A repeat of 2002, "Universal Jurisdiction" in Belgium and now in Britain, same utter Western cowardice...
We can learn much from the Israeli government’s decision last week to suspend a special strategic dialog with the United Kingdom because of concerns that Israeli officials could be arrested and indicted with crimes against humanity in the UK. According to a British law that provides for “universal jurisdiction” in such cases, [ exactly as was the case in BELGIUM in 2001-2002..., which saw staggering pressure on Belgium to repeal its law by the USA and Israel..., after they had consumed the horrendous assassination of Mr. Elie HOBEIKA, January 24th 2002 by the infamous White House Murder INC, with Asef SHAWKAT..., ] a suspect of any country can be charged, detained and tried in a British court even if the alleged crimes occurred in a third country and did not include British citizens among the victims. Israel’s Kadima Party leader Tzipi Livni recently canceled a trip to London as did Deputy Prime Minister Dan Meridor last week, because he was advised that he risked being arrested.
Palestinians in the UK in recent years have filed charges against Israeli officials and British courts have issues arrest warrants for some Israeli officials, though none have actually been taken into custody. The important dimension of this is the concern among many Israelis -- justified, in my view -- that Israel is being subjected to a “de-legitimization” campaign. This is exactly what is happening, and it scares Israelis more than anything else in the world.
The one most coveted thing that Israel lacks in the eyes of its Palestinian foes, and other Arab and international critics, is legitimacy and acceptance. It’s one thing if Yemen, Algeria or Somalia do not recognize Israel, but it is another and much more significant thing entirely if the UK government -- the historical midwife of Zionism and the Israeli state -- issues arrest warrants charging Israeli officials with crimes against humanity. Exactly 93 years ago on November 2, the British government issued the Balfour Declaration that pledged support for the creation of “a national home for the Jewish people.” Now, London joins others in the world who seek to hold accountable to the international rule of law those Israeli leaders at the helm of that “Jewish national home” that is the sovereign state of Israel -- sovereign, but still largely unaccepted in its present configuration.
Israel is not particularly worried about its military security, given its known conventional and nuclear capabilities. It has been in a constant state of war with its neighbors for the past 62 years because it has never been fully and formally acknowledged as legitimate by its Arab neighbors. Israel is strong militarily, politically, economically, culturally, and technologically -- but it remains vulnerable and uneasy because it is not accepted in the Middle East as a normal, legitimate country. This is primarily because it has refused to come to terms with the national and territorial rights of the Palestinian people whom it largely dispossessed, ethnically cleansed, displaced and exiled in the process of creating the Jewish-majority state of Israel.
All the Arab states have formally offered to coexist in peace with Israel on the basis of the 2002 Arab peace plan which Israel has steadfastly ignored, so this is not about destroying Israel, as Zionist zealots and other howlers claim. The de-legitimization campaign aims to point out that Israeli official actions are often criminal in nature when Israel uses massive and disproportionate force, siege tactics, collective punishment, mass incarceration, torture, assassinations, genocide in 1982..., colonization, land theft and other such illegal and criminal behavior in its routine dealings with Palestinians and other Arabs....
The reason Israel reacted so vehemently and almost irrationally last year to the Goldstone Commission report on both Israel’s and Hamas’ conduct of the 2008-9 Gaza war was because this represented a frightening new form of formally sanctioned global criticism of Israel’s excessive use of violence, and, more importantly, sought international follow-up to hold Israel and Hamas accountable for their behavior. It’s one thing if Yemen, Algeria or Somalia accuse Israel of war crimes, but it is another thing altogether when the organs of the UN do this through a commission headed by one of the world’s most respected jurists. Israel has predicated its entire foreign policy since its inception on being able to use any force it deems necessary to protect and assert itself. The criticisms it is receiving, and legal moves such as the Goldstone Commission or the British indictments, are much more frightening to Israel than any missiles it might face from its surroundings, because they chip away at the one indispensable element that Israel has always relied on for its security, well-being and Zionist self-assertion: impunity in military actions across the entire Middle East, its colonization of Arab lands, and its structural dispossession and subjugation of the Palestinian people.
This is Israel’s Achilles Heel, which is why this movement to challenge Israeli impunity is so significant, and will continue to grow until it achieves a political resolution that is fair to both Palestinians and Israelis, who can enjoy equal rights in a configuration of mutually satisfying statehood, and affirms rather than tramples on the dictates of the global rule of law. Israel is right to be worried, because its criminal behavior is finally being subjected to formal global scrutiny....
