Netanyahu leaning toward probe into alleged Gaza war crimes

"...investigation into deliberate targeting of civilians." With Hamas, there ARE NO civilians. Every man, woman and infant child is drafted into their military calculations and used as pawns. It's hard to separate classes of combatants in that situation.

"Major-General Gadi Eisenkot warned that the tactic of a disproportional attack like the one in the Dahiya (the Israeli attack on Hezbollah's stronghold in Beirut during the Second Lebanon War) would now be carried out everywhere". "Two of Israel's deputy prime ministers, Eli Yishai and Haim Ramon, had threatened to destroy thousands of houses in response to the rocket fire." Both are prima facie evidence for war crimes. That the disproportionate and indiscriminate attacks were premeditated by senior Israeli political and military figures. Both the above were presented by Goldstone in his report. Both were re iterated in Goldstones debate with former Israeli ambassador to the UN and arch apologist Dore Gold last June.

http://frontpagemag.com/2010/01/28/the-case-against-the-goldstone-report/ Alan M. Dershowitz on Jan 28th, 2010 " The Goldstone Report is much more scurrilous than most of its detractors (and supporters) believe. According to the report, Israel used the more than 8,000 rocket attacks on its civilians merely as a pretext, an excuse, a cover for the real purpose of Operation Cast Lead, which was to target innocent Palestinian civilians?children, women, the elderly?for death. This criminal objective was explicitly decided upon by the highest levels of the Israeli government and military and constitutes a deliberate and willful war crime. The report found these serious charges ?to be firmly based in fact? and had ?no doubt? of their truth. In contrast, the Mission decided that Hamas was not guilty of deliberately and willfully using the civilian population as human shields. It found ?no evidence? that Hamas fighters ?engaged in combat in civilian dress,? ?no evidence? that ?Palestinian combatants mingled with the civilian population with the intention of shielding themselves from attack,? and no support for the claim that mosques were used to store weapons. The report is demonstrably wrong about both of these critical conclusions. The hard evidence conclusively proves that the exact opposite is true, namely that: [1] Israel did not have a policy of targeting innocent civilians for death. Indeed the IDF went to unprecedented lengths to minimize civilian casualties; and [2] That Hamas did have a deliberate policy of having its combatants dress in civilian clothing, fire their rockets from densely populated areas, use civilians as human shields, and store weapons in mosques. What is even more telling than its erroneous conclusions, however, is its deliberately skewed methodology, particularly the manner in which it used and evaluated similar evidence very differently, depending on whether it favored the Hamas or Israeli side. -----"

talk about the relative humidity and dewpoint during israel's gaza adventure?

that girl is heading to the home across the street... where she belongs.

it's not for those who blew up Hiroshima to teach Israel how to defend homeland from rockets

mistakes in learning history are most difficult to correct. This was ( and is ) exactly "not" the difference...

talk about the relative humidity and dewpoint during israel's gaza adventure?

Quote "Surely Israel ... prove that the command and control, and the orders for Operation Cast Lead were within the constraints of the Geneva Convention and that in effect Israel had not committed war crimes." The Israel: Gaza Report Update proved so in a expert , scholar , eloquent , humbled and dignified manner . Quote "Surely if Israel had done so (cooperation) they could have taken Goldstone point by point through the accusations made " If you cannot deny the Goldstone' hand picked 36 allegations ; You neither cannot deny that Israel (MAG) did not hand picked but seriously considered every submitted complaint (150 ) regardless of the source of the allegations, regardless of the credibility of the source and regardless of whether the source was neutral , hostile, or friendly, lady justice is blind and so is MAG approach , MAG did seriously considered the Goldstone' hand picked 36 allegations ; which MAG directly or indirectly or otherwise seriously considered , addressed and responded to , and MAG did responded to some complaints as fastly as possible even during the ongoing Gaza Operations . Quote "Israel cannot complain about the findings of a report when they refused to take part after the report was published" The Goldstone Report surely raise some eyebrows in Int'l Jurisprudence circles . the Goldstone' politicisation of his Report endangers and undermine the legality of the Commissioned Report and hurt UNHRC' mission image and Goldstone repuation as judge . But i deny any official Israel complaint . None of such a thing transpired from the Israeli: Gaza Operation Update Report

