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4. IDF Officers May Face War Crime Charges in Europe

By Yechiel Spira

IDF officers receiving a classified Foreign Ministry memorandum are warned they may face arrest and charges of war crimes in Europe.

Israel has learned that certain European and international organizations have already begun working towards compiling cases against IDF officers and government officials, planning to file war crimes charges against them for Israel’s actions in Lebanon. Officers are being warned against visiting Europe as a result.

Foreign Ministry legal advisor Ehud Keinan, who distributed the memorandum, warns soldiers of the impending legal threat, one that may result in criminal charges against both senior and junior military officers alike.

Organizations based in Europe are working in earnest to compile evidence against political leaders and senior commanders, seeking to charge the latter with war crimes for complying with orders in the recent war in southern Lebanon.

Ministers cited include Eli Yishai of Shas, who is quoted as saying, “Entire villages must be wiped out,” in reference to IDF activities during the war. Also cited is Haim Ramon, the justice minister who stepped down in light of an ongoing police investigation against him in an unrelated matter. Ramon made similar remarks in statements referring to the village of Bint Jbeil.

Keinan warns officers and cabinet ministers alike to refrain from using terms such as “eradicate” and “crush,” since they provide those seeking to build cases against them with ammunition.

The Foreign Ministry and State Prosecutor’s Office have hired the services of criminal attorneys in Europe, adding that efforts are underway to find a common language with European leaders in the hope of avoiding situations that would prove difficult and embarrassing to Israel and nations like Britain. Government officials in Israel state that British leaders are troubled by the trend as well, but they explain that the law in Europe permits such actions, based on international law.

During the past year, there have been a number of cases in which senior IDF officers were instructed to cancel travel plans to England, and in one case, a senior officer was instructed to remain on board a plane that landed in the UK when embassy officials learned that he would have been placed under arrest upon entering the country. The officer, Doron Almog, returned to Israel on the next flight.

Israel offers protection to officers in such situations, pointing out that despite all efforts at home, European law permits filing charges of war crimes and reality dictates that Israel address the situation with the seriousness it demands.

http://www.aljazeerah.info/29%20n/Palestinian%20Samir%20Taher%20tells%20Prisoner%20Society%20lawyer%20that%20torture%20began%20during%20the%20first%20investigation.htm

Palestinian Samir Taher tells Prisoner Society lawyer that torture began during the first investigation

PNN, (Bethlehem) Najib Farag Tuesday, 29 August 2006

Palestinian political prisoner, Samir Fahami Ibrahim Taher, has endured one of the latest cases of psychological and physical torture at the hands of the Israeli prison torturers.

The 33 year old Nablus man gave sworn testimony to a Palestinian Prisoner Society attorney describing exactly what has happened to him since arriving in Israeli prison.

Taher was surrounded by seven investigators who screamed at him and called him demeaning names. They told him that they had arrested his wife and said they had an order from the Supreme Court to investigate his death. They accused him of planning resistance operations. Taher denied the charges against him for three days. The Israelis then forced him to take a polygraph.

After that the Israeli investigators bound his legs and hands in an excruciating position and deprived him of sleep for three days. Then he had to take another polygraph. None of these were successful.

During this period the Israelis also severely beat Taher in the head and kicked in various parts of his body. He is still suffering from pain and bruises. The Prisoner Society lawyer says that the bruising is severe, especially around Taher’s eyes. He described them as being large and blue from beatings.

Israeli forces arrested Taher from his home in the northern West Bank on the fourth of this month. Israeli forces arrested Taher’s wife 10 days ago. She is now in the Telmond Women’s Prison. Taher said that he is gravely concerned for her safety, particularly as she may be pregnant.

The Palestinian Prisoner Society says it will follow her case as well.

http://www.aljazeerah.info/Opinion%20editorials/2006%20Opinion%20Editorials/August/24%20o/The%20Real%20Terrorism%20Plot%20By%20Ramzy%20Baroud.htm

The Real Terrorism Plot
By Ramzy Baroud

Al-Jazeerah, August 24, 2006

And yet another menacing terror plot was thwarted 10 August, with the arrest of 24 suspects, all British Muslims. It was an ominous conspiracy aimed at committing "mass murder" on an "unimaginable" scale, British authorities quickly concluded. US authorities hastily joined the action, too claiming a decisive victory over the plotters, thanks in part to the quick thinking of and awesome coordination between US security and intelligence branches. Britain congratulated the US; the US thanked Britain; both saluted Pakistan and its ever-loyal leadership, itself conducting a brutal war against undefined, shadowy groups that emerge and vanish, all too conveniently, and too neatly.

