US blasts ICC war crimes probe of Israel as 'tragic irony'

[enhanced_deficit]

US blasts ICC war crimes probe of Israel as 'tragic irony'

By Thomas Watkins, Jan Hennop in The Hague
January 17, 2015 1:51 AM
Washington (AFP) - The United States joined Israel in condemning the International Criminal Court decision to open a preliminary probe into possible war crimes committed against Palestinians, blasting it as a "tragic irony".ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said her office would conduct an "analysis in full independence and impartiality" into alleged war crimes by Israel, including those committed during last year's Gaza offensive.
Her decision comes after Palestine formally joined the ICC earlier this month, allowing it to lodge war crimes and crimes against humanity complaints against Israel as of April.
Nearly 2,200 Palestinians and 73 Israelis were killed during last summer's war in Gaza.

"It is a tragic irony that Israel, which has withstood thousands of terrorist rockets fired at its civilians and its neighborhoods, is now being scrutinized by the ICC," US State Department spokesman Jeff Rathke said in a statement.

http://news.yahoo.com/us-condemns-ic...051842616.html




Related

US, Britain and France will be next if ICC indicts Israel

Christie calls for 'forceful' defense of Israel, says Obama not 'decisive'

July 12, 2014

Not a fan of Obama but does Christie know what Obama has to put up with in criticisms/pressures from both sides on his "walk the rope" balancing act on Israel policy?
Could it be that the nobel peace prize winner is doing something right on this issue if he is being attacked so harshly from both sides?
Following are just few views, albeit extreme from the two ends of the spectrum, with underlying beliefs that Obama is not sufficiently pro-Israel / is too pro-Israel.

Some pro-Israel critics of Obama:
Ben Shapiro: Obama White House is ‘borderline a Jew-hating administration’
July 11, 2014 by Tom Tillison
Truth Revolt editor Ben Shapiro held nothing back in offering a tough assessment of the Obama administration‘s response to the terrorist group Hamas attacking Israel, saying it’s a borderline “Jew-hating administration.”
http://www.bizpacreview.com/2014/07/...tration-130914

Publisher of the ‘Atlanta Jewish Times’ suggests Mossad should assassinate Obama
Adam Horowitz on January 20, 2012
John Cook reports at Gawker:

Andrew Adler, the owner and publisher of the Atlanta Jewish Times, a weekly newspaper serving Atlanta’s Jewish community, devoted his January 13, 2012 column to the thorny problem of the U.S. and Israel’s diverging views on the threat posed by Iran. Basically Israel has three options, he wrote: Strike Hezbollah and Hamas, strike Iran, or “order a hit” on Barack Obama. Either way, problem solved!
Here’s how Adler laid out “option three” in his list of scenarios facing Israeli president Benjamin Netanyahu (the column, which was forwarded to us by a tipster, isn’t online, but you can read a copy here):
Three, give the go-ahead for U.S.-based Mossad agents to take out a president deemed unfriendly to Israel in order for the current vice president to take his place, and forcefully dictate that the United States’ policy includes its helping the Jewish state obliterate its enemies.

Yes, you read “three” correctly. Order a hit on a president in order to preserve Israel’s existence. Think about it. If I have thought of this Tom Clancy-type scenario, don’t you think that this almost unfathomable idea has been discussed in Israel’s most inner circles?
Another way of putting “three” in perspective goes something like this: How far would you go to save a nation comprised of seven million lives…Jews, Christians and Arabs alike?
You have got to believe, like I do, that all options are on the table.

Some "anti-Israel" critics of Obama:



The following is from the website of the Anti-Defamation League. ADL, which monitors and combats anti-Semitism worldwide, is one of the 32 agencies and programs funded by The Birmingham Jewish Federation Annual Campaign.
http://archive.adl.org/anti_semitism...tion-2012.html


Some conservative critics of Obama:

James Woods on Obama: He’s the ‘gift from hell’

The Washington Times Thursday, September 12, 2013

• 

The latest came this week, in response to a report from British press that revealed the National Security Agency commonly provides Israel with intelligence data — without first stripping out private and personal information on American citizens. The Guardian in London reported the item, the latest in its coverage of document leaks from Edward Snowden.