Suppose Likud and IDF do an inquiry and discover that they are innocent? Hahaha Just kidding you know. No one will believe that. It will only seem like a coverup and another lie. Counter-evidence will be presented and believe. Organ harvesters and buyers will come forward etc hahha. Of course if the investigation confirms Goldstone, that will be even worse. It is a lose-lose idea for Israel. But for the rest of the world an Israeli investigation will be a great thing because it will broaden global understanding and keep the issue in public scrutiny. It will put pressure on Israel for many months, and images of phosphorous raining down will look like God destroying Sodom and Gomorrah. Israel can revel on stage, playing her role as eternal drama queen.

Quote "Didn`t Israel refuse to co-operate with The Goldstone Report?" (see Goldstone Report page 548. The Mission recommends that lack of cooperation... should be regarded ...to be obstruction of the work of the Committee.) On the other hand, neither you nor Goldstone cannot complain about a non cooperation when most of the report is based on EU funded B'Tselem and others based Israel organisations . Where in Int'l Jurisprudence does it say that a State must cooperate with a herded UNHRC' Goldstone' mission .? We are talking here about the inalienable political rights to Sovereignty, Independence , Jurisdiction and Justice System of the Jewish State of Israel , Should we sacrifice those inalienable rights just so to please a non biding marshalled UNHRC' biased resolution ? We are not at the UNHRC nor at the UNGA in which the non aligned block is herded by OIC-Arab League to vote marshalled biased resolutions aimed against The Jewish State of Israel interests . The Jewish State of Israel authorities refusal to cooperate with the UNHRC' mission must not be seen as obstruction of justice as the cheap populist dhimmedias would like you to believe based on one of the UNHRC' mission recommendation (see Goldstone Report page 548.) Be logic , would you expect a official State cooperation when the non biding UNHRC S-9/1 wording and resolution are blatantly biased and predetermine the outcome ? . Continuation ...

PSM: "ERIC First show evidence Israel gave orders to target civillians" Eric can't do that because Eric isn't a retired Supreme Court Judge heading up an independent state-appointed judicial inquiry. And just such an inquiry headed by just such a figure is the ONLY way that you, or Eric, or I, are going to find out wether such an order was ever given. Pretty simple, really....

I don`t understand why, according to the public, Israel can`t do anything right! They are living next to a terrorist organisation elected by the Arabs and intent on Israel`s demise. They have had to put up with rocket attacks daily for years as well as other attacks from the Arabs. They quite plainly warned hamas they would have to do something if this didn`t stop to protect their people! When they finally launched this war after months and years of aggravation, because the same thing happened after they were forced to go to war with Lebanon. No-one in any war in in the 20th century tried harder to avoid civilian casualties as much as Israel making phonecalls and dropping leaflets and, by the way supplying tons of aid, which on lots of occasions Hamas operatives stole! What you seem to fail to understand is that Hamas will do anything to make Israel look bad and the UN is biased against Israel for starters! I just feel very sorry for them and wouldn`t trust Hamas if you paid me!

Chaired by justices such as Lefties A.Barak or/and M.Shmagar Will not smooth Netanyahu image in the Israli Medias dominated and polluted by the Left and Ultra-Left EU funded . And the marshalled Int'l community herded by OIC-Arab League tyrants wich dictated the wording and outcome of such UNHRC resolution and commission will neither be satisfied by any independent committee investigations-conclusions-recommendations . The damage of such antizionism propaganda is done , is cemented as a belief by the herded UNHRC'mission . But since the UNHRC' mission report is of the same line-fabrication as the Al Dura case , The arabs leaders and commentators hoping in light of such line-fabricated item (report) to paralyze the IDF in the next round will have to dare to aggress to see .

