Israelis may stay home to avoid arrest in Europe 
Disputed U.N. report on Gaza war puts officials at risk
By Eli Lake

October 15, 2009

Israel is seriously considering restricting travel to Europe by its senior 
officials and military officers, fearing they might be arrested in the wake 
of a disputed U.N. report that accuses the Jewish state of targeting 
civilians in its Gaza war earlier this year.

Avital Leibovich, a spokeswoman for the Israel Defense Forces, told The 
Washington Times on Monday, "Currently there is no specific advisory and 
different senior officers are continuing their travel as planned. However, 
we are in touch and we are discussing with the foreign ministry and other 
legal authorities whether we need to take additional steps like potential 
restrictions of travel."

Moshe "Bogie" Ya'alon, a retired Israeli general who now serves as minister 
for strategic affairs, canceled a trip to London out of concern that he 
might face an arrest warrant, said Jonathan Peled, a spokesman for the 
Israeli Embassy in Washington.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday harshly criticized the U.
N. report, written by a team headed by South African Judge Richard Goldstone,
 "as distorted" and vowed not to permit the Israeli officials who launched 
the Gaza war "to arrive at the International Court in The Hague." The U.N. 
Security Council will discuss the report on Wednesday.

Israel launched the offensive to stop the militant Palestinian group Hamas 
from firing rockets on Israeli cities from Gaza, which Hamas controls. While 
the war is viewed in Israel as a tactical success, its large civilian death 
toll - estimated at 926 by Palestinian rights groups and at least 295 by 
Israel - has created significant diplomatic fallout.

Not only do Israeli leaders and senior military officers face potential 
legal problems in Europe, but Israel's long-held goal of normalizing 
relations with Arab and Muslim states has been set back.

On Sunday, Turkey - a rare Muslim country with close military ties with 
Israel - canceled an annual air force drill that would have included Israel.


Qatar, a Gulf state that kept an unofficial embassy, known as an interest 
section, in Israel long after most Arab states closed theirs, shuttered it 
in January, citing the Gaza war.

In March, the queen or sheikha of Qatar, Mozah Bint Nasser al Missned, hired 
a U.S. public relations firm, Fenton Communications. According to the 
contract filed with the Justice Department, Fenton will support an 
"international public opinion awareness campaign that advocates for the 
accountability for those who participated in attacks on schools in Gaza."

The Gaza war also has hurt ties with Arab countries that have signed peace 
treaties with Israel.

Nabil Fahmy, a former Egyptian ambassador to the United States, said, 
"Middle Easterners are fed up with Israel's excessive use of force, most 
recently in Lebanon and Gaza. This anger has now extended beyond the region 
to the international community because the Israeli practices are recurrent 
in flagrant violation of the rules of war and basic human rights."

While the Goldstone report accuses both Israel and Hamas of suspected war 
crimes, Israeli officials see themselves as the biggest targets and charge 
that Mr. Goldstone's findings effectively deprive the Jewish state of the 
right to self-defense.

One of the report's recommendations is that countries that have signed the 
Geneva Conventions "start criminal investigations in national courts, using 
universal jurisdiction, where there is sufficient evidence of the commission 
of grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 1949. Where so warranted 
following investigation, alleged perpetrators should be arrested and 
prosecuted in accordance with internationally recognized standards of 
justice."

This concept was tested last month when 16 Palestinians in Britain asked a 
London court to issue an arrest warrant for Ehud Barak, the Israeli defense 
minister who also served in that position during the Gaza war in December 
and January. Deputy District Judge Daphne Wickham ruled that Mr. Barak had 
diplomatic immunity.

Nevertheless, Mr. Ya'alon last month "decided not to go to Britain because 
he learned that there was an attempt in the United Kingdom to try to press 
charges against him for war crimes following the attempt with Defense 
Minister Ehud Barak a week earlier," Mr. Peled said.

The Goldstone report was commissioned by the U.N. Human Rights Council, a 
body that includes many authoritarian states, such as Cuba, China and Saudi 
Arabia. The U.N. panel has focused much attention on Israel in recent years, 
with no similar investigations into abuses such as Sudan's campaign against 
Darfur, Iran's execution of minors or the Sri Lankan campaign against the 
Tamil Tigers.

Israeli and many Western critics of the Goldstone report say it ignores the 
fact that Hamas sought to increase civilian casualties by launching rockets 
and placing military positions amid the civilian population.

Ms. Leibovich said the Israel Defense Forces sought to minimize those 
casualties and consulted attorneys when decisions were made about targeting 
specific buildings in Gaza from the air. Given that Gaza is one of the most 
densely populated regions in the world, however, civilian casualties were 
inevitable.

A senior Israeli official, who asked not to be named because he was 
discussing ongoing diplomacy, warned that there could be repercussions for 
Israeli relations with European countries that seek to arrest Israeli 
officials because of the Gaza war.

"There is ongoing work with Spain, Norway, Britain and other countries," the 
official said. "It is an ongoing effort to explain the dangers of universal 
jurisdiction [allowing third parties to take court action involving disputes 
to which they were not a party]. This should be about Somalia and Sudan who 
have no ability or interest to investigate themselves."

This official added that there also could be implications for Israeli 
cooperation with the Palestinian Authority on the West Bank.

Earlier this month, Shalom Kital, an aide to Mr. Barak, said Israel would 
deny the necessary portion of the radio spectrum for a cell phone company 
contract in the West Bank if the Palestinian Authority did not drop its 
request to bring Israel before the International Criminal Court in light of 
the Goldstone Report.

The report gives Israel six months to investigate the charges before 
recommending that the matter be sent to that court.

Mr. Netanyahu also warned Monday that Israel would be less prone to restart 
peace negotiations with the Palestinians if its officials face prosecution 
over the Gaza war.

"Israel will not take risks for peace if it can't defend itself," he said.

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Blue wrote:
> David Cameron you just lost my vote.

I seem to remember you saying that you weren't voting  for them this 
time anyway...

-- 
William Black

"Any number under six"

The answer given by Englishman Richard Peeke when asked by the Duke of 
Medina Sidonia how many Spanish sword and buckler men he could beat 
single handed with a quarterstaff.