LOGO: Truthdig: Drilling Beneath the Headlines. A Progressive Journal of News and Opinion. Editor, Robert Scheer. Publisher, Zuade Kaufman.   Exclusive Truthdig Merchandise: Mr. Fish T-shirts and Signed Prints
November 26, 2009
Log in / Register

 Choose a size
Text Size

Most Read

Still Doing God's Work on Wall Street

Obama's Thankless Thanksgiving

Obama Risks Losing His Judicial Prize

Colbert Conservatives and Military Waste

Age Trumps Youth in UC Tuition Dispute

Most Comments
Most Emailed

Reports

Ear to the Ground

A/V Booth

Arts & Culture

Digs
Financial Meltdown 101
Vetting Sarah Palin

Truthdig Bazaar more items

 
Ear to the Ground

Israeli PM Promises to Shield Troops From War Crime Trials

Email this item Email    Print this item Print   
Posted on Jan 25, 2009
Ehud Olmert
Wikimedia Commons / Agência Brasil

The BBC reports: “Any Israeli soldiers accused of war crimes in the Gaza Strip will be given state protection from prosecution overseas, the country’s PM has said.” At issue is Israel’s use of white phosphorous, a chemical agent that is not permitted in densely populated areas because it sticks to and severely burns human tissue.

BBC:

In Israel, Prime Minister Olmert told a weekly cabinet meeting that soldiers who had put their lives on the line for their country need not fear prosecution for war crimes overseas.

“The commanders and soldiers that were sent on the task in Gaza should know that they are safe from any tribunal and that the State of Israel will assist them in this issue and protect them as they protected us with their bodies during the military operation in Gaza,” he said.

Israel’s military tactics have come under intense scrutiny as evidence has emerged of the high numbers of Palestinian civilians killed in Gaza.

Read more

More Below the Ad

Advertisement


Elsewhere: .

Comments

Are you a Truthdig member yet? Login now, or register with Truthdig.

By Fadel Abdallah, January 28 at 1:02 pm #

To the ugly Zionists on Truthdig!

I challenge you to watch the following segment from the

CBS 60 Minutes Exposing Israeli Apartheid and its crimes and violations of basic human rights!

I dare you to look into the mirror and see your bloody criminal faces!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYAgyv2MKyI&feature; =email

Report this

By KDelphi, January 27 at 8:48 pm #

Folktruther—Thanks, I will be looking for it.

Do you think it will come out the same day as the investigation into Bush et al, that says that they are all innocent as hell?

Report this

By Sepharad, January 27 at 6:54 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

Based on information being reported the last several days by foreign reporters allowed back into Gaza and also in southern Israel—Newsweek, Guardian, Palestinian journalists and others, whose output I’ve already quoted on two other threads—I would say that Israeli soldiers are pretty safe from any accusations of war crimes, let alone conviction. Just do a simple experiment, if you think you know what happened in Gaza: find a COMPLETE report of everything the EU’s Michel said, and compare it to the shortened, selectively worded accounts from BBC et al. The map is not the territory, and the BBC is not the whole truth, often by design.

So far no one sane as posted on this particular thread, so let me be the first exception.

Report this

By Folktruther, January 27 at 5:32 pm #

Way to go, KDeophi.  You can, when it appears, add the Israeli Investigative Report, that Israel has done nothing illegal or immoral.

Report this

By KDelphi, January 27 at 3:16 am #

From TimesOnline, Jan, 24, 2009

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article5575070.ece


January 5 The Times reports that telltale smoke has appeared from areas of shelling. Israel denies using phosphorus

January 8 The Times reports photographic evidence showing stockpiles of white phosphorus (WP) shells. Israel Defence Forces spokesman says: “This is what we call a quiet shell – it has no explosives and no white phosphorus”

January 12 The Times reports that more than 50 phosphorus burns victims are taken into Nasser Hospital. An Israeli military spokesman “categorically” denies the use of white phosphorus

January 15 Remnants of white phosphorus shells are found in western Gaza. The IDF refuses to comment on specific weaponry but insists ammunition is “within the scope of international law”

January 16 The United Nations Relief and Works Agency headquarters are hit with phosphorus munitions. The Israeli military continues to deny its use

January 21 Avital Leibovich, Israel’s military spokeswoman, admits white phosphorus munitions were employed in a manner “according to international law”

January 23 Israel says it is launching an investigation into white phosphorus munitions, which hit a UN school on January 17. “Some practices could be illegal but we are going into that. The IDF is holding an investigation concerning one specific unit and one incident” Source: Times database

Report this

By cyrena, January 27 at 2:56 am #

By kwagmyre, January 25 at 8:33 pm
•  “As outwardly intelligent and fair minded as he quite clearly APPEARS to be, Obama’s too conditioned by the general pro-Israel or pro-Zionist sentiment in the U.S. … He might be savvy when it came to winning the election but is likely just too naive when it comes to understanding just how much insidious influence Israel has had in his decision not to include Hamas in any meaningful negotiations in the Middle East.”