Moments after the shocking announcement, as security threat levels reached their peak in the US and Britain, the debate commenced and it relentlessly continues: Why would a British Muslim choose such a destructive path while living in a democratic society, where change, at least theoretically, is possible through peaceful means?

The media also sprung into action. Ready-to-serve answers were deftly provided by all the usual experts, instantly infusing more conventional wisdom upon a vulnerable public. Attempts to contextualise terrorism within a political milieu were decidedly torpedoed. Despite years of war that seem to have achieved nothing but "mass murder" on an "unimaginable" scale, no one should dare explain the true roots of terrorism; one may explain why poor neighbourhoods in America yield greater crime rates than others, or why abused children become abusers themselves, or even why US soldiers in Iraq often "snap" and massacre entire families, but terrorism that involves Muslims should not in any way be discussed outside its useful parameters of a misguided generation with a radical interpretation of religion: the Islam that produces "Muslim fascists" as President George W Bush termed it.

Very few moderate, or sensible voices are consulted in such debates. British media proves no exception, examining the viewpoints of the utterly fundamentalist or the utterly liberal. The first wants a return to the Islamic caliphate, with London as its capital, and the latter dismisses as hogwash the attempt to examine the government's foreign policy as a reason of radicalisation searing among an already embattled and alienated young Muslim generation.

Expectedly, a letter that was signed by three Muslim MPs and 38 organisations accusing Prime Minister Tony Blair's foreign policy in Iraq, and his support of the Israeli carnage in Lebanon, of "putting civilians at increased risk both in the UK and abroad" hardly changed anything. British Home Secretary John Reid found the mere suggestion of a link unacceptable. Many others followed suit. If anything, the terror plot will strengthen the argument of those eager to harden terror laws, widen the gap between peoples from different religions, but most dangerously give yet more leash to those who champion war as a solution to conflict.

One week before the alleged plot was impeded, 100,000 people in London marched in protest at the British government's position -- particularly that of Blair in support of Israel's war of "self-defence" in Lebanon. Hundreds of protesters threw children's shoes near the doorsteps of the prime minister's residence at 10 Downing Street. They were meant to symbolise the number of children killed in this war, mostly by the Israeli army. I gazed at the impromptu memorial as I held Lebanese and Palestinian flags. Thinking of the tiny bodies of hundreds of children, mingled underneath tons of concrete in Lebanon and Gaza gave me that ever-familiar chill of dejection. Only the nudge of a police officer to my shoulder forced me to move along.

What is radicalisation but a culmination of bitterness, resentment and anger that lurk desperately inside, which often translate to despicable behaviour: terrorism? But if terrorism is killing innocent civilians to achieve political ends, then how else can one explain the American-British war on Iraq with a death toll that has long passed the 100,000 mark? Or the ongoing war in Afghanistan? Or Israel's wars in Palestine and Lebanon, and the funding or abetting of these wars by the US and British governments?

Is it not rational to deduce that "mass murder" in the Middle East, happening at such an "unimaginable" scale, could lead to a culmination of bitterness, resentment, anger and radicalisation that would unavoidably yield terrorism? And since Muslims seem to be the primary target of this mass murder, is it not equally rational to expect that the perpetrators of such terrorist acts might mostly be Muslims?

The insistence on disallowing this argument as one imparted primarily by terror "apologists" is often induced with equal determination to prolong the terrorising wars, of which civilians are the primary victims. A change of course might be understood as bowing to terrorists, as Spain is often accused of doing. Thus the carnage in Palestine, Lebanon, Iraq and Afghanistan must continue. This seems to be the underlying logic in refusing to acknowledge the urgency of a fundamental shift in foreign policy, in Britain as well as in the United States.

Those who cautiously attempted to link the terrorist acts of 11 September to America's political, financial and military support of the State of Israel were dismissed, even shunned, whenever they disseminated their logic. Only the drums of war were to be heard. Now, nearly five years later, are we any closer to global peace and tranquillity? How many more lives must be wasted, how much more blood must be shed, and how many more children's shoes must be piled up on Downing Street to realise that cluster bombs don't hold the keys to peace, nor do the torture camps of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay?

