Doc's Talk: Netanyahu: Our leaders won't be prosecuted in Hague

Monday, October 12, 2009

Netanyahu: Our leaders won't be prosecuted in Hague

Prime Minister Netanyahu addresses Knesset as winter session opens, says battle against UN report into Gaza operation a top priority. 'Hamas are the real war criminals,' he says. MK Zahalka calls out towards him, 'You killed 400 children'. President Peres calls for 'far-reaching decisions ahead of two-state solution'

Amnon Meranda
YNET News

The Knesset opened its winter session Monday, amid its members' promise for a stormy winter. The Knesset's factions are set to spend the next several months debating settlement freeze, the forming of a biometric database, a reform in the Israel Land Administration, a controversial budget cut and a referendum bill, to name a few. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dedicated most of his speech to a harsh attack on a United Nations report on the Israeli operation in Gaza, which accused Israel and Hamas of committing war crimes in Gaza.
Fighting Back
PM: Focus efforts on fending off Goldstone threat / Attila Somfalvi
During Likud faction meeting, Netanyahu says Israel facing two main challenges: Renewing talks with Palestinians, warding off attempt to deny country its right to defend itself. Defense minister on Gaza war report: We must keep supporting IDF personnel and decision-makers
Full story

He mentioned Hamas' war crimes and stressed, "We will not let (former Prime Minister) Ehud Olmert, (former Foreign Minister) Tzipi Livni and (Defense Minister) Ehud Barak, who sent our sons to war, reach the Hague International Criminal Court."

"The right for a Jewish state and the right for self-defense are two of the foundations of our people's existence," the prime minister said at the start of his speech. "These two rights are interlocked. Without a state of our own, we won't be able to defend ourselves, and without the ability to defend ourselves we won’t be able to defend the State.

"These basic rights of the people of Israel are under an ongoing attack, an attack which has increased since the Second Lebanon War and Operation Cast Lead. Our first mission is to ward off this attack."

Netanyahu went on to harshly slam the Goldstone Report. He started by addressing the Goldstone committee's authority to probe "the violations of international law on the part of the Israeli occupying force against the Palestinians."

He turned to the Knesset members and stressed, "I want you to pay attention to the wording, 'The Israeli occupying force'. And this is after we evacuated every centimeter of Gaza.

"This distorted report, written by this distorted committee, undermines Israel's basic right for self-defense. This report encourages terror and endangers peace. I want to clarify here: Israel will not take any chances for peace if it cannot defend itself."

"This report presents Israel's leaders, commanders and IDF soldiers as war criminals," Netanyahu added, "but the truth is the exact opposite. The leaders of Israel and its army are the ones who went out to defend Israel's citizens against war criminals."

The prime minister mentioned Hamas' crimes – declaring its intent to destroy Israel, the rocket fire, and the kidnapping of Gilad Shalit. "We will not let Ehud Olmert, Tzipi Livni and Ehud Barak, who sent our sons to war, reach the Hague International Criminal Court."

During the speech, Knesset Member Jamal Zahalka (Balad) called out towards the prime minister, "You killed 400 children!" He was silenced by the Knesset speaker.

Netanyahu said in response to the Arab MK's calls, "At the UN the Israeli prime minister was received with more politeness than by some of the Knesset members." MK Dov Khenin (Hadash) called out, "Don't educate us."

Netanyahu, Peres and Rivlin (Photo: Gil Yohanan)

The prime minister went on to talk about the peace process, mentioned his Bar-Ilan speech, and stressed that "we are willing to work hard for peace," adding that he expects the same willingness from the Palestinian Authority.

Netanyahu called on heads of the Palestinian Authority to tell their people the truth. "Without recognizing the State of Israel as the Jews' state we won't be able to reach peace. This is also the time for leaders of the region's Arab countries to tell their people the truth, that the State of Israel is not Islam's enemy."

He reiterated his call to the Palestinians to launch immediate peace negotiations. "I have already said that I am not setting any preconditions for peace talks with the Palestinians. We are working so that our joint efforts with US President Obama's administration will lead to their swift resumption.

Despite the lack of cooperation on the Palestinian side, Netanyahu stressed, "We must not lose hope. We seek peace in a sober, realistic way, in a way which is not detached from reality, but connected to reality.

As expected, Netanyahu said that the top priority in terms of security was the Iranian nuclear threat. "In the past few months, the real face of Iranian tyranny is being revealed: A regime supporting terror and building hidden facilities for the production of nuclear weapons. President Obama recently reiterated his commitment to prevent Iran from obtaining such a weapon."

He also mentioned a series of other issues on the agenda, including strengthening the economy, improving education and the war on violence. "We must return security to our streets now, and reduce the differences between the periphery and center now," he said.

The prime minister concluded by saying, "There is one thing which helps us deal with the challenges successfully: The recognition of the State of Israel as the only home of our people, the Jewish people. The Jews have no other state, and we seek no other state. With God's help, we will work to bring security, prosperity and peace to Israel. With God's help, this is how it will be forever. Shana Tova."

Peres: 2-state solution a public consensus

President Shimon Peres took the podium before Netanyahu, telling the 120 Knesset members that the coming winter will see them "make difficult and far-reaching decisions."

Peres chose to focus on two major issues, security and education: "The construction of the State of Israel cannot be completed until the peace process is completed. We have no emotional partner for peace. The peace we have and the one we strive for is not a romantic one – it is a necessity. And we prefer such peace to an endless process.

"This is not the peace we have been dreaming of, but it will suffice," said the president.