I get your point here kwagmyre, but the thing is, we have to be careful of the so-called ‘clear’ APPEARANCES. In fact, Obama is obviously intelligent and fair minded, and savvy as hell, or he would NOT have won the election. Based on that, I think you underestimate what you believe to be his ‘conditioning’ by the general pro-Israel or pro-Zionist sentiment in the US.

There is NO DOUBT that Obama is very CLEARLY AWARE of such ‘sentiments’ so he is NOT ‘naïve’ regarding the suffering of the Palestinians. What we don’t know yet, is how he intends to respond to that in the future, since he specifically did NOT ‘reveal’ that publically during his campaign. (keep in mind that he wouldn’t have won. Remember when his comment about “the Palestinians suffering more than anyone” was ‘censored’ and reconstructed by the Zionist controlled media?)

So we’re 4 days into it, and there’s quite a bit on the plate. I share the concern about not including Hamas in any of the discussions, though I don’t know if that is “HIS” specific decision. So there might be a legitimate criticism there, if he’s following the lead of whomever he has appointed to do the work. We already know what Hilary’s position is on “speaking with US defined ‘terrorists’ “ and I DON’T know what Susan Rice has to say about any of this, though admittedly I haven’t had time to look.
Regardless, I think that we have to eventually figure out that for all of the work that this new administration has to accomplish in terms of bringing ourselves in compliance with our OWN laws as well as International Law, it will happen quietly and without drama on Obama’s watch. I don’t expect many people to see the results, other than in hindsight. Even then, many will still refuse to acknowledge it.
I say fuck ‘em.

Report this

By dihey, January 26 at 3:20 pm #

This excuse is known as “the Neuremberg-Defence” used among others by the peace-loving Hermann Goering. The analogous happening in WW2 was the wanton near-total destruction of old Warsaw ordered by Hitler to revenge the Polish uprising which killed many German soldiers and officers. The “Neuremberg-Defence” was not accepted by the Neuremberg trials. “Ich habe es nicht gewusst” was not accepted either. The basic message was:“don’t do it even when ordered if you are not sure whether your act is a war crime”. Ever heard of “the Neuremberg-Defence” President Obama-baby? Are you asleep at the helm of state or what?

Report this

By abdo, January 26 at 3:03 pm #

Israel want to shield its soldiers to assure their sci lance about; what happened in Gaza , who ordered the Israeli army to execute the killing of non combatant ? and who armed and paid for the butchery?

Report this

By hippy pam, January 26 at 10:05 am #

And SHAME ON US…..“ole bullshit” is sittin’ in TEXAS-in VERY EXPENSIVE DIGS THAT WERE BUILT WITH FOOD MONEY STOLEN FROM CHILDREN AND VETERANS….... instead of being in a JAIL awaiting trial for HIS CRIMES..

Report this

By Verne Arnold, January 26 at 7:43 am #

> By david dixit, January 25 at 11:31 am;

You forgot shame on America.

I fear, if the crimes of especially the last 8 years go unpunished; the west will pay a horrific price and innocents will die in droves. Time to wake up and act.

Report this

By Folktruther, January 26 at 7:02 am #

Great quotes Brewerstroupe and Oceana—You and Robert are invaluable in providing documentation in changing American and Western opinion.

Report this

By PSmith, January 26 at 4:22 am #

APPLYING THE SCREWS - WILL ISRAELIS REFUSE TO SERVE?

How many Israelis will refuse to serve in the IDF for the next genocide when the Israeli Gazan genocide perpetrators can’t travel abroad because they will face war crimes arrests and trials?

Along with Bush Cheney Neocons who can’t travel because they too will also face war crimes arrests and trials.

Imagine being unable to travel for one year. Then ten years. Then thirty years. Because this is their future. It is not going away.

Eventually they will get the message.