One must not accept the logic of those who believe that blowing up innocent travellers is a prudent response to blowing up Lebanese children seeking shelter in a half standing building in South Lebanon, however inhumane. But to continue to pretend that those who carry out acts of "mass murder" at an "unimaginable" scale in Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East are not perpetrators of terrorism themselves -- whether directly or by inspiring a cycle terrorist responses -- is to resign to doing nothing in defence of the innocent, British, Palestinian or Lebanese, which, I believe, is equally repugnant.

-Ramzy Baroud’s latest book: “The Second Palestinian Intifada: A Chronicle of a People’s Struggle” (Pluto Press, London) is now available at Amazon.com and many bookshops in Britain and elsewhere.

http://www.aljazeerah.info/Opinion%20editorials/2006%20Opinion%20Editorials/August/29%20o/Israel's%20Strategy%20of%20Provocation%20and%20War%20By%20Feroze%20H.%20Mithiborwala.htm

Israel's Strategy of Provocation and War
By Feroze H. Mithiborwala

Al-Jazeerah, August 29, 2006

For all those who are convinced of the perennial threat to the existence of Israel, we must read the interview of General Moshe Dayan, (the legendary Israeli General and Defence Minister and the victor of the "Six Day War of Aggression, in 1967") which he gave to Yediot Aharonot in 1976 and which was only published in April 27, 1997.

On being asked to comment about Syria as a threat to Israel in the 1967 War, this is what Moshe Dayan had to say.

"This was bullshit, Syria was not a threat to Israel before 1967. Just drop it. I know how at least 80 percent of all the incidents with Syria started. We were sending a tractor to the demilitarized zone and we knew that the Syrians would shoot. If they did not shoot, we would instruct the tractor to go deeper, till the Syrians finally got upset and started shooting. Then we employed artillery and later also the air force …. I did that ….and Yitzhak Rabin did that, when he was there."

According to Dayan the Israeli provocation for the war with Syria was greediness for the land. "to grab a piece of land and keep it until the enemy gets tired and gives it to us".

Also consider the following strategy statement by former PM Ehud Barak as reported by Amir Oren in the Haa'retz, January 8, 1999.

"At the moment," Barak admitted, "there is no consensus for an operation against the Syrians except where the terrorists are concerned – (an issue) which under certain circumstances, such as a multi-casualty terrorist strike, or a Katyusha rocket on the Galilee, might lead to consensus….."

With this in mind he recommended that "the necessary infrastructure and plans be prepared for a swift operation, 1967 style against Syria, (an operation) that will develop through a rapid chain of events – a terrorist strike, a strike on terrorists …….it might be possible in indirect ways to influence the forming of a chain of events leading to an anti-terrorist strike."

All we need to do is substitute Syria in the present context by Lebanon to understand the Israeli strategy of provoking war, which brings us to the current Lebanon - Israel conflict.

Israel and the US as well as the overwhelming section of the Western dominated media are projecting this conflict as a war that was provoked by the Hizbullah. They keep on reiterating the myth of the "kidnapping" of the Israeli soldiers from Israeli territory.

Now lets go to the facts that have also been reported in the independent media. Firstly the soldiers were not kidnapped but were "captured" as all soldiers the world over are. Secondly the Israeli soldiers were captured in an intrusion across the "Blue Line" in Lebanese territory as was reported by Forbes ( 12.07.06) who were informed by Israeli officials that "Hizbullah captured two soldiers during clashes, Wednesday, across the border in southern Lebanon, prompting a swift reaction by Israel." This fact has also been further confirmed and vindicated by reports from the London based Independent and Guardian (July 20, 2006).

The tension in the region was definitely being built up over the course of the period that led to the conflagration. Lets us consider a short factual chronology of the events as they unfolded on the Israel-Palestine-Lebanon occupied territories and borders.

1) Since the year 2000, when Israel withdrew from Lebanon but continued to occupy the Sheba'a farms, the UN observers have recorded more that 2400 violations by Israel of Lebanese land, sea and airspace.

2) May 2006 : The Mossad assassinated two Palestinian freedom fighters in an operation in the Lebanese city of Saida. Israel also kidnapped a fisherman, Ahmad Karrami from Lebanese territorial waters. Later on they also aerially bombed Hizbullah strongholds which led to border clashes.