I do believe that is what Israel set out to do during Operation Barak and Livni get re-elected. They wanted to inflict so much damage on the civilian population of Gaza so they would turn against HAMAS and overthrow them. Much the same as Lebanon2 when Israel targetted civilians in Lebanon in the hope they would turn against Hezbollah. The faxct the Gazans refused to do so resulted in even more bestial behaviour by the IDF in the hope of turning the Palestinian people against HAMAS. Couple this with the increase in popularity of Livni and Barak in the polls and the resulting lengthening of the operation from three days to three weeks. The atmosphere was ripe in Israel for the perpertration of war crimes. Which are listed in the Goldstone Report

I hope that PM Netanyahu asserts his authority and presses ahead for the independent board of inquiry. It would be especially important in this context for the PM's judgment to substitute for his defense establishment - there is no independence otherwise. The military chain of command must be held accountable for any lapses of judgment or decision-making, and by the same token, can be exonerated if that is the finding. No one - except perpetrators of crimes - should be afraid of the findings.

Unlike his Defense Minister - and prospective opponent - Ehud Barak.

and that one for the attempted sedition of Israel. There is nothing to prosecute in Cast Lead, except the failure of the world to notice and condemn years of rocket bombardment of Israeli civilians. In fact the whole Goldstone report is an admission of this failure, masqueraded as an attempt to police military operation that stopped rockets. The assault on Israel defense of homeland by UN committee need to be dealt with by a separate, non - military body, and it must weigh in with a unequivocal verdict nailing the attempt to the pole of shame in the international arena.

I can understand Klein's point that Palestinians elected Hamas and Hamas fired rockets and it hurt Israeli civilians. There is a problem with that. Technically, the PLO won a larger percentage of the vote, but was disorganized and weak. I am sure you know why they were weak. Many people who voted for Hamas did so because the PLO was corrupt. It was not to end the peace process, and it's hypocritical of Israelis to mention Hamas when they voted for Ariel Sharon who was alleged to have been connected several massacres of Arabs. Hamas was willing to agree to firing no rockets if Israel would lift the blockade, allow more trucks in with food and that sort of thing. Barak refused to do so. If you say Hamas broke the ceasefire, Israel did as well, and it is allegedy that it was heavily broken on November 4th by Israel. Carter had the impression an increased number of food trucks. So did Hamas. It didn't happen. Civilians are dead on both sides because of both sides.

The Ocean is Big. As a Jew I don't like to hear this kind of talk because intolerance has been our enemy since the beginning and now you advocate that we should give way to our Primevil instincts to murder innocent Men Women and Children with impunity because they voted for Hamas? Are you kidding or what?

Didn't Israel refuse to co-operate with The Goldstone Report? Surely if Israel had done so they could have taken Goldstone point by point through the accusations made and prove that the command and control, and the orders for Operation Cast Lead were within the constraints of the Geneva Convention and that in effect Israel had not committed war crimes. Israel cannot complain about the findings of a report when they refused to take part after the report was published

We can pontificate eternally about who did what but a war with rules is a dellusion because War itself is Humanity at it's darkest and lowest level and there are no rules, just lies, exploitation and suffering for all parties concerned. Make peace and let your children live and be happy. Isn'that what G-d wants for all his children?