Report this

By Oceana, January 26 at 1:48 am #

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v31/n02/sieg01_.html

London Review of Books
Israel’s Lies
Henry Siegman

“Western governments and most of the Western media have accepted a number of Israeli claims justifying the military assault on Gaza: that Hamas consistently violated the six-month truce that Israel observed and then refused to extend it; that Israel therefore had no choice but to destroy Hamas’s capacity to launch missiles into Israeli towns; that Hamas is a terrorist organisation, part of a global jihadi network; and that Israel has acted not only in its own defence but on behalf of an international struggle by Western democracies against this network.

I am not aware of a single major American newspaper, radio station or TV channel whose coverage of the assault on Gaza questions this version of events. Criticism of Israel’s actions, if any (and there has been none from the Bush administration), has focused instead on whether the IDF’s carnage is proportional to the threat it sought to counter, and whether it is taking adequate measures to prevent civilian casualties.

Middle East peacemaking has been smothered in deceptive euphemisms, so let me state bluntly that each of these claims is a lie.”

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/album.php?aid=84601&id=645539679&ref=nf

Websites:
If Americans Knew
My Israel Question
Palestine Remembered

Shame on Israel, the U.S.A, England and France!  The truth is known and history is recorded.  Try as you might to blame the victim of the crimes of the oppressor(s), you will not succeed!  It has already failed. 

President Obama and State Secretary Hilary Clinton will go down in history as war criminals as well, unless they have the courage to not bow to AIPAC and stand up and speak out against the injustices and inhumane treatment committed against the Palestinians.

May the Palestinian people, the indigenous people of this land, forever stand as a testament for all the indigenous people who were also victims of genocide and illegal occupations by a foreign land.

Prior to the Zionist Industrialists, Jews and Palestinians, Christians, Muslims,.... all lived peaceably together.  Why did this change?  The “why” question is often removed in our modern day recording of history.  One must ask “Why?” in order to understand.

Report this

By kwagmyre, January 26 at 1:33 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

As outwardly intelligent and fair minded as he quite clearly APPEARS to be, Obama’s too conditioned by the general pro-Israel or pro-Zionist sentiment in the U.S.  He might be savvy when it came to winning the election but is likely just too naive when it comes to understanding just how much insidious influence Israel has had in his decision not to include Hamas in any meaningful negotiations in the Middle East.

Report this

By Mark K, January 26 at 12:59 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

LRB (London Review of Books) contributors react to events in Gaza:

The extent of the cruelty, the lack of shame and the refusal of self-restraint are striking, both in anthropological terms and historically. The worldwide Jewish support for this vandal offensive makes one wonder if this isn’t the moment Zionism is taking over the Jewish people.

http://www.lrb.co.uk/web/15/01/2009/mult04_.html
Yitzhak Laor lives in Tel Aviv. He is the editor of Mita’am.

Report this

By Shift, January 25 at 11:39 pm #

Food for thought for both America and Israel.

“But who are these barbarians? Tzvetan Todorov questions Claude Levi-Strauss’ definition of the barbarian as “the man who believes in barbarism” and suggests: “It is someone who believes that a population or an individual is not fully human and therefore merits treatment that he would resolutely refuse to apply to himself.” In his recent The Fear of Barbarians (10), Todorov develops an argument he presented in earlier works such as On Human Diversity (a thought-provoking book that deserves to be far more widely read). “The fear of barbarians,” he writes now, “is what is in danger of turning us into barbarians. And the evil that we do will far exceed what we initially fear.””

http://mondediplo.com/2009/01/07west

Report this

By pikawicca, January 25 at 10:37 pm #

Ya know,

Israel has nothing to say about what international courts choose to do.  Kill and maim civilians?  Take what’s coming to you.

Report this

By brewerstroupe, January 25 at 10:33 pm #

At last the truth from an unimpeachable source:

Israel, not Hamas, violated the truce: Hamas undertook to stop firing rockets into Israel; in return, Israel was to ease its throttlehold on Gaza. In fact, during the truce, it tightened it further. This was confirmed not only by every neutral international observer and NGO on the scene but by Brigadier General (Res.) Shmuel Zakai, a former commander of the IDF’s Gaza Division. In an interview in Ha’aretz on 22 December, he accused Israel’s government of having made a ‘central error’ during the tahdiyeh, the six-month period of relative truce, by failing ‘to take advantage of the calm to improve, rather than markedly worsen, the economic plight of the Palestinians of the Strip . . .

