A call to, at least, investigate….
The U.N. Human Rights Council voted Friday to endorse a Gaza war crimes report that calls on Israel and Hamas to investigate alleged abuses, or face possible referral to international war crimes prosecutors.
What was the U.S. position?
The move — which was opposed by six nations, including the United States — means Israel could find itself facing a request at the U.N. Security Council to refer the case to prosecutors at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, a move likely to be blocked by Washington.
If you recall, a highly sophisticated Israeli military attacked a trapped civilian population in the Gaza Strip to allegedly stop homemade rockets from being launched into Israel from Gaza. The nature of the slaughter is witnessed in these fatality numbers….
Almost 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed during the Dec. 27-Jan. 18 conflict.
Homemade rockets simply can't compete with helicopter gunships. By my math, I come up with over 100 Palestinian deaths for each Israeli death. Might be a revised Israeli take on the "eye for an eye" thing, it's difficult to tell.
The U.N. report found….
The 575-page document concluded that Israel used disproportionate force, deliberately targeted civilians, used Palestinians as human shields and destroyed civilian infrastructure during its incursion into the Gaza Strip to root out Palestinian rocket squads.
"deliberately targeted civilians"….half of the Gaza dead were women and children. Half.
The report is not simply one sided…
It also accused Palestinian armed groups including Hamas, which controls Gaza, of deliberately targeting civilians and trying to spread terror through years of rocket attacks on southern Israel.
The U.S. voted against endorsing the report which recommended this…
The report recommends that the 15-member Security Council require both sides in the conflict to show within six months that they are carrying out independent and impartial investigations into alleged abuses.
How will the U.S. stand up for transparency and justice over this matter?…..
The United States is likely to use its veto (on U.N. Security Council) to block any call to get the International Criminal Court involved in the dispute over Gaza or to take action against Israel.
The last paragraph of the AP news piece includes this "no sh*t Sherlock" sentence….
Arab and African countries will likely point to any U.S. efforts to block referral to the international court as an example of double standards,
Why would "Arab and African countries" call U.S. efforts to block referrals by the U.N. to an international court a "double standard?"….
…it was Western countries that referred Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir to the International Criminal Court in March for alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes…
Although George W. Bush often insisted, incredulously, that "they hate us because of our freedoms"….you needn't look any further than this action by the U.S. to understand what might cause some Muslims to hate America.
Unfortunately, the Obama administration is taking the same misguided path, protecting and defending Israeli aggression and potential war crimes from being investigated and adjudicated, as the Obama administration has taken in protecting and defending the two American war crimes leaders, Bush and Cheney, from investigation and adjudication.
Neither decision, in the long run, will work out well.
I'm sure that inherent American and Israeli "exceptionalism" is the justification for blocking investigations into war crimes.
{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }
I couldn't be less a fan of the misnamed UN Human Rights Council, who regularly turns it's back on human rights violations (as I'll soon illustrate), but I'll try to put that aside for now.
Hamas launches thousands of rockets into Israel. Hamas does this from within heavily populated civilian areas, and they do it on purpose to provide cover for themselves. When Israel says enough is enough, they fight back forcefully and civilians are killed. Who is to blame ? Is Israel's response supposed to be proportionate, or is it supposed to stop the Hamas attacks ? I think Israel answered that question.
These are not an easy questions. War is, by definition, anti-human rights. When war ensues, human rights pretty much fly out the window, no matter what anyone says. The story of who is to blame will change according to who you talk to. If you ask the Palestinians, they will say the Israelis are cold-blooded killers of the innocent. It you ask the Israelis, they will say the Palestinians provoked it by attempting to kill Israeli civilians in their ongoing quest to destroy Israel.
I don't find much of an equivalence between Israel and al-Bashir, who came to power via a military coup, number one. Since an end to the Second Sudanese Civil War was negotiated in 2005, ethnic cleansing in Darfur has killed hundreds of thousands, with millions more being displaced. The USA accused al-Bashir of genocide. The rebels against al-Bashir are routinely enslaved when captured. Slavery in the region, which goes back to ancient Egypt, has increased since 2005. The UN moved to send in a peacekeeping force a few years ago, and al-Bashir's government said it would consider that a foreign invasion, and stepped up his attacks. The UN backed down, as usual, and the human tragedy of epic proportions continues unabated.
I consider al-Bashir to be a monster. I do not consider the Israelis to be monsters.
Hey Rev instead ofthe usual complaining and demonizing let us come up with steps to solve the problems
1. Have the UN in charge of creating a settlement that will satisfy all the various Palestinian groups and their followers . The agreement will have to include the right of return which will result in many of the Israels being displaced and a loss of any form of security for the Israels. Hey you win some you lose some.
Set up a UN agency that is in charge of collecting the data from all goverrnments that includes every military asset at the disposal of each country. Before any conflict is started the involved nations must allow UN representatives to monitor the assets engaged in the conflct. The UN will ensure that the side with superior military assets will not be allowed to use any more assets than the weaker side. This will prevent the hideous use of disproportinate force.
