Israel Matzav

Israel's All-Star commission

Turkey and the 'Palestinian Authority' (yes, the same 'Palestinian Authority' that supports the 'blockade' of Gaza) may object to Israel's investigative commission, but the truth is that it's nothing short of an All-Star team. Ben Smith writes about David Trimble:

Israel's selection of David Trimble, the Irish unionist leader whose work on the Good Friday Agreement of 1998 won him a Nobel Peace Prize, as one of two international observers of its Gaza investigation is an artifact -- a Chicago reader reminds me -- of the intense, if unlikely, link between the conflicts in Northern Ireland and in the Middle East.

The Irish Republican Army made common anti-colonialist cause with the Palestinian Liberation Organization, with the PLO allegedly providing arms and training for the IRA as early as the 1970s. And so, logically, Irish Protestant leaders allied themselves with the Israelis.

"It isn’t a surprise that Trimble has been penciled in by Bibi’s people. He’s an ally," writes my correspondent, a former NGO worker in Northern Ireland, who recalls: "IIn a somewhat tragic-comic twist to the N. Ireland – Israel connection such as it is, during various standoffs between loyalist (Protestant) paramilitaries (or just mobs) and their republican (Catholic/IRA) counterparts, the loyalists would fly the Israeli flag, and the IRA/republicans the Palestinian flag."

What did he think we were going to do? Look for the second coming of Richard Goldstone or Desmond Tutu?

And by the way, Ben, the Middle East is nothing like Northern Ireland.

Here's the Toronto Star on Canada's retired Chief Military Prosecutor, Brig. Gen. Ken Watkin.

Watkin served as a Canadian Forces legal officer for more than 25 years and has been involved in various inquiries arising from the 1994 genocide in Rwanda and a visiting fellow in the human rights program at Harvard Law School.

...

Foreign affairs minister Lawrence Cannon welcomed Israel’s decision to set up the independent commission, saying Watkin’s career makes him well-suited to participate.

In a statement released Sunday before the Israeli cabinet’s approval, Cannon says Canada fully supports “an impartial, credible, and transparent investigation into the tragic incident.”

“States and international bodies should not rush to judgment before all the facts are known,” he added said in the statement.

He said that Canada understands and sympathizes with Israel’s legitimate security concerns in the face of terrorism against its people and called on both Israel and Palestine to return to negotiating a lasting peace in the region.

“While we fully support the importance of delivering humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza, we also fully support Israel’s right to inspect ships to ensure military material and armaments do not reach the hands of Hamas terrorists,” he said.

The Israeli members of the commission are retired Supreme Court justice Ya'akov Tuerkel, International-law Professor Shabtai Rosen, an Israel Prize winner and winner of the Hague Prize for International Law, and former Technion president Amos Chorev who also serves as a general in the reserves.

The Toronto Star notes Prime Minister Netanyahu's comments:

Before Monday's Cabinet vote, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was confident the makeup of the commission would blunt the international criticism and prove Israel handled the affair responsibly.

“I am convinced that the commission's uncovering of the facts will prove that the goals and actions of the state of Israel and the Israeli military were appropriate defensive actions in accordance with the highest international standards,” he said.

I'm sure they will. But I'm also sure that the World will not be satisfied unless Israeli heads roll - and probably not even then. What the commission will show (as if it matters and as if it needs showing) once again that there is a double standard when it comes to Israel. Yes, there was (and is) another way:

Now imagine that Obama had made it clear that the administration would support no international inquest. If Obama had assembled a group of countries to stand with Israel and support the blockade, reminded the world that Israel’s forces acted in self-defense, insisted that Turkey come clean on its role, and made it clear that the real responsibility lies with Iran and its proxies, he would have avoided repeating the same error that has been at the root of 18 months of his failed Middle East policy. It is only by standing with allies, facing down bullies, and forcing Iran and its network of allies to pay a price for their aggression that we can prevent the erosion of American power in the Middle East and hope to stave off more aggression. Unfortunately, this president apparently thinks his policies are working just fine.

Indeed, he does. This President only has one policy in the Middle East: Forcing the Jewish people to turn over to the 'Palestinians' as much as possible of the Land of Israel. And he's making 'progress' on that one.

What could go wrong?

For those of you who didn't get it, the picture at the top is a 1975 Baseball All Star ballot (the ballots started in 1970).

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:13 AM