Henry Siegman, director of the US Middle East Project in New York, is a visiting research professor at SOAS, University of London. He is a former national director of the American Jewish Congress and of the Synagogue Council of America.
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v31/n02/sieg01_.html#footnotes

Report this

By diamond, January 25 at 7:07 pm #

‘The task in Gaza’? This must rank alongside ‘Arbeit macht frei’ as the biggest misuse of language in history. I really don’t see the problem. Can’t these patriotic heroes say they were ‘just following orders’? That worked so well for the Nazis. Not.

Report this

By squeaky jones, January 25 at 6:29 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

When the Death Merchants export death and misery to your neighborhood like Olmert, Bush, Cheney, Obama, etc., creating mass social disorder, there will be no more food on the store shelves, or spare parts, or fertilizer to grow food. Your salvation will be the natural world, and your ability to re-wild. In other words, your ability to survive in the wild. Cities will be rotten and unliveable. Learn how to identify edible plants, insects, build shelters, make a fire etc. You might start by watching a few episodes of Man vs Wild on the Discovery channel. Squeaky.

Report this

By P. T., January 25 at 6:08 pm #

The one that Ehud Olmert is most interested in protecting from war crime trials is himself.  He better stay at home.

Report this

By Stephen Smoliar, January 25 at 5:57 pm #

The “change we can believe in” is that the United States can go to the Middle East and be perceived as an “honest broker” by all sides;  but this is unlikely to be the case:

http://therehearsalstudio.blogspot.com/2009/01/who-gets-to-dictate-terms.html

Report this

By Folktruther, January 25 at 5:25 pm #

The Gazan pseudo-war marks a distinct turn of the Israel power structure toward barbarism, with utter contempt for world opinion.  It shelled UN facilities, housing the population, with phosphorous shells, and now proclaims it will defend the perpetrators of war crimes.  Of which Olmert is the chief.

This pretty much destroys the possiblity of a two state solution except by Hamas political-militarism.  Obama’s support for the Israeli massacre, much more public than the Israeli massacre of the refugees in the Beiruit camps, polarizes opinion, making increased war more likely.

Report this

By P. T., January 25 at 5:24 pm #

Israel is not fully disclosing what weapons it used, thereby impeding doctors trying to treat the strange wounds they are seeing.  For pictures, click on http://www.normanfinkelstein.com/article.php?pg=11&ar=2584

Report this

By P. T., January 25 at 5:10 pm #

Israel has a rogue ruling class.

Report this

By Fadel Abdallah, January 25 at 5:05 pm #

I wish this bloody criminal son of a bitch would collapse dead while uttering some of the filthy stinky words coming from his rectum rather than his head!

The world will never experience peace as long as such bloody criminals are allowed in positions of leadership. But what’s new about this bloody illegitimate entity called Israel since in its short bloody history has elevated most of its known terrorists to the highest positions of the state!

There is no way that this cancer could be cured except through making a large number of those scum of the earth get a taste of their own medicine!

Report this

By PatrickHenry, January 25 at 4:57 pm #

Inhuman shield.

Report this

By dihey, January 25 at 4:56 pm #

Well, Obama-baby, what are you going to do now? The use of white phosphorus bombs by Israel has been known for many days. Are you going to invade Israel and arrest its numerous war criminals like your predecessor tried but unsuccessfully in Afghanistan? Ah, but he was after killers of Americans and not of “Arabs”! Have you instructed Mr. Mitchell to demand that Israeli war criminals be sent to Scheveningen? Why have you not yet publicly expressed your disgust/contempt of the Israeli government? Are you afraid to insult Mr. Olmert? Or his almost-sure successor “Bibi”? Who are you? Our coward-in-chief?

Report this

By david dixit, January 25 at 4:31 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

Shame on Israel, shame on Olmert… and shame on the world for standing by.

Report this

Add Your Comment

Posts by unregistered readers are moderated. Posts by members
are published immediately. Why wait? Register today!







Number of characters remaining: 4000

Notify you when others comment on this article?


Are you a human?
Retype the word you see here.


Please read and abide by our comment policy.
By submitting this comment, you agree to this site's terms and conditions.

 
 

 
Join the Liberal Blog Advertising Network
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A Progressive Journal of News and Opinion. Editor, Robert Scheer. Publisher, Zuade Kaufman.
Copyright © 2009 Truthdig, L.L.C. All rights reserved.