See how easy it is to solve problems.. Now we can go back to watching MSNBC
Two interesting comments….however, neither deals with the topic of my blog post. The U.S. is blocking investigations into war crimes by Israelis. What message does that send the rest of the world, especially the Muslim world?
Isn't the message America is sending by blocking investigations into Israeli war crimes……that America will side with Israel no matter what Israel does? If the U.S. helps to stop investigations into Israeli war crimes…..who's aiding and abetting "terrorists?"
In my opinion, the U.N. has zero authority to conduct any investigation. I hope to one day see them booted from our soil. Secondly, I personally do not care about the opinions of any muslim nation. Israel handles them just right.
But, to answer your question, Obama isn't going to do a whole lot. He will have to ride shotgun to those who control power in the U.S. Examples: Soros, Feinstein, Schumer, Frank, Boxer, Emanuel, Franken, Feingold, Lautenberg, Specter, Leiberman, etc, etc. You get the gist. He isn't in control.
Who does he have on his side, international criminals like Cynthia McKinney.
Thanks for the subtleties, Balkan.
Rev,
I put my progressive thinking cap on and quickly arrived at two simple solutions to the actions of Israel and disproportinate force. Yes I realize that both of them are absurd but since we spend so little time defending our postions using facts,logic and looking at the consequences why not suggest an answer that sounds good and would make the world a better place.
Now I understand the post was to point out that America's stance on war crimes hurts us with the Muslim world.. Are you refering to the Arab street which is convinced that Israel is behind every negative occurence in the lands including the recent disease that caused widespread death of sheep in Jordan and the ones that claim that global warming is a plot of the US and the Jews to kill Muslims? Perhaps you are refering to the Muslims that have relocated to Europe and follow Whabiism and other fundamentalist strains of Islam? Their view of Big Satan will not change by any political actions? Perhaps you are thinking of the millions of Muslims that live in Asia in dont give a damn about the Palestinian or Israel?
As far as it being a recruiting tool for Al-Qaeda it has had some impact on recruiting but they have only recently adopted the Palestinians as cause and if that issue was to be solved they would merely highlight other grievences.
I quess my problem is I dont understand what is to be gained by the UN doing a war crime investigation but then again I dont understand what benefit is derived from the UN.
Good post, Reverend. I'm also wondering when Obama is going to allow the council to look into the way corporate America has been drugging our minority populations by lacing KFC chicken nuggets and Taco Bell cheesy gordita crunches with PCP?
The U.N. recommended that Israel and the Palestinians, each do their own war crimes investigations and issue a report. The U.S. cannot even tolerate that.
War crimes investigations and FDA concerns are now one and the same?
Or, larry, is your comment yet another indictment of Obama, who, in your viewpoint, sacrifices the real America….the white race, for the benefit of the darker-skinned?
Rev,
What was Israel's war crime again ? For fighting back against Hamas, who was launching missiles into Israel ? Now it's a war crime to fight back, protect your citizenry, and prevail against your enemy ? Now it's a war crime because civilians were killed and infrastructure was destroyed ? If this is your standard for war crimes, then both sides in every war ever waged are guilty of war crimes. Too bad FDR and Truman aren't still alive so we could string them up.
Keep on rockin' in the free world, King.
The U.N. report clearly laid out what those war crimes were.
Using your comment's justification for Israeli and American war crimes, Bin Laden was just protecting Muslim citizens on 9-11.
"Bin Laden was just protecting Muslim citizens on 9-11."
It's sure not me saying that. It's you, with your "why they hate us" post, that contains excuses for why Atta attacked us on 9/11..
Make up your mind.
Lebanese PM: Spying devices prove Israel violated UN resolution 1701
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull&cid=1255694839273
That was Atta's excuse, not mine. But I'm thinking he meant it, don't you?
King said…
"Now it's a war crime to fight back, protect your citizenry, and prevail against your enemy ?"
A U.N. entity requested both Israelis and Palestinians investigate themselves for potential future war crimes charges. King defended, I guess, even the hiding of information about the killing of innocent people, the targeting of civilians, women and children,…..because it was all done to "protect your citizenry."
So I said….
"Using your comment's justification for Israeli and American war crimes, Bin Laden was just protecting Muslim citizens on 9-11."
Why should Bin Laden's claim be any less legitimate, given the situation and all? Surely, you would have to include Bin Laden under your war-crimes-free umbrella. I mean, right?
But no…it's not to be….
"It's sure not me saying that. It's you,"
It's only the uniquely exceptional American and Israeli versions of war crimes that matter.
Rev,
Maybe I'm just not used to hearing Americans function as apologists for Atta.
And I'm totally not getting how Bin Laden was protecting Muslims against Americans on 9/11. We weren't at war with any Muslim countries on 9/11.
Bin Laden was protecting American minorities. His intended target was the Sbarro on Times Square.
Never. Mind.