This may yet come back to haunt Israel
In Friday's JPost, Herb Keinon reports that the 'war crimes' charges against Israel are piling up and no one is doing anything about them. The reason: Ambivalence towards the 'Palestinian Authority' by the Olmert-Barak-Livni government. This is going to end up being really bad news for Israel. We needed a jump start at responding to these charges. We're not getting it. "[Attorney-General Menahem] Mazuz is involved, and a committee has been set up to deal with any lawsuits filed, but these are all defensive measures," one government source said. "We are not taking the offensive."Well, maybe. Except that the Spanish suit has not yet been officially dropped, and later in the article Doron Almog, one of its targets, says he's been advised not to travel to Spain.
The best example of this, the official said, was Jerusalem's silence when the Palestinian Authority urged the ICC to investigate Israel's alleged war crimes during Operation Cast Lead in the Gaza Strip.
Some 210 groups, including the PA, have urged the ICC to deal with the matter and the ICC's prosecutor has said a "preliminary analysis" is underway.
Israel could have come out and said this was not the way the country's peace partner should act, but instead remained quiet, the government source said.
...
One Israeli Foreign Ministry official said that it would have been possible to sharply reply to the PA's actions, but because of Israel's pre-election, and now post-election, transition period, there was "no one to take the initiative."
The official further said that neither Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who spent much of his tenure developing a relationship with the PA, nor Foreign Ministry Tzipi Livni, who led negotiations with it, had a political interest in publicly attacking it.
The official said that the policy was also dictated by other considerations, foremost that Israel did not want to give these petitions any more momentum, and a widespread feeling that the best way to "ride out" the current storm was to avoid giving the petitions more publicity.
"There is a consideration that the more you fight it, the more you raise the issue in the public consciousness, and that it's better to deal with it on a back burner," the official said.
The official pointed out that despite all the petitions and reports of imminent lawsuits, nothing concrete had emerged, and that when it seemed that something was about to, the Foreign Ministry responded.
The current government has really dropped the ball on this question (maybe even intentionally) and a lot of IDF officers may yet pay the price for that.
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:27 PM
5 Comments:
The out-going Israeli government really believes, despite all the evidence to the contrary, that the "good terrorists" of the PA are moderates and would never do anything to harm Israel.
A flying pigs moment!
Carl,
What exactly can the international community do with these lawsuits? If one of our soldiers is in a Madrid airport, authorities can detain him?
Has anyone missed that the "war crimes" charges are from no important entity? There have been screeches of "war crimes" against Israel for what, 20 years now?
Ignoring accusations like these things have a way of coming back to bite Israel in the a** - Muhammad A-Dura anyone?
Joe,
Yes, if he gets off the plane.
Three and a half years ago, Doron Almog (former head of Southern command) did not get off a plane in London, because if he had he would have been arrested. Go back and re-read the post I did about the Spanish charges last month (linked in this post) and you will see why it matters.
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