3) Apart from the ongoing repression of the Palestinians in the Occupied Territories consider the following incidents:

a) June 9, 2006: Israeli missile attack on a Gazan family on the beach kills 7.

b) June 13, 2006: An IDF missile attack in Gaza kills 9 Palestinians.

c) June 24, 2006: Israel kidnaps a Palestinian doctor and his brother from Gaza.

d) June 25, 2006: Hamas captures an Israeli soldier after an Israeli incursion into the "Green Line" in Gaza.

e) Israel starts aerially bombarding Gaza to which Hamas responds with Katyusha rockets.

f) Hamas demands exchange of prisoners as has been the established precedent of the past. More than 10,000 Palestinian prisoners, including a 1000 women and children continue to languish in Israeli jails.

g) Israel further worsens the situation by kidnapping the Members of Parliament of Hamas while continuing to bomb civilian areas with impunity.

4) July 11, 2006: In an Israeli operation in Lebanese territory, they clash with the Hizbullah in which two Israeli soldiers are captured. Similarly, the Hizbullah bargains for the release of Lebanese prisoners in Israeli jails. Israel responds with aerial attacks on South Lebanon, Hizbullah responds with rocket attacks on Northern Israel which finally led to the Israeli invasion.

It is quiet clear to most observers and analysts of this region, that this aggression by Israel was a pre-planned war. Mid-way through the course of the war reports began to appear in the media regarding the Israel's agenda for war and its planning and consent of the US and UK. Seymour Hersh in the New Yorker ( 14.08.06) reported that Israeli officials visited the White House earlier this summer to get a "green light" for the attack on Lebanon. The Bush administration approved the attack to remove the Hizbullah as a deterrent to a potential US bombing of Iran. Even F.A.I.R. – Fairness & Accuracy In Media concluded that the Israeli action "was not a spontaneous reaction to aggression but a well planned operation that was years in the making".

PM Ehud Olmert recently made a statement saying that Israel would eventually declare its borders by 2010. Whilst Bush speaks of his "vision for a New Middle East" and after the massacres of Lebanese civilians, Rice announces that these are the "birth pangs of democracy". Of course the Lebanese government told Rice that they did not need a "mid-wife from hell".

So what are the Israeli-US strategies to impose their agenda for the imperial hegemony of the Middle East and West Asia.

My analysis is the following:

While they create an atmosphere of rising tension that gradually moves into the phase of border clashes then:

1) Launch a full scale War on Lebanon to occupy and annex the territory in south Lebanon till the Litani river. This has been the dream of Ben Gurion. In order to ensure the process of total ethnic cleansing, heavy bombing and destruction of civilian infrastructure is imperative.

The main objective would be to defeat and neutralize the Hizbullah and install a pliant and pro-US/Israeli regime in Beirut.

2) Within the Palestinian territories the repression and massacres would continue.

3) Then under the pretext of the Nuclear issue they would attack Iran and launch a massive aerial bombardment. At the end of which they plan to install a new "moderate" regime in Tehran.

4) During the course of this war campaign they would annex Golan Heights from Syria and if Syria were to challenge, they would be similarly dealt with.

5) During the course of this Regional War they will find the convenient pretext of cracking down upon the Palestinian population and will launch a major war of ethnic cleansing of all Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza and also possibly from within Israel itself and push them into Jordan. This is basically the Zionist vision (both within the political and military leadership and in any case they have always morphed) for the solution of the Palestinian problem and a New Middle East.

The above was the real game plan behind the war on Lebanon and it is safe to say that they have failed and miserably at that. The Military and Political invincibility of Israel has been utterly exposed.

The political strategy of the Israeli-US combine was founded on a very simple belief – every time Israel went to War, Israel had to Win. Now the odds against this strategy have definitely mounted.

This very fact gives the opening for the moderate camp within Israel, both within the political and military leadership as well as the civil society to come forward and stake their claim to a just and peaceful solution for the people of Palestine, Israel, Lebanon and Syria. The relevant UN resolutions and International Laws as well as a framework and consensus to implement the same exists amongst the people, all it now needs is political vision. I will sign off with a statement from Major General (retd) Shlomo Gazit who was the Head of Research at the directorate of Military Intelligence. In discussion with Alan Hart who is the author of a brilliant book "Zionism the Real Enemy of the Jews", one morning over a cup of coffee he said to Shlomo Gazit: "I've come to the conclusion that its all a myth. Israel's existence has never ever been in danger". Through a sad smile Gazit replied, "The trouble with us Israeli's is that we've become victims of our own propaganda".

