Of all of Israel’s apologists over the years, none surpasses Alan Dershowitz. In this article posted on Huffington Post this morning, The Phony War Crimes Accusation Against Israel, Dershowitz has gone overboard, comparing Israel’s minor massacres in Gaza with the more extensive killings of civilians in Chechnya in Russia, and Sudan’s of its Darfur population. Fewer kills deserves consideration and should not be considered war crimes.
Says, Dershowitz:
January 22, 2009
Every time Israel seeks to defend its civilians against terrorist attacks, it is accused of war crimes by various United Nations agencies, hard left academics and some in the media. It is a totally phony charge concocted as part of Hamas’ strategy — supported by many on the hard left — to delegitimate and demonize the Jewish state. Israel is the only democracy in the world ever accused of war crimes when it fights a defensive war to protect its civilians. This is remarkable, especially in light of the fact that Israel has killed far fewer civilians than any other country in the world that has faced comparable threats. In the most recent war in Gaza fewer than a thousand civilians — even by Hamas’ skewed count — have been killed. This, despite the fact that no one can now deny that Hamas had employed a deliberate policy of using children, schools, mosques, apartment buildings and other civilian areas as shields from behind which to launch its deadly anti-personnel rockets. The Israeli Air Force has produced unchallengeable video evidence of this Hamas war crime.
(snip)
The accusation of war crimes is nothing more than a tactic selectively invoked by Israel’s enemies. Those who cry “war crime” against Israel don’t generally care about war crimes, as such, indeed they often support them when engaged in by country’s they like. What these people care about, and all they seem to care about, is Israel. Whatever Israel does is wrong regardless of the fact that so many other countries do worse.
(snip)
If the laws of war in particular, and international human rights in general, are to endure, they must be applied to nations in order of the seriousness of the violations, not in order of the political unpopularity of the nations. If the law of war were applied in this manner, Israel would be among the last, and certainly not the first, charged.
Copyright restriction prevents me from indicating that in the article, Dershowitz compares Israel’s attack of Gaza with the horrors of Russia’s killings of Chetchyans, and Sudan’s massacres of its Darfur population.. Stop picking on Israel, he urges.
But the reality that Israel attempted to hide by preventing news reporters from entering Gaza is slowly becoming evident. One need not repeat the death tolls: 1,300 most civilians killed, including over 400 children, and 4.500 wounded or maimed. And they are still digging out bodies under the ruble of homes and refugee centers.
But now we understand more:
Evidence Grows That Israel is Using White Phosphorus in Gaza
For several days, charges that Israel has been using white phosphorus in its Gaza bombing have spread, unconfirmed but gaining some credibility as some human rights groups have weighed in. But today the charges are reaching critical mass in the wake of the bombing of the main United Nations compound in Gaza City.
This just in from Reuters:A warehouse in a U.N. compound in Gaza that came under Israeli fire on Thursday was apparently hit by white-phosphorus shells, U.N. humanitarian affairs chief John Holmes said. “The main warehouse was badly damaged by what appeared to be white-phosphorus shells,” Holmes told reporters at a news briefing in New York. “Those on the ground don’t have any doubt that’s what they were. If you were looking for confirmation, that looks like it to me.”
Did Israel Use a Horrific ‘New Weapon’ in Gaza?
Posted by Steven D., Booman Tribune on January 22, 2009.
Al-Jazeera is reporting that Dense Inert Metal Explosives — DIME weapons — were used in Gaza.
It seems Gaza was a weapons-testing lab for the use of a particularly toxic weapon: Dense Inert Metal Explosives.
And then this report from Daily Kos today: Gaza Villages Wiped Off the Map, gives us some idea of the extent of the disaster.
Jonathan Miller filed this report for the UK’s Channel Four:
Nobody can buy Alan Dershowitz’s argument. More and more reports are revealing that war crimes were indeed committed in Gaza.
