Understanding the 'war crimes' accusations

Counterpoint to:

Israeli attacks on Gaza are war crimes
"Why is the Israeli cause so exceptional that war crimes, committed every day, are routinely forgiven, and even applauded, in the West? Can the reason be racist? Or religious"

Bob Ellis
The Canberra Times (Australia)
January 15, 2009

Bob Ellis, writing in Australia's Canberra Times, believes that Israel is guilty of war crimes and its leaders should be tried by an international tribunal. Ellis predicts that "Tzipi Livni will stand trial soon on a charge at least of collusive multiple manslaughter and will end her days in a fairly comfortable air-conditioned cell in The Hague." Personally, I very much doubt that that will happen, but Ellis is certainly entitled to unleash his imagination.

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Hijacking the United Nations

Counterpoint to:

Nations must unite against racism
"Regrettably, last January Canada announced its intention to withdraw from the Durban review conference. And this month so did Israel. What message does a state boycott send to those who are suffering from racism?"

Navanethem Pillay
The Guardian (London)
December 16, 2008

Israel and Canada have announced that they will stay away from the forthcoming United Nations conference on human rights, dubbed Durban II. The previous World Conference Against Racism held in Durban, South Africa, in 2001, from which the United States and Israel withdrew their delegations, was one of the greatest fiascos in the history of UN conferences.

At Durban I, which has since been branded the racist conference on racism, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, declared "I am a Jew", while waving a book of antisemitic cartoons distributed to the delegates.

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Do We Need Tough Love from Hillary?

Counterpoint to:

Try tough love, Hillary
"Nobody's been more solidly pro-Israel than Hillary Clinton. But to be effective, she must become a tough taskmaster. That is in the best long-term interest of Israel."

Roger Cohen
The New York Times
December 1, 2008

Columnist Roger Cohen, writing in the New York Times, believes that the next US secretary of state should apply pressure on Israel, and should do so as a friend. Israel, he implies, is incapable of doing what is good for it and therefore needs a friend, such as Hillary Clinton, to force it into acting in its best interest. She must be "a tough taskmaster", opines Cohen.

To some of us this attitude may sound extremely condescending, yet it is not new. The United States has applied pressure on Israel on numerous occasions in the past, and there are some prominent Israelis who share Cohen's view that this is what we now need. 

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