Saudi King Abdullah, in New York for surgery on a herniated disc, met with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and spoke by phone with President Obama on the forthcoming UN tribunal report on Hezbollah. A key member in the talks was Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs Jeffrey Feltman, who is as close to the government of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu as he is to his own government.... Feltman, a former U.S. ambassador to Lebanon and a bitter enemy of Hezbollah, reportedly met with Hariri in New York prior to the Lebanese Prime Minister's trip to Washington to meet with Obama. French President Nicolas Sarkozy was also in New York where he met King Abdullah and Hariri. Sarkozy's meetings with the Arab leaders followed his meeting with Obama in Washington. Hariri also met with Hillary Clinton in New York...
Although the Special Tribunal for Lebanon has proven to be a propaganda tool of the Israelis and its lobby in the United States and recent Lebanese intelligence discoveries of Mossad penetration of Lebanese telecommunications proves that Israel manufactured the cell phone and other telecommunication "evidence" pinning blame for the Hariri assassination on Hezbollah, the Obama administration and France, Saudi Arabia, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, and Israel are poised to see Hezbollah blamed for several assassinations of Lebanese politicians and international criminal indictments issued against leading Hezbollah figures. The tribunal report will result in a major political upheaval in Lebanon, which is to Israel's benefit.
The presence of Feltman, who is a virtual tool of the Israeli government, in the top Middle east policy position in the State Department, has largely led to the present debacle in America's Middle East policy.
A political deal was in the works for Lebanon that would have prevented the UN tribunal from indicting senior Hezbollah officials for the 2005 Hariri assassination. However, the Saudis helped scuttle the deal being worked out with Syria. Hezbollah political ally, retired General Michel Aoun, leader of the Free Patriotic Movement of Lebanon, decried the Saudi double-cross and Qatar Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem bin Jabr al-Thani, who helped work out the Arab-led peace deal for Lebanon, also expressed alarm that the Lebanese government would collapse as a result of the deal between Washington, Paris, Riyadh, and Tel Aviv....
Palestinians in the UK in recent years have filed charges against Israeli officials and British courts have issues arrest warrants for some Israeli officials, though none have actually been taken into custody. The important dimension of this is the concern among many Israelis -- justified, in my view -- that Israel is being subjected to a “de-legitimization” campaign. This is exactly what is happening, and it scares Israelis more than anything else in the world.
The one most coveted thing that Israel lacks in the eyes of its Palestinian foes, and other Arab and international critics, is legitimacy and acceptance. It’s one thing if Yemen, Algeria or Somalia do not recognize Israel, but it is another and much more significant thing entirely if the UK government -- the historical midwife of Zionism and the Israeli state -- issues arrest warrants charging Israeli officials with crimes against humanity. Exactly 93 years ago on November 2, the British government issued the Balfour Declaration that pledged support for the creation of “a national home for the Jewish people.” Now, London joins others in the world who seek to hold accountable to the international rule of law those Israeli leaders at the helm of that “Jewish national home” that is the sovereign state of Israel -- sovereign, but still largely unaccepted in its present configuration.
Israel is not particularly worried about its military security, given its known conventional and nuclear capabilities. It has been in a constant state of war with its neighbors for the past 62 years because it has never been fully and formally acknowledged as legitimate by its Arab neighbors. Israel is strong militarily, politically, economically, culturally, and technologically -- but it remains vulnerable and uneasy because it is not accepted in the Middle East as a normal, legitimate country. This is primarily because it has refused to come to terms with the national and territorial rights of the Palestinian people whom it largely dispossessed, ethnically cleansed, displaced and exiled in the process of creating the Jewish-majority state of Israel.
All the Arab states have formally offered to coexist in peace with Israel on the basis of the 2002 Arab peace plan which Israel has steadfastly ignored, so this is not about destroying Israel, as Zionist zealots and other howlers claim. The de-legitimization campaign aims to point out that Israeli official actions are often criminal in nature when Israel uses massive and disproportionate force, siege tactics, collective punishment, mass incarceration, torture, assassinations, genocide in 1982..., colonization, land theft and other such illegal and criminal behavior in its routine dealings with Palestinians and other Arabs....
