THE DAILY BLADE: Netanyahu Is Bush III
Addressing parliament at the opening of its winter session, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu bitterly denounced a U.N. report to the Human Rights Council that accuses Israel of using disproportionate force, intentionally attacking civilians, destroying civilian infrastructure and using people as human shields during the Gaza War.
The Goldstone report contends that “both sides committed serious war crimes and breaches of humanitarian law, which may amount to crimes against humanity,” with Hamas’ firing mortars from Gaza constituting “indiscriminate and deliberate attacks against a civilian population” with the “apparent intention of spreading terror among the Israeli civilian population.” (Israelis must now know how Armenians feel when Turkey and other Genocide deniers - of which the state of Israel is one - claim that “both sides” committed crimes against humanity during 1915-1917.)
A little more than six months into his current tenure, it is already becoming apparent that Netanyahu will be another George W. Bush in the eyes of the global community:
† As Bush administration officials accused of committing war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan have been threatened with prosecution abroad, so have Israel’s leaders during the Gaza War. The Goldstone report recommends that signatories to the Geneva Conventions "start criminal investigations in national courts, using universal jurisdiction, where there is sufficient evidence of the commission of grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 1949. Where so warranted following investigation, alleged perpetrators should be arrested and prosecuted in accordance with internationally recognized standards of justice."
In his speech to parliament Netanyahu vowed that, "We will not allow Ehud Olmert, Tzipi Livni and Ehud Barak, who sent our sons to war, to arrive at the international court in the Hague." With the same intent, Congress passed American Service Members Protection Act in 2002 "to protect United States military personnel and other elected and appointed officials of the United States government against criminal prosecution by an international criminal court to which the United States is not party."
† Just as the Bush administration defied the wishes of many in the international community by pursuing a missile defense shield in Eastern Europe, Netanyahu is doing much the same thing by insisting on building Jewish settlements on the West Bank.
† American exceptionalism was a foundation of the Bush Doctrine - unilateral pre-emptive strikes to exercise our inherent right of self-defense coupled with importing quintessential American values, such as freedom and fairness, to Iraq and Afghanistan to create stable, peaceful societies. And Israeli exceptionalism - a fusion of “chosenness” and “never again” - is the foundation of Netanyahu’s threat that Israel will act unilaterally to ensure that a nation that advocates its destruction does not acquire nuclear weapons since he doesn’t expect anyone to come to the defense of the Jewish state.
Under President Barack Hussein Obama, the U.S. has “redeemed itself” on such contentious issues as the missile shield (second item) and Israeli settlements, having declared on June 4th that “The United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements” – which no doubt weighed heavily in the Nobel committee’s deliberations.
Obama has since retreated from his position on Israeli settlements in the face of Netanyahu’s intransigence – all the more reason Netanyahu is the new Bush.
Well, if any country understands what comes of relying on the kindness of strangers, that country is Israel. Israel is the Second Amendment writ large. Never again. (and for the record, I'm not Jewish.)
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