitimate or otherwise, as a nation over 60 years ago, Israel’s popularity among the Muslim population in the entire world has remained steady at zero per cent. Even George W Bush failed to achieve this rare distinction in popularity polls throughout his ‘distinguished and illustrious’tenure as the President of the United States! Hence, one may bet his or her farm that the vast majority of the ordinary Israeli citizens and, certainly, the Israeli government leaders are not losing any sleep worrying about their popularity level among the global Muslim population and also, to a great extent, in the rest of the world and let it influence in any way their foreign and defence policies.
Much is being made of the alleged use of bombs containing white phosphorus and other experimental ordnance by the IDF against even the civilians and civilian infrastructure in Gaza. It does not appear to have dawned on the undeveloped brains of people who make such accusations against Israel that mere possession of thermo-nuclear weapons which can lay flat entire cities and spread radioactive dust far and wide contains the implicit and explicit threat that civilians including women and children and civilian infrastructure like schools, playgrounds, hospitals, etc. will be fair game and will not be shown any quarter in any future full-scale war. All the major powers (and even some minor ones) have these weapons. At least two anong these nations, the US and Russia, boast of possessing a nuclear arsenal capable of destroying the entire world and the human civilization in it many times over. Use of white phosphorus is nothing compared to what what will be the aftermath of a nuclear attack. Some may argue that these weapons are being held to act only as a deterrent. Well, if you don’t intend to use them, why have them? Should people protest only after these awesome weapons are actually used against the civilian population of any country? Ironically, there will be no one alive and available to protest in that scenario!
Additonally, one cardinal fact of life appears to have escaped the attention of the anti-Israel lobby. Customarily, it is only the victors in any war who slap war crimes against the vanquished. Even the die-hard Hamas will claim that Israel had been vanquished in the recent conflict!
The Jews were there practicing their religion and way of life centuries before Jesus Christ and Prophet Mohammed came on the scene. After all, Jesus himself was a Jew. During these centuries over their entire long and turbulent history, the Jews had been hated, persecuted, reviled, ridiculed, abused, hunted down, tortured, gassed, murdered, slaughtered and massacred but they have managed to survive to this day nonetheless. At long last, they have acquired, by whatever means, a sliver of land which they have embraced as their ‘homeland’. No power on earth will be able to dislodge them from this piece of land which they will defend at any cost and with all the weapons they have at their disposal. If they go down, they will take all their enemies too with them and they have the means to do it; let no one have any doubt about it.
To set records straight, I am not a Jew.
There are two major issues (among others) today which divide the Islamic nations from the rest of the world: Palestine and Kashmir.
The Palestine problem can probably be resolved if the following conditions are faithfully implemented:
1) All Palestinian factions and the countries which support them morally and materially, without any exception, must recognize the existence of Israel and eschew for ever any idea of waging war to annihilate that nation.
2) Israel, for its part, must agree to retreat behind its pre-1967 borders. This will include the dismantling of all its settlements, which are any way proscribed under the International Law, and evict, forcibly, if necessary, all its citizens from them.
3) The disposition of Jerusalem must be settled permanently to mutual satisfaction, either by partition or by a covenant of joint administration.
But, the tragic reality is that, even if this most unlikely arrangement is agreed to by a majority on both sides of the divide, there will still be hard-core Islamic jihadists who will continue to refuse to recognize Israel and will be satisfied only with its total obliteration from the world map and who will continue to fight on indefinitely regardless of consequences. Hence, there is very little chance for peace to be restored in the Middle East in the near or distant future.
As for the Kashmir issue, Pakistan will never rest until the entire Kashmir valley is handed over to it on a platter. But India does not appear to be in a mood to oblige. The Indian government bristles at the very mention of Kashmir as a disputed territory by a representative of any foreign government, as witnessed in the extremely violent reaction to the British Foreign Secretary’s unguarded remarks during his visit to the Indian capital a few days ago. Hence, there is absolutely no chance that the Kashmir problem too will achieve a lasting solution any time soon.
The sum and substance of this brief analysis is that the mind-boggling antipathy between the Muslims and the major part of the non-Muslim world will continue unabated until Kingdom come.
The alternative solution would be for all the other religious groups like the Christians, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, Zorastrians and even Atheists to convert themselves to Muslims, rid themselves of the stigma of being called ‘infidels’ and thereby help creating a religiously unified world. But, again, the tragic reality is that, even after that impossible and improbable Utopia takes shape, Shias and Sunnis will still be killing each other!