The reason Israel reacted so vehemently and almost irrationally last year to the Goldstone Commission report on both Israel’s and Hamas’ conduct of the 2008-9 Gaza war was because this represented a frightening new form of formally sanctioned global criticism of Israel’s excessive use of violence, and, more importantly, sought international follow-up to hold Israel and Hamas accountable for their behavior. It’s one thing if Yemen, Algeria or Somalia accuse Israel of war crimes, but it is another thing altogether when the organs of the UN do this through a commission headed by one of the world’s most respected jurists. Israel has predicated its entire foreign policy since its inception on being able to use any force it deems necessary to protect and assert itself. The criticisms it is receiving, and legal moves such as the Goldstone Commission or the British indictments, are much more frightening to Israel than any missiles it might face from its surroundings, because they chip away at the one indispensable element that Israel has always relied on for its security, well-being and Zionist self-assertion: impunity in military actions across the entire Middle East, its colonization of Arab lands, and its structural dispossession and subjugation of the Palestinian people.
This is Israel’s Achilles Heel, which is why this movement to challenge Israeli impunity is so significant, and will continue to grow until it achieves a political resolution that is fair to both Palestinians and Israelis, who can enjoy equal rights in a configuration of mutually satisfying statehood, and affirms rather than tramples on the dictates of the global rule of law. Israel is right to be worried, because its criminal behavior is finally being subjected to formal global scrutiny....
January , 2011 -- Fixing blame on Lebanese assassinations on Hezbollah. Final report cooked up by players in New York, Langley, and Tel Aviv...
Hillary's State Department foments political upheaval in Lebanon....
AS we have been reporting since 2002, most assassinations in Lebanon have been carried out by Asef SHAWKAT and his Syrian Military Intelligence goons, together with the Lebanese deep state apparatus, on behalf of CIA/MOSSAD, starting with the assassination of Mr. Elie HOBEIKA, January 24th 2002 and ending with the assassination of Imad F. MOUGHNIEH in Damascus Feb. 12th 2008....
We have learned that the final report of the UN's Special Tribunal on Lebanon was made known to leaders from the United States, France, Saudi Arabia, Israel, and Lebanon in New York with an agreement by most parties that blame will be fixed for all of Lebanon's recent assassinations, most of them signature CIA/Mossad remotely-controlled car bombings, on Lebanese Hezbollah. Hezbollah, aware of the secret deals in New York, has announced that it will pull out of the Lebanese coalition government led by Prime Minister Saad Hariri, son of slain ex-Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, a victim of one of the Mossad-CIA car bombs, thus bringing down the Lebanese government...
The US/Israeli/French nexus of utter evils are eager to perpetuate the covert links of the infamous White House Murder INC, with Asef SHAWKAT and Syria's minority mafia Dictatorship of the ASSAD dynasty of assassins for hire, since January 24th 2002....and the barbaric assassination of Mr. Elie HOBEIKA and his brave companions in Hazmieh by Asef SHAWKAT's goons and Lebanese Military Intelligence lackeys....and others....working on behalf of CIA/MOSSAD or being bamboozled into action in a classic black operation on Feb. 14th 2005 and the hit on Hariri....
Saudi King Abdullah, in New York for surgery on a herniated disc, met with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and spoke by phone with President Obama on the forthcoming UN tribunal report on Hezbollah. A key member in the talks was Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs Jeffrey Feltman, who is as close to the government of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu as he is to his own government.... Feltman, a former U.S. ambassador to Lebanon and a bitter enemy of Hezbollah, reportedly met with Hariri in New York prior to the Lebanese Prime Minister's trip to Washington to meet with Obama. French President Nicolas Sarkozy was also in New York where he met King Abdullah and Hariri. Sarkozy's meetings with the Arab leaders followed his meeting with Obama in Washington. Hariri also met with Hillary Clinton in New York...
The presence of Feltman, who is a virtual tool of the Israeli government, in the top Middle east policy position in the State Department, has largely led to the present debacle in America's Middle East policy.
A political deal was in the works for Lebanon that would have prevented the UN tribunal from indicting senior Hezbollah officials for the 2005 Hariri assassination. However, the Saudis helped scuttle the deal being worked out with Syria. Hezbollah political ally, retired General Michel Aoun, leader of the Free Patriotic Movement of Lebanon, decried the Saudi double-cross and Qatar Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem bin Jabr al-Thani, who helped work out the Arab-led peace deal for Lebanon, also expressed alarm that the Lebanese government would collapse as a result of the deal between Washington, Paris, Riyadh, and Tel Aviv....