Mr. Woods unleashed his views of the matter — and of Mr. Obama's role in allowing the practice to occur — on Twitter.
He wrote: "Report: Data on Americans shared with Israel ... Obama: the gift from hell that keeps on giving."
This is hardly the first unfavorable rating Mr. Woods has posted on his Twitter account about Mr. Obama. In July, the actor ranted over Mr. Obama's insertion of his personal opinion into the George Zimmerman-Trayvon Martin trial, characterizing it as fueling racial tensions and wondering why the president would speak his mind about the death of the 17-year-old Trayvon but not worry so much about American's soldiers and wounded warriors.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/sep/12/james-woods-obama-hes-gift-hell/


Piyush "Bobby" Jindal : The terrorist attacks on Israel are senseless and must be stopped





Caution Graphic Video: USTF funded strike kills 4 Palestinian children on Gaza beach in 2nd tap

Obama: 'Israel Has The Right To Defend Itself'

Bachmann: If We Don’t Completely Support Israel, God Will Curse Us

[DFF]

The Nuremburg trials, where alleged German war criminals were executed, including Der Sturmer author Julius Streicher, who never killed anyone, yet was hung anyway for "crimes against humanity," this was all well and good.

But the prospect of dragging alleged Israeli war criminals to court for deliberately targeting women, children, hospitals, schools, and dropping white phosphorous on crowds of innocent people, this is a "tragic irony."

[enhanced_deficit]

There is certainly irony here.

Nearly 2,200 Palestinians and 73 Israelis were killed during last summer's war in Gaza.

"It is a tragic irony that Israel, which has withstood thousands of terrorist rockets fired at its civilians and its neighborhoods, is now being scrutinized by the ICC," US State Department spokesman Jeff Rathke said in a statement.

What exactly are "terrorist rockets" as opposed to "freedom spreading bunker busters dropped on houses"?

[wizardwatson]

There is certainly irony here.



What exactly are "terrorist rockets" as opposed to "freedom spreading bunker busters dropped on houses"?

The difference between "terrorist" rockets and "freedom", etc. rockets is simple.

"Terrorist" rockets are ones that the USA supplies.

"Freedom" rockets are ones that the USA supplies openly.

[enhanced_deficit]

OK, Freedom is on the march then.

[enhanced_deficit]

Notorious neocon politician from SC, a state whose economy benefits from wars spending, does not like this war crimes investigation.

Senator Threatens Aid Cut to Palestinians Over ICC 'War Crimes' Case

Lindsey Graham 'Offended' by Complaints Over Gaza War

By Allyn Fisher-Ilan
Published January 19, 2015.

Jerusalem — The Palestinians could lose annual U.S. aid if they file a lawsuit against Israel at the International Criminal Court which they joined this month over American and Israeli protests, a senior U.S. Republican senator said on Monday.
Lindsey Graham, part of a seven-member delegation of senators visiting Israel, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, said existing U.S. legislation “would cut off aid to the Palestinians if they filed a complaint” against Israel.
At a news conference in Jerusalem, Graham called the Palestinian step “a bastardizing of the role of the ICC. I find it incredibly offensive.”
“We will push back strongly to register our displeasure. It is already part of our law that would require us to stop funding if they actually bring a case,” said Graham, of South Carolina.
U.S. President Barack Obama’s Democratic administration has said it does not believe Palestine is a sovereign state and therefore does not qualify to be part of the ICC, but has not explicitly threatened to withhold aid.
Any cut in U.S. funds could make it hard for the Palestinian self-rule authority in the West Bank and Gaza to survive. The U.S. supplies more than $400 million annually to the Palestinian Authority. Israel has frozen a monthly transfer of some $120 million in tax revenues it collects for the Palestinians.
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has confirmed the Palestinians will formally become a member of the ICC on April 1, after applying earlier this month.
With jurisdiction dating back to June 13, 2014, the court’s prosecutor could investigate the 50-day war between Israel and Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip in July and August 2014, during which more than 2,100 Palestinians, 67 Israeli soldiers and six civilians in Israel were killed.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas applied to the court after losing a vote at the U.N. Security Council seeking a deadline for an Israeli withdrawal from land it captured in a 1967 war and where Palestinians seek to establish a state.
Israel and the United States deplore Palestinian moves at the U.N. as unilateral steps that undermine diplomacy, which has made little progress in years and collapsed most recently in April.