So, one may well ask, how will all this implacable, universal animosity play itelf out in the end? The short answer is: Nuclear Armageddon and total extinction of the human race!!
Israel is not just another country! It is unique. Indeed, the U.S. and Israel have a unique relationship. True, there are a lot of Israeli Arabs who cheer when a bus blows up. Well, bully for them, because they have at least the sense to stay in Israeli where life is good! And (Me) Israel is always blamed, because it gives the anti-semites a rallying cry. If I were an Arab country, I wouldn’t mess with Israel.
“Israel is not just another country! It is unique. ”
Ahhhh yes…. the chosen people….
In WWII the cruelest warfare was Bandenkampf, i.e. partisan or as the Germans called it “Terrorist warfare”.
When a terrorist killed a German soldier, the germans killed 10 people from the next village as a reprisal and an effort to discourage other attacks.
In Gaza the last few months we have not 1:10 but 1:100…. Shoa and “Never forgetting” …LMAO…..
I have read the Rajan commentary and find it as the only solution to the Middle East. Not the Nuclear Armageddon of course but the three points. Excellent, excellent, excellent. Now all America has to do is twist the arm of Israel, like the 4 billion dollars it gives every year and all the Arab territories have to do is use their oil reserves to twist America’s arm.
I also feel after the recent bombardment of Gaza by Israel and Olmert’s statements about ‘crimes against humanity’ the Jewish lobby in America and the world better shut up, the Jews should know better than say such garbage.
PS. The Palestinians are the old Philistines of the Bible who occupied Palestine before Moses brought the Jews to their promised land, read the Bible. Roman Emperor Hadrian evicted the Jews from Palestine in 132 AD (the Great Diaspora, ask any Jew) and resettled the territory with Philistinians. Previous to 1948 the Jews were rulers of Palestine around 450 AD remember my ancestor Alexander the Great conquered the Persians, passed through Palestine and went to Gaza on his way to Egypt, no mention of Israel. The Romans were not holidaying in Palestine when they crucified Christ. So in a way the Palestinians are fighting for their lands! Of course another robber/exterminator nation, the US would not agree with this statement.
Yeah, Israel is Unique alright. It is Unique in that it is the only U.S. “ally” that a) has attacked and killed U.S. military personnel in a U.S. ship flying the U.S. flag, b) refuses to allow the U.S. to have basing rights, c) refuses to share intelligence with the United States even though the U.S. shares intelligence with Israel, and d) brags about controlling U.S. foreign policy for the Middle East.
As for the ‘where was the world when the Hamas goons were firing rockets’, the world was right where it should have been, decrying the fact that the Hamas goons were firing rockets. If the IDF had gone after the Hamas goons firing rockets, there would be no outcry. Instead, they apparently decided that Hamas goons firing rockets were too hard a target, and started bombing and shelling civilian and U.N. facilities such as hospitals, schools, and U.N. food warehouses, under the belief that killing people who were NOT criminals would somehow make the criminals stop being, err, criminals. Which is utter bullshit. Criminals don’t give a shit about civilians, and killing civilians never stops criminals, whether said criminals are Hamas criminals or otherwise.
There is one rule that civilized nations use when criminals are hiding behind civilian hostages, and that one rule is, DON’T KILL THE HOSTAGES. The IDF willingly violated that rule and thereby proved that Israel is not a civilized nation. There is no (zero) excuse for deliberately targetting civilian and U.N. facilities, even if there were criminals hiding in the vicinity. That’s called a HOSTAGE SITUATION, and civilized nations (as vs. Israel) know what to do there — surround the criminals and their hostages, make sure the criminals know they’re outnumbered, outgunned, and not going to get away, and NEGOTIATE with the criminals to get their surrender peacefully. And try to get your own snipers into position to take out the criminals without loss of hostage life if possible, but if you can’t, so be it.
But that’s what happens in civilized nations, which Israel has proven it is not. So it goes. As thou sow, thus shalt thou reap.
“Why is Israel ALWAYS blamed for everything? They left Gaza and not a single solitry Israeli was there for 2 years.”
If you truly believe that not a single Israeli has been in Gaza for 2 years, I’ll sell you a pile of bricks in Gaza!! That’s what Israel says, and we all know that Israel is known for telling the truth!! Not!!
Israel is always being blamed for something because they’ve always done the shit that they’re being accused of doing.
“Israel is not just another country! It is unique.”
So what? Israel is unique and therefore it doesn’t have to follow international laws like all other countries are supposed to? So Israel can’t be held accountable for its crimes?