***

THE INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY AND PEACE DELEGATION TO LEBANON

PRESS STATEMENT

The members of the International delegation addressed a Press Conference at the Press Club of Lebanon in Beirut on August 14, 2006.

We the members OF THE International delegation comprising of representatives from India, Philippines, Brazil, Norway, Spain and France express our solidarity with the people of Lebanon in their resistance to Israeli aggression..

The historic victory of the Lebanese Resistance over Israel aggression has inspired the people's of the world who see in this a reassertion of peoples' power. The resistance has for the first time, broken the myth of Israeli invincibility, its supposed military and political superiority over this region. This victory is a defeat for the US-Israeli designs for a "New Middle East" which is another term for Zionist expansionism and US hegemony that are integral parts of the global imperialist project.

The courageous Lebanese National Resistance led by the Hezbollah and its secretary general Hasan Nasrallah has led to this historic victory. The unity of the Lebanese People across religions and classes and the resilience and resistance of the civil society have also been central to the victory over Israel and USA.

We join Lebanon in mourning the death of all innocent civilians. We condemn the Israeli policy of widespread targeted killings of civilians for ethnic cleansing, as an instrument of state terror. The Israeli attack on civilians is a grave violation of International laws and should be treated as a war crime.

We also express our sympathy for the plight of foreign migrant workers who have been displaced in this Israeli aggression. We demand that the governments provide all necessary assistance. They are an important part of the more than one million Lebanese refugees displaced, leading to a massive humanitarian crisis.

The Israeli policy of "collective punishment" has destroyed civilian infrastructure including residential complexes, entire villages in South Lebanon, bridges, roads, power stations, gas stations. All of this will require billions of dollars to reconstruct. We call upon the international community to help the people of Lebanon in this gigantic task of rehabilitation and reconstruction.

We welcome the ceasefire and call for the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of Israeli troops from South Lebanon. Israel must pay reparation to the victims of the aggression. We call upon the global peace movement, including the Israeli peace movement to resist the US-Israeli aggression.

We also condemn the role of the international media that has been part of the US-Israeli disinformation strategy.

We recommend :

- The setting up of an International War Crimes Tribunal for the trial of Israeli policy makers and the military for crimes against humanity. The International peace movement must facilitate this process.

-The establishment of a sovereign and independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.

The withdrawal of Israeli troops from Lebanon including the Shebaa farms.

Withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Golan Heights of Syria.

Release of all prisoners from Israeli jails

- End to the US occupation and wars in Afghanistan and Iraq

- End to the US-Israeli threats to Iran and Syria.

The MISSION Members

Comrade Muhammad Salim – Member of Parliament, Communist Party of India (Marxist)

Comrade Kamal Mitra Chenoy – All India Peace and Solidarity Organization and Co-alition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace.

Seema Mustafa : Resident Editor, Asian Age

Feroze Mithiborwala : Forum Against War and Terror

Vijaya Chauhan : Rashtriya Sewa Dal

Walden Bello : Focus on the Global South - Philippines

Kjeld Jakobsen : CUT – Brazil

Herbert Docena : Focus on the Global South – Philippines

Gerard Durand : La Via Campesina – France

Mujiv Hataman : Member of Parliament – Philippines

Kari Kobberoed : La Via Campesina, Norway

German Guillot : Interpreter, Spain

http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=14645
Israeli Minister calls for return of occupied Golan Heights to Syria
Date: 21 / 08 / 2006 Time: 12:19

Bethlehem - Ma'an - When Israel attacked Lebanon, some people thought that resistance was faltering and that Israel was going to use force to expand like an octopus, but Israel emerged defeated. Moreover, Arabs have seen that Syria has announced that it is in a state of high alert and redeploying its missiles as it gets ready for war.

Hours after Israeli TV announced the reinforcement of Israeli forces in the occupied Golan Heights, in case of war, the Israeli Minister of Internal Security, Avi Dichter, called on his government to withdraw from the occupied Syrian Golan Heights in return for a true peace treaty.

According to the Israeli minister, "Syria is an important state. The Golan is hugely significant and I am not suggesting that we give up water, because life without water in the Middle East is very difficult. But there is a will for accepted international borders in return for true peace."

There was no official Syrian position regarding these comments and it is still unknown whether Dichter was merely expressing his own views of if there are any secret negotiations underway.