"We now have two options to choose from: We can shoulder the responsibility of what is happening in the West Bank solely, face growing, hostile criticism and end up with a de facto Palestinian state, to we can continue negotiating with the Palestinian Authority until a solution is struck.

"Faced with a choice between unavoidable war and unavoidable peace I choose the latter. I believe the two-state solution is a public consensus. We cannot back away from it and we have no viable alternative to it."

Turning his attention to the challenges faced by the education system, Peres said that Israel has to cultivate its human capital.

"We have no capital but human capital, one that must be created. We have to guarantee free elementary and higher education to every child of we are to guarantee a better future for Israel.

"We cannot abide the deterioration of the educational system and the rise in illiteracy. Violence among our youth is a plague we must eradicate."

Rivlin: MKs must set an example

Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin was the first to take the podium. Rivlin chose to began his address with a reference to the past summer's violent streak, and urges Knesset members to set a personal example.

"We too, in our debates here, are to blame for using verbal violence? Is this really the way the Knesset is supposed to conduct itself? Can this Knesset truly be the arena of true, effective debate, even if it is, sometimes, bitterly harsh? Or have we reached a point of utter chaos?" Rivlin wondered aloud.

"Have we come to a point in time when the Knesset has become irrelevant simply because is can no longer be the place of serious discussion, one that commands public attention? We must contemplate our national priorities… It is up to us to examine the way we have been conducting ourselves within the walls of this House."

1 comment:

Dan - Israeli Uncensored News said...: Why not, indeed, stand the Hague trial, as Livni suggests? Let's see how the world would condemn Jews for self-defense; 10:11 PM

The IDF’s Minorities in Numbers and Pictures

In honor of IDF Diversity Week, we present diversity through numbers and pictures. Each year, more and more Muslims, Christians, Druze, Bedouin and immigrants from around the world take on the responsibility of defending Israel.

MUSLIMS:

Muslim Arab Israelis are not required to draft in the IDF, but there are many who volunteer. In 2013, there were over 200 Muslims serving in the IDF and over 300 in the reserves.

Bedouins:

Bedouins are nomadic Muslims who were in Israel when modern borders were set in place and are now considered Israeli citizens. They are not required to draft but a growing number choose to enlist. In 2012, there were over 1,400 Bedouin Muslim soldiers doing regular IDF service and almost 1,500 in the reserves.

Read more:http://www.idfblog.com/2014/02/27/truth-idf-numbers-pictures/#more-34027

Are you aware that in 2013, Middle class taxes go up-significantly?

In January of next year, the federal income tax rate for middle-class taxpayers is scheduled to rise from 25 percent to 28 percent, and the payroll tax is scheduled to rise from 13.3 percent to 15.3 percent… This drives the marginal tax rate based on the aforementioned three taxes to 48.12 percent. Add in state and local property, corporate, excise, and other state and local taxes, and the percentage of each additional dollar that is taxed hovers around 50 percent… When half of each additional dollar earned is taxed away, taxpayers experience a disincentive to start businesses or expand existing ones. This leads to fewer jobs being created.

Why is HAMAS Inside Tampa Schools?

Clare Lopez

Kelly Miliziano, who teaches history classes at Steinbrenner High School in the Tampa, Florida area apparently thinks it’s perfectly OK to invite a senior official of a HAMAS-affiliated organization into her classroom to discuss Islam with her students. According to local media reports, not only has this been going on for years, but in spite of the civil and criminal proceedings that could result from such reckless negligence, the Hillsborough County school superintendent, Mary Ellen Elia, and the chairman of the school board, Candy Olson, also expressed approval for students under their responsibility to be exposed repeatedly to guest speaker, Hassan Shibly, who is the Executive Director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in the Tampa area.
More...

Did You Know... Ignoring the Call to Islam will Bring Jihad

‘Conquest through Da’wa [proselytizing] that is what we hope for. We will conquer Europe, we will conquer America! Not through sword but through Da’wa.’
-- Yousef al-Qaradawi , Muslim Brotherhood spiritual leader The Arabic word ‘Da’wa’ means the “call to Islam.” But do not think that Da’wa is the same thing as an invitation to an optional holiday event. The classical Islamic doctrine of jihad mandates that enemies must be given the opportunity to convert to Islam or pay the jizya tax before it is permissible to attack them.
Clare M. Lopez

Who is being discriminated-facts tell the truth

Religious bias

Hate crimes motivated by religious bias accounted for 1,409 offenses reported by law enforcement. A breakdown of the bias motivation of religious-bias offenses showed:

65.4 percent were anti-Jewish.
13.2 percent were anti-Islamic.
9.5 percent were anti-other religion, i.e., those not specified.
4.3 percent were anti-Catholic.
3.8 percent were anti-multiple religions, group.
3.3 percent were anti-Protestant.
0.5 percent were anti-Atheism/Agnosticism/etc.

http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/hate-crime/2010/narratives/hate-crime-2010-incidents-and-offenses.

On March 31, 1977, the Dutch newspaper Trouw published an interview

with PLO executive committee member Zahir Muhsein. Here's what he said:

"The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct "Palestinian people" to oppose Zionism.

For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa, while as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan."

In March 1977, Zahir Muhsein, a PLO executive, said:

"The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct Palestinian people to oppose Zionism."

"For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa, while as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan."

The Arab Apartheid

Ben-Dror Yemini
In 1948, the Arab countries refused to accept the UN partition proposal and they launched a war of annihilation against the State of Israel which had barely been established. All precedents in this matter showed that the