Read more: http://forward.com/articles/213062/senator-threatens-aid-cut-to-palestinians-over-icc/

1. South Carolina Looks to Republicans as Defense Money Drops
   http://www.businessweek.com/.../sout...ok...Bloomberg Businessweek
   Jan 20, 2012 - Military spending is key to the economic health of South Carolina, ... companies recording declines in South Carolina defense contracts last ...
2. Charleston Defense Contractors Association | Advocate ...
   www.charlestondca.org/
   CDCA's quarterly Small Business and Industry Outreach Initiative (SBIOI) symposia are .... South Carolina military industrial complex, the Charleston Defense ...
3. Charleston's economy girds for leaner defense budgets
   http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/...../1875559/USA Today
   Feb 3, 2013 - The South Carolina city is an example of how the nation may cope with cuts the aerospace industry claims would cost at least a million jobs as ...

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In other news, many Gaza war soldiers, some of whom could be suspected war criminals when ICC investigation begins, are getting almost no help to cope with PTSD:


Soldiers traumatized by Gaza war forced to cope on their own

Only after they came home from last summer's operation in Gaza did reservists in an infantry battalion realize they were suffering psychological problems. But the army did little to answer their pleas for help.

By Naomi Darom and Tal Laor | Jan. 24, 2015 | 9:27 PM

Soldiers receive care packages during last summer’s operation. Photo by Ofer Vaknin

The landing of a mortar shell was the company’s welcome to the Gaza Strip. The soldiers entered the battle zone on foot, after an air force raid. The mortar struck a few meters from them immediately after they crossed the fence into Gaza.
“That was the first shock,” says Ami (all soldiers’ names have been changed), an officer in the auxiliary weapons company (pluga misaya’at) of an infantry battalion. “We suddenly found ourselves under fire, when we’d been certain that not even a cat was left there.”

http://www.haaretz.com/news/features...medium=twitter

[enhanced_deficit]

Is this a double game SWC handlers playing and is this a "female Obama" puppet who is tasked to prosecute Israeli war crimes?
Disgraced dDG's puppet masters may already have insurance on "not guilty" outcome looking at past track record of the this prosecutor.


International court won't prosecute Israel for deadly flotilla raid

By Jason Hanna, CNN
Updated 5:22 AM ET, Fri November 7, 2014

The International Criminal Court will not prosecute Israel for a 2010 raid on a Gaza-bound aid ship that left eight Turks and an American dead, even though there's reason to believe war crimes were committed, a prosecutor with the Netherlands-based court said Thursday.
While conceding that war crimes may have been committed in the botched raid, the potential cases "would not be of 'sufficient gravity' to justify further action by the ICC," prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said.

"In the final analysis, I have, therefore, concluded that the legal requirements under the Rome Statute to open an investigation have not been met and I am announcing that the preliminary examination has been closed," Bensouda said.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/11/06/world/...flotilla-raid/



Meet the ICC prosecutor who may shape the course of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

International Criminal Court Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda will examine whether to investigate Israelis for crimes against the Palestinians – and if so, which ones.

By Aeyal Gross | Jan. 25, 2015



ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, November 2013. Photo by AP

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomac...emium-1.638684

[enhanced_deficit]

Above news is however in line with recent news:

Disgraced dronegangsta puppet bags team shows its cards as it opposed freedom/supported tax payers funded occupation when votes were counted. There have been some problems of racism in Australia but this seems like a new low for them also.

Palestinian statehood resolution fails at U.N council, U.S. votes against

By Louis Charbonneau
UNITED NATIONS Tue Dec 30, 2014 11:15pm EST
(Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council on Tuesday rejected a Palestinian resolution calling for an Israeli withdrawal from the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem and the establishment of a Palestinian state by late 2017.

The resolution called for negotiations to be based on territorial lines that existed before Israel captured the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Middle East war. It also called for a peace deal within 12 months.

Even if the draft had received the minimum nine votes in favor, it would have been defeated by Washington's vote against it. The United States is one of the five veto-wielding permanent members.

There were eight votes in favor, including France, Russia and China, two against and five abstentions, among them Britain. Australia joined the United States in voting against the measure.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power defended Washington's position against the draft in a speech to the 15-nation council by saying it was not a vote against peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/...0K81CR20141231




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