one side of the story. Israel was invited ---and disrepectfully declined. Tough tooties. ?"The IDF?s emphasis on compliance with the Law of Armed Conflict was also directly incorporated into the rules of engagement for the Gaza Operation. The operational order for the Operation in Gaza specifically stated that ?[a]ll IDF activities are subject to the principles and rules of international law.? These rules and principles were further detailed in the order, which emphasised four guiding principles that applied in an integrated and cumulative manner: military necessity, distinction, proportionality and humanity: 1,Military Necessity: ?An attack shall be permitted as long as it is necessary to achieve a military purpose in the course of the military campaign,? subject to the other principles and rules set forth. Israel failed this basic principle when Women carrying white flags were shot. 2,Distinction: ?Strikes shall be directed against military objectives and combatants only. It is absolutely prohibited to intentionally strike civilians or civilian objects (in contrast to incidental proportional harm).? Israel failed again when it attacked and bombed two hundred Police recruits. 3, Proportionality: ?A legitimate military objective may be attacked even if the strike would cause incidental harm to civilians or civilian objectives, provided that the expected harm to civilians or civilian objects, or a combination thereof, would not be excessive in relation to the military advantage anticipated.? Israel again failed when it murdered 21(or was it 26) members of the same family who they(IDF) had herded into a house and bombed it to hell.They must have known those people were there.The Goldstone report concluded that no miliatry advantage was gained through this act of pure barbarism. 4, Humanity: ?When legitimate military target is attacked, superfluous suffering to enemy combatants shall be avoided. In this context, only legal weapons, which were approved by the relevant authorities within the IDF, shall be employed.? In this case illegal weapons --IE White Phospherous was used in ammounts and in areas that are far and away from excusable. Funny thing is that it will be Israel,s own Rules of Engagement that will hang them.

BECAUSE THEY HAVE SOMETHING TO HIDE. Boy are you in for as shock when this hits the hague. Have you even read the report. It is clear that Israel while not having a policy to hit civillians had no policy to avoid it. That is a war crime. Dropping White Phospherous on civillians in densely populated ares is tanatmaont to attacking Civillians and a war crime. Same goes for Flecthettes. You are supporting a guilty party. I sippose you think the prosequtor at the hague will need to have an open mind ALSO. What kind of palnet do you come from. How is that Palestine madate going---still cliaming it allows Jews to be transferred to Israel occupied territories. I would add Arabs to that but am not aware of "ONE" Arab that was transferred to the "JEWS ONLT ILLEGAL SETTLEMENTS". ARE YOU. Keep whing psm----aint going to do you one bit of good. Your beloved pariah state is guilty.

Come on Johnboy, you indeed know what will be the outcome. Israel will simply ingnore the Goldstone report, and US will block any condemnation at the Security Council. In the meantime, The buildup against Iran continues at the time that Obama is still very much trapped in Afganistan and Yemen. The time has come to drop the garbage of history all those stupid Goldstone's reports. Yadda yadda yadda, we are going to confrontation, and you know it, and the worst thing for you....is who will lead....???? None other than Obama who seems very much likely to become one of the warrier American presidents. And what about Israel????Is out of this business. Destroying Iran's regime is becoming one of the most important challenges for the West.

The refusal, of Defense Minister Ehud Barak and IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi,to allow an independent investigation of the civilian deaths during Israel's three-week Gaza offensive a year ago, gives the definite impression that Israel is guilty of war crimes and is trying to cover up the issue. Shame on Israel! REMEMBER? "Never Again, TO ANYONE!"

The evidences collected by the Mission' do not warrant charges against Israel. The evidences collected by the Mission' wouldn't stand the test of a court of Law . http://www.forward.com/articles/116269/ Goldstone: 'If This Was a Court Of Law, There Would Have Been Nothing Proven.'

in the framework of the George Herbert Walker Bush Jr. Lecture in International Relations. A woman with an accent said...Why the double standard? A few million people are killed in Africa, and nothing happens. The judge...?You know it's a complex issue? It's a matter of politics, not of morality. The United Nations has a dominant group of the non-aligned movement, and the issue of the Palestinians has assumed a tremendous importance to them, and they're using it." http://www.theaugeanstables.com/2010/01/28/the-coke-lite-of-international-law-goldstone-speaks-at-yale/

investigation were not held in good faith.

until the first summonses are made. There are plenty of vacansies at The Hague

I agree with you and I am scarred that the war mongers of Israel will manage and are capable to through us in a brutal war with Iran. This will be a terrible tragedy with yet unimaginable consequences for us all.

