warning world leaders that they
and their anti-terror forces
could be targets for similar charges.
Some two weeks ago American airplanes fired on two oil tankers in northern Afghanistan. It was a German officer who'd asked the U.S. air force to attack the tankers in the middle of the night, in a populated area.
The attack was successful ~ the two tankers were hit, went up in flames and were destroyed. But the overwhelming American-German air attack killed some 70 people. Some of those brought to hospitals were severely injured ~ with mutilated faces, burned hands and charred bodies.
It is not clear to this day if most of those who burned to death were Taliban warriors, as NATO first claimed, or innocent civilians who wanted to bring home a bit of oil. One way or another, it's clear that the United States and Germany are responsible for an extremely brutal attack. Britain, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium and Norway also bear responsibility for the massacre as NATO members.
Everyone should be held responsible for his own action. There's a name on every bullet, and there's someone responsible for every crime.
The Teflon cloak Israel has wrapped around itself since Operation Cast Lead has been ripped off, once and for all, and now the difficult questions must be faced. It has become superfluous to ask whether war crimes were committed in Gaza, because authoritative and clear-cut answers have already been given.
So the follow-up question has to be addressed: Who's to blame? If war crimes were committed in Gaza, it follows that there are war criminals at large among us. They must be held accountable and punished. This is the harsh conclusion to be drawn from the detailed United Nations report.
For almost a year, Israel has been trying to argue that the blood spilled in Gaza was merely water. One report followed the other, with horrifyingly identical results: siege, white phosphorous, harm of innocent civilians, infrastructure destroyed ~ war crimes in each and every report.
Now, after the publication of the most important and damning report of all, compiled by the commission led by Judge Richard Goldstone, Israel's attempts to discredit them look ludicrous, and the empty bluster of its spokespersons sound pathetic.
So far they have focused on the messengers, not their messages: the researcher for Human Rights Watch collects Nazi memorabilia, Breaking the Silence is a business and Amnesty International is anti-Semitic. All cheap propaganda. This time, though, the messenger is propaganda-proof.
No one can seriously claim that Goldstone, an active and ardent Zionist, with deep links to Israel, is an anti-Semite. It would be ridiculous. Although there were some propagandists who actually tried to use the anti-Semitism weapon against him, even they knew this was farcical.
One had to hear the moving interview that Goldstone's daughter Nicole gave to Razi Barkai on Army Radio Wednesday, to understand that he is in fact a lover of Israel and its true friend. She spoke, in Hebrew, of the mental anguish her father experienced and of his conviction that, had he not been there, the report would have been much worse. All he wants is an Israel that is more just, she explained.
Neither can anyone doubt his legal credentials, as a top-level international jurist with an impeccable reputation. The man who found out the truth about Rwanda and Yugoslavia has now done the same regarding Gaza.
The former chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in The Hague is not only a legal authority, he is also a moral authority; therefore complaints about the judge won't hold water. Instead, it is time to look closer at the accused. Those responsible are first and foremost Ehud Olmert, Ehud Barak and Gabi Ashkenazi. So far, incredibly, none of them has paid any price for their misdeeds.
Cast Lead was an unrestrained assault on a besieged, totally unprotected civilian population which showed almost no signs of resistance during this operation. It should have raised an immediate furor in Israel. It was a Sabra and Chatila, this time.
Netanyahu is mixing apples with oranges again to justify all the atrocities his army committed towards the innocent civilians in Gaza. This one Zionist should be ashamed of himself. Netanyahu also said Israeli forces were exercising their right to self-defense after rocket attacks by Palestinian Hamas militants against southern Israeli towns before and since Israel's 2005 withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.
"They tell us to pull out, and after we do, and we exercise our right to self defense, they call us war criminals? I don't accept that," Netanyahu told Israel TV, speaking on the occasion of the Jewish New Year holiday, which begins Friday.
Any body, including the Palestinians, is entitled to self-defense, but not genocide his innocent people; women,children and elderly which is the case in Gaza operation.
What about the military Rabbis officers' orders "shoot to kill to kill indiscriminately".
How about using innocent Palestinians as "Human shields".
How about the total destruction of houses and facilities like schools and the Zoo.
Oh, my apology, these are not facts.
For some unknown reasons, but to Israel, the Palestinians are blatant liars,
as well as the Human Right Groups' witnesses.
About 1,400 Palestinians were killed during the three-week conflict. Israel charged that Gaza's Islamic Hamas rulers were to blame, saying they placed rocket launchers and forces in crowded neighborhoods.
The U.N. report also called Hamas' firing of rockets at Israeli civilians a war crime.
Worried, Is he?, about the Israeli image, especially after the latest scandal about Organs theft in Palestine and organ trading and money laundering in the US by Jewish Rabbis.
Well, world leaders have supported Israel's right to self-defense long enough, but when they turn around and say enough is enough, Israel gets upset and starts threatening and shoving its anti-Semitic card into the faces of other nations. What an audacity!
Fighting terrorism should be everybody responsibility. But the problem is that Israel is the main reason behind most of these acts of terror. Israel wants the nations of the world to either forget its crimes, or there will be no peace negotiations?
Israel does not compromise or believe in other alternative except their own alternative. And why sneak by linking the UN report to the current negotiations? Netanyahu's attempt is flowed. Is he saying either you forget the Israelis' crimes, or there will be no peace talks? WOW reiterated by what a steaming heap of Israeli BS!
This is a rotten deal. Why doesn't Israel demilitarize itself, too, and stop spending these billions of dollars on warring? The Jews hates "Amalek", but they want to be him instead.
Focused on the future
In Washington, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said he hoped the Goldstone report would not become an obstacle to renewing peace talks. He said the U.S. has "concerns about the content of the report" but would not elaborate.
Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, reiterated U.S. concern about what it calls the U.N. team's "unbalanced, one-sided and unacceptable" mandate. "Our view is that we need to be focused on the future. This is a time to work to cement progress towards the resumption of negotiations and their early and successful conclusion,” she said.
How is THAT for saying NOTHING AT ALL!
And here comes the American masked threat. For heavens sake, tell me since when have ever cared for the Palestinians? America, you and Israel are one pea in the same pod, no doubt in the heart of history. Bush's dynasty has not died yet.
If the international community is committed to international law and universal ethics ~ which do not discriminate between one sort of killing and another ~ then it should investigate this villainous assault in Gaza and Afghanistan.
As for Afghanistan, if the United States, Germany and NATO refuse to cooperate with investigators, the UN should consider transferring the case to the International Court of Justice in The Hague.
It is possible that at the end of the process it would be necessary to put U.S. President Barack Obama, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and the leaders of Britain, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium and Norway on trial for their role in committing a severe war crime that did not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
Obama would probably be the principal defendant in this case. He was the one who believed in the war in Afghanistan and intensified it. As U.S. commander-in-chief, he bears direct responsibility not only for the deaths of those who were burned with the tankers, but the death of many hundreds of innocent Afghan civilians.
If there are is such a thing as an international community, international law and universal ethics, they must seriously consider putting Obama on trial for his responsibility for severe war crimes.
Posted by Noor al Haqiqa at 1:04 AM
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