19 June 2011, Tikun Olam תיקון עולם http://www.richardsilverstein.com/tikun_olam (USA)
Richard Silverstein
Maariv and Channel 2 News in Israel are reporting that Bibi and Barak are wreaking their revenge on Meir Dagan in ways large and small, for breaking with them and almost single-handedly preventing an Israeli attack on Iran. It is customary for retiring senior government figures with diplomatic passports to retain them for the length of the term of the passport. However, Bibi is demanding that Dagan return his immediately (Hebrew and in English). This may seem like a deliberate act of pettiness. It is that of course. But much more.
Without diplomatic passport, Meir Dagan is subject to arrest in any foreign country he might visit which might recognize an arrest warrant for his acts as Mossad chief including the assassination of Mahmoud al-Mabouh. Dubai’s police chief has already threatened to issue Interpol arrest warrants for Bibi’s arrest. So this is not academic. In essence, Bibi is punishing Dagan by confining him to Israeli territory, because he will surely be arrested if he visits or even touches down in many western countries.
What Bibi isn’t weighing properly is that Dagan could conceivably become a senior minister in a future government or, “God forbid,” prime minister (he can run for Knesset in less than three years). Then Dagan would be able to repay the favor and Bibi too would be confined to Israel for fear of his own arrest for war crimes.
Related posts:
1. Bibi’s Office Sprang a Leak: Did It Involve Exposing Name of New Shabak Chief?
2. Dagan Dumped, Mossad Fixer Captured in Poland, Did Israelis Mean to Capture–Rather Than Kill–Al-Mabouh?
3. Former Mossad Chief: Mistake to Oppose General Assembly Vote on Palestinian Statehood
4. Bibi Demands Palestinian Confidence Building Measure, Approving Israeli Impunity
5. Netanyahu to Oust Mossad Chief
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quarta-feira, 22 de junho de 2011
segunda-feira, 13 de junho de 2011
Legislation against human rights groups is political persecution
The new legislative initiative which would ban human rights organizations from employing national service volunteers ignores their democratic mission.
13 June 2011, Haaretz הארץ Editoral (Israel)
Kadima MK Israel Hasson's new initiative under which human rights organizations would be denied the right to employ national service volunteers is pure political persecution.
The proposal is based almost entirely on the claim that these organizations "besmirched the Israel Defense Forces, its officers and its soldiers."
According to Hasson, certain organizations - first and foremost, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, the local chapters of Physicians for Human Rights and Amnesty, and the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel - sought to persuade Judge Richard Goldstone to investigate whether Israel committed war crimes during Operation Cast Lead in Gaza in early 2009, and even urged the UN inquiry committee he headed "to accuse Israel of anti-humanitarian activity and of grave violations of human rights."
Hasson is ignoring the nature of the mission that human rights organizations have taken upon themselves - namely, a constant battle to uphold the ethical, humanist values without which a democratic society cannot exist, or, at the very least, could not maintain its democratic image.
Demanding an investigation of the army is neither treason nor slander, as Hasson and his supporters are trying to paint it. Indeed, given that both the army and the political decision-makers shunned a courageous and thorough probe of what happened during Cast Lead - an operation in which hundreds of Palestinians were killed - their application to Goldstone was essential.
Moreover, it's clear that their involvement with the Goldstone Report is nothing but a transparent excuse on which Hasson sought to hang his desire to embitter the lives of these organizations and intensify the delegitimization campaign against them. And he is not alone. He is supported by more than just a handful of Knesset members, most of them from the extreme right.
But Hasson, the bill's sponsor, is not a delusional extremist; he belongs to a party that defines itself as Israel's main centrist party. Yet so far, Kadima chairwoman and opposition leader Tzipi Livni has not responded to Hasson's proposal. Her silence is particularly worrying because she has until now been viewed as a rock standing firm against the recent wave of anti-democratic legislation.
If Livni truly sees herself and her party as an alternative to the present government, she can no longer remain silent in the face of this campaign of silencing and intimidation.
13 June 2011, Haaretz הארץ Editoral (Israel)
Kadima MK Israel Hasson's new initiative under which human rights organizations would be denied the right to employ national service volunteers is pure political persecution.
The proposal is based almost entirely on the claim that these organizations "besmirched the Israel Defense Forces, its officers and its soldiers."
According to Hasson, certain organizations - first and foremost, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, the local chapters of Physicians for Human Rights and Amnesty, and the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel - sought to persuade Judge Richard Goldstone to investigate whether Israel committed war crimes during Operation Cast Lead in Gaza in early 2009, and even urged the UN inquiry committee he headed "to accuse Israel of anti-humanitarian activity and of grave violations of human rights."
Hasson is ignoring the nature of the mission that human rights organizations have taken upon themselves - namely, a constant battle to uphold the ethical, humanist values without which a democratic society cannot exist, or, at the very least, could not maintain its democratic image.
Demanding an investigation of the army is neither treason nor slander, as Hasson and his supporters are trying to paint it. Indeed, given that both the army and the political decision-makers shunned a courageous and thorough probe of what happened during Cast Lead - an operation in which hundreds of Palestinians were killed - their application to Goldstone was essential.
Moreover, it's clear that their involvement with the Goldstone Report is nothing but a transparent excuse on which Hasson sought to hang his desire to embitter the lives of these organizations and intensify the delegitimization campaign against them. And he is not alone. He is supported by more than just a handful of Knesset members, most of them from the extreme right.
But Hasson, the bill's sponsor, is not a delusional extremist; he belongs to a party that defines itself as Israel's main centrist party. Yet so far, Kadima chairwoman and opposition leader Tzipi Livni has not responded to Hasson's proposal. Her silence is particularly worrying because she has until now been viewed as a rock standing firm against the recent wave of anti-democratic legislation.
If Livni truly sees herself and her party as an alternative to the present government, she can no longer remain silent in the face of this campaign of silencing and intimidation.
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