In a western style democracy as Israel professes to be the Politicians are in charge of the Army and the Army follows the instructions of the politicians. So who runs Israel if the army refuses to act under the instructions of the democratically elected leader of Israel, or the democratically elected leader is to scared to issue instructions for the protection of Israel. Reminding people that the biggest threat to Israel is it's delegitimisation among the International Community. Militarily Israel with nuclear arms will never be beaten, talks of existential threats from Iran etc is just histrionics. Israel isolated from the International Community is the biggest threat to it's existence. SO Netanyahu do you run Israel or not?

I've seen quite a few people posting on here who support killing Arab civilians in the name of Israel. And, of course, there's the notorious Rabbi recently who was doing the same. It's worth wondering to what extent those aiitutudes exist within Israel and the IDF. If they do, then that could be a motivation for any targetting of civilians in Cast Lead.

Imagine how this will sound if you change only ONE word in your text: I read the full pdf report posted on Haaretz. Current international law is a prescription for Iran's destruction. Absent the incineration of German and Japanese cities and its industrial base in WWII the Axis Powers would never have been defeated. Why should a population supporting an enemy regime be spared? Iran`s enemies don`t make that distinction so why should Iran? And you believe you can change the current human perspective in international law when reading your horror vision of mass destruction for the Gaza civilians?We live today in the 21 century.Unfortunately, the hegemony of USRAEL is still strong, but the people of the World start waking up!

Even if Israel held an Independent Judicial Inquiry headed by its'most respected jurists, the hatred towards Jews and Israel as exemplified on Haaretz talk back would be insufficient. The International Court of the Hague cannot a respected organization consisting of judges that are not allowed from certain countries namely Israel. Yet Judges from countries on record calling for Israel's destruction and extermination of the jews are allowed. If a "court" does not recognize the legitimacy of a country, how can it sit in judgement of actions by that country. The Jew Haters will continue to hate Israel and the Jews no matter what it does. The Medical Relief for Haiti is a good example called by some eg Durson for example as a "PR stunt". How Haaretz can publish material from someone who so despies Jews is incomprehensible to me.

Netanyahu, Don't fall into the trap of explaining or investigating this utter nonsense of "War Crimes". It's a more a Crime that Cast Lead was forced to end in a month with absolutely nothing accomplished. If the decision of War is made it must be completed. The Enemy must be destroyed completely and if the they shoot behind civilians so be it. Kill them all. Cowardice and Complacency is the recipe for disaster. Don't Let our enemies use our Civility against us. Arabs kill each other if they don't pray the "right way" so why should we adhere to a higher standard.

do not necessarily mean that violations of international law have occurred. The complexity and scale of such operations means that inevitably there are tragic instances, mistakes, and errors of judgment. A harsh reminder for the Jewish State of Israel of this reality is the fact that nearly half of its soldiers killed during the Gaza Operation were killed by IDF fire mistakenly directed towards them. The UN investigation has been widely faulted for its lack of objectivity, duplicitous methodology and biased mandate predetermining its conclusions. The appointment of the Mission followed the adoption on 12 January 2009 of the marshalled and politicised resolution S-9/1 that knowingly attacked the Jewish State of Israel mentioned viciously as 'The Occupied Palestinian Territories".

soldiers return fire and aum for objectives in their orders

while thousands of missiles were fired at Israeli civillians? Suddenly you see the light? Who are you kidding?

