Israel suspects two IDF officers guilty of Gaza war crimes

[shaayecanaan]

An Israel Defense Forces brigadier general and another officer with the rank of colonel endangered human life during last year's military campaign in the Gaza Strip by firing white phosphorous munitions in the direction of a compound run by UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, the Israeli government says.

The finding acknowledges, at least in part, allegations by international organizations. It was contained in a report that the government provided to the United Nations over the weekend in response to last September's Goldstone Commission report.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1146638.html

[peacetalksforall]

1. Give me a break. Two independent military men had access and the decision power all on their own?

[shaayecanaan]

2. Thats what I thought...

The usual first response to any government scandal is to conduct an internal investigation that finds no evidence of wrongdoing. The second response is usually to find some lesser-down and make an example out of them.

Considering how keen Israel has been to counter the Goldstone report, it is astonishing how reluctant it has been to order its own judicial inquiry. I can only imagine that they are intensely afraid of what any inquiry would turn up.

[Igel]

3. Probably.

White phosphorus is, from all I can gather, neither banned nor dreadfully uncommon. It has an accepted military use. It also has constraints on that use. If a brigade's issued a munition and the commander says to fire it, it's probably not required that he go to the prime minister for approval for every shell. Possibly his commanding officer is sufficient--and that decision will likely rest on what information the officer has, which may largely be what the brigade commander tells him.

[peacetalksforall]

4. " .... nor 'dreadfully uncommon'"? Only dreadful damage on humans - like melt the skin, disform,

lifeong handicaps, death.

I know you're referring to uncommon use of the product, not uncommong damage to humans, but it it's true that use is not uncommon - it is a travesty.

I just can't believe what the Israeli leadership, Rabbis, certain politicians, and their military does! If any people, specifically the settlers from Europe and the near Middle East, should understand what human desctruction is and fight against it - it's Isreal.

They should have built a permanent Peace Building and used it for peacefull negotiations. They should have learned some negotiations skills instead of carrying on their eye for an eye juvenile handling and excuses and should not have switched to free and incredible lies and lying.

We should all stop and thank Israelis who have worked on their own to establish relations and peace in their region.

Blesses be their work.
Blessed be their souls.]

And the same for their well-intentioned couterparts on the other side.

[shira]

6. the UN's allegations against Israel go further than the claim that some officers committed crimes

The UN commission's main conclusion of Israel WRT the operation in Gaza...

"While the Israeli Government has sought to portray its operations as essentially a response to rocket attacks in the exercise of its right to self-defence, the Mission considers the plan to have been directed...at a different target: the people of Gaza as a whole.”<19>

To this charge, Israel's leading leftists say...

“Now, there is a huge moral difference between the accusation that Israel did not do enough to minimize collateral civilian death and the claim that Israel targeted civilians intentionally. It might well be that Israel should have done more than it did to minimize collateral deaths—it is a harsh enough claim, and it deserves a thorough examination. But the claim that Israel intentionally targeted civilians as a policy of war is false and slanderous.”<24>

Even Israel’s most vociferous domestic critics—The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel and B’Tselem—acknowledge that “Israel did not have a policy of intentionally killing civilians….”<25> Jessica Montell, Executive Director of B’Tselem, wrote, “I was disturbed by the framing of Israel’s military operation as part of ‘an overall policy aimed at punishing the Gaza population for its resilience.’ The facts presented in the report itself would not seem to support such a far-reaching conclusion.”<26> While condemning the operation as disproportionate, or worse, these organizations did not cross the “huge moral” line—the line irresponsibly and mendaciously crossed by the Goldstone Report—of accusing Israel of intentionally targeting civilians for death. As the New York Times reported:

“Virtually no one in Israel, including the leaders of Breaking the Silence and the human rights group B’Tselem, thinks that the Goldstone accusation of an assault on civilians is correct. ‘I do not accept the Goldstone conclusion of a systematic attack of civilian infrastructure,’ said Yael Stein, research director of B’Tselem. ‘It is not convincing.’”<27>

http://www.goldstonereport.org/pro-and-con/critics/517-alan-dershowitz-the-case-against-the-goldstone-report-a-study-in-evidentiary-bias-270110

[Scurrilous]

5. IDF downplays action against officers

<snip>

"Study units on the rules of war, international law and combat ethics in populated areas that are taught in senior command courses in the Israel Defense Forces have recently been greatly expanded. The change is one effect of Operation Cast Lead. On Monday it was revealed that two senior officers involved in the Gaza military operation last year were subject to disciplinary proceedings.

IDF officials yesterday downplayed the significance of the proceedings against Gaza Division commander Brig. Gen. Eyal Eisenberg and former Givati Brigade commander Col. Ilan Malka, conducted by GOC Southern Command Maj. Gen. Yoav Galant, saying that it would not affect their future promotions."

more

[shira]

7. There were no disciplinary measures and it wasn't about white phosphorus

http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_context=2&x_outlet=55&x_article=1792