Israel Strives To Change Int'l Law Of War Following Goldstone Report

[Purveyor]

JERUSALEM, Oct. 20 (Xinhua) -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday tasked his government to try to change the international law of war, as his country stiffens its response to a damning UN report on its winter offensive in the Gaza Strip.

Following his instruction, a number of Israeli government bodies are expect to embark upon a public relations initiative on the international stage to adapt the law of war to "the spread of terrorism throughout the world," according to a statement from the Government Press Office.

Netanyahu ordered the move during a special cabinet meeting, where top Israeli officials discussed the implications of the Gaza report, compiled by a UN fact-finding mission led by respectable South African jurist Richard Goldstone.

The 575-page document, endorsed by the UN Human Rights Council last week, accused both Israel and the Gaza-controlling Islamic Hamas movement of war crimes. Some 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed during the operation in last winter.

Denouncing the report as biased, the Jewish state insisted that it launched the three-week massive offensive in response to eight years of continuous rockets fired from Gaza.

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http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-10/21/content_12284381.htm

[malaise]

1. War crimes are still war crimes

One day there will be karma and justice.

[FiveGoodMen]

2. "One day there will be karma and justice" -- only if we bring it

Don't wait for someone in the sky to get it done.

[StreetKnowledge]

3. Both sides committed war crimes.

I don't for a second agree with Israel's overkill, but eight years of daily rocket shots by Hamas proves that the war was not what the anti-Israel types think it is. Hamas is guilty, too. And even if Israel cannot get the law changed (good luck with that, Netanyahu), I doubt they'll care even one bit. The Israelis have been a pariah state before, they'll have no regrets about becoming one again. Remember where most of their uranium for their bombs came from. (Hint: It wasn't the US.)