There is objection by Israeli legislators to an enquiry that,if not set up properly,could lead to hounding of individual IDF members permanently. Britain is one example whre despite no criminal evidence available from Goldstone especially about Livni has not stopped British magistrate from issuing an arrest warrant,despite the fact that she was not even in the country. It is not just the IDF objecting. Its all clear in black and white for you any way.

without the testimony of soldiers and officers involved in the ground invasion, any independent inquiry is essentially pointless. meanwhile, barak and ashkenazi's "concerns" should be EVERYONE'S concern! at this point, THAT should be apparent to all except those who have no concerns in the first place.

the best defence is a strong offence. why should Israel accept biased accusations carte blanche? it always seems to be Israels fault when they go after those who wish to destroy them. what other country or person would want to accept a do nothing response? reminds me of pre WW2! why should Israel let a similar situation happen again? for the moment, it wont!

Why dont you complain to the Arabs the UN doesnt do much about it.

Based as it is upon common fallacies and ignorant assumptions. "Absent the incineration of German and Japanese cities and its industrial base in WWII the Axis Powers would never have been defeated" M.K The carpet bombing of German cities had no major bearing on the outcome of the war in Europe. Targeting cities and civilians was viewed as a psychological weapon to break the enemy's will to fight. The firebombings of Hamburg 1943, Dresden 1945 and other cities by RAF Bomber Command had a very limited effect on German industrial production, and was no more successful at breaking Germany's will to fight than the Luftwaffe was at breaking Britain's. It had a very limited effect in shortening the war. The most effective bombing being that of oil refineries although that came so late as to have a relatively minor impact on the duration of the conflict. The destruction of Nagasaki and Hiroshima were an irrelevance to the outcome of the Pacific war. Japan was at that time desperately seeking to agree surrender terms. "It was my belief that Japan was, at that very moment, seeking some way to surrender with a minimum loss of 'face'. The Secretary was deeply perturbed by my attitude..." Dwight Eisenhower, Mandate For Change, pg. 380. So in sum the targeting of cities was in fact irrelevant to the outcome of the war and practically insignificant to the duration of the war.

"Current international law is a prescription for Israel`s destruction." It must be a bit of a slow destruction... The Geneva conventions have been in place for the last 60 years, when do you predict they will lead to the destruction of Israel? "Why should a population supporting an enemy regime be spared? Israel`s enemies don`t that distinction so why should Israel? " Because Israel isn't a terrorist group? I know it can be hard to grasp this concept, but it is actually possible for an action to be wrong even if someone else is doing it too. The logic that you should be allowed to do something just because another guy is doing it is so flawed that it doesn't even work in kindergarten. You don't go around shooting people because you read in the paper that some other guy does, do you?

Israel defends herself and people like you whine about her success in not being destroyed. Perhaps it is you who needs to be removed from the international community. Texans understand what it means to protect one's own and own property. You don't sound like a true Texan.

I doubt very much that Natanyaho would submit them to any scrutiny but I would have thought that being the PM that the armed services would have to answer to him? Can they deny him if they are told to investigate?

Investigate ,reveal the truth through an independent inquiry, publish the findings and be done with it.Enough stalling ,excuses and semantics. If we are guilty then we must correct our ways for OUR OWN GOOD.Lets at least be honest with ourselves and stop blaming all and sundry.

what about Arabs and Palestinians attacks on Israelies towns, Villages, kiboutz, from the begining of the 20 century to nowdays. Aren't those attacks war crimes? who is to blame for what is going on since those first attacks... the UN have not made any effort to control the situation from the start of the creation of both sates in 1948, what does it want to blame now, only the israely side? UN has no moral authority to critisize those how defende their people from bombs and indiscriminate attacks that kill any life in its way...

"Current international law is a prescription for Israel`s destruction." So maybe Israel should quit whining and separate itself from the International community. "Why should a population supporting an enemy regime be spared?" Hey Doc, does that mean you support genocide? Maybe you could develop a biological agent to make the end quick and painless.

... and yes, the report did spend an inordinate amount of time telling HOW it was formally composed... a ingenuous avoidance technique...

The criminals / Mafia (our government) should be brought to justice. Nothing was accomplished in Gaza, Hamas was not destroyed.. families, women and children's lives have been destroyed. Horrific weapons were used. Unproportionate aggression... and did it help? Meanwhile, I hope that the people ruling this country and profitting from our tragic conflict, will soon reap what they sow. They are responsible for destroying this country and our society, and are dragging the public with them. They are not only guilty of war crimes against the Palestinians, they are also guilty of expoitation of the Jewish people living in Israel. They are guilty of installing racism and hatred. They should be all thrown in jail - deep underground - and the keys should be thrown away. They are Organized Crime, and we, the people, are powerless to change anything, we are forced accept their wrong-doings. They lie and deceive - wishing Rabin was here...

Good for Barak and Ashkenazi and shame on Netanyahu who is "blinking" again and wants to appease the wrongs of the Internationla community

"Israel to estbulish after indpependent xxxxx inquiry" Where xxxxxx = whatever our friend can pluck out of thin air. Great attitude.... except.... nobody is demanding an independent inquiries into those incidents. Yeah, how unfair, I know. But it's ISRAEL's reputation that's in the toilet, and so it is ISRAEL who should be pro-active in clearing its name. What it is doing now won't achieve that goal. At which point your "point of order" becomes irrelevent, precisely because your attitude will achieve nothing other than to drive Israel's reputation further down the S-Bend. Yeah, I know, how unfair..... you're being picked on... boo-hoo, the world's out to get you.... yadda yadda yadda.

Nothing will satisfy the international community.Maybe if we move to a South Pacific island? A rterrible precedent to set. NETANYAHU DO YOU HAVE ANY BACKBONE?

Israel just hits back, as it should. Unfortunately, they (and the likes of you) will never get it: the times Jews are molested without retribution are over. Israel will do everything, including blowing up entire neighborhoods (of those who out of free will elected a murderous organization - Hamas) if it saves Jewish lives. Live with it, for your own sake.

The charges by Richard Goldstone and the UN Commission are well documented and very serious. The refusal to allow an independent investigation gives the impression of guilt and a determination not to incriminate one's self.

Israel's reputation is in the toilet; and could in theory be helped with an independent investigation, assuming somehow there is an innocent explanation to the allegd war crimes. That Barak and Ashkenazi will not allow the investigation says to me that they know there is no plausible innocent explanation for the war crimes; and also that the relevant commands came from the top. The Hague beckons in due course.

They are clearly afraid of an honest investigation.

If you don't have the ability to stand up to the IDF and the 'defense establishment', let the government find a girl who does.

These are the hallmarks of Israels responsibility. They always have been and it seems that they always will. Considering this, nobody should ever pay heed to Israeli complaining about the resistance of their victims.

I read the full pdf report posted on Haaretz. Current international law is a prescription for Israel's destruction. Absent the incineration of German and Japanese cities and its industrial base in WWII the Axis Powers would never have been defeated. Why should a population supporting an enemy regime be spared? Israel's enemies don't that distinction so why should Israel?

Barak and Askenazi are absolutely correct.Israel was defending its Citizens from unprovoked attacks.Just compare the actions of israel in gaza,with the bombings of Japan and Germany during WWll...The only difference is that nowadays Israel is facing a world corrupted by the arab petrodollars...

We are become a state of no law, no accountability by our state agents, no recognition of our law and our democracy by settlers who claim to be citizens. There must be an independent investigation into the IDF's conduct in Cast Lead, not because of Goldstone but because the IDF is answerable to the people of this nation. The IDF is subservient to the nation. If it is deemed right to carry out such an investigation, or such an investigation is being considered the IDF has no position to say whether tis sahould happen or not. It is a servant of the state and not vice versa. If the IDF is 'obeyed ' in this context and no investigation takes place, we have become a nation where the law and the will of the people are no longer primary, but we have become subservient to the IDF. We are no longer a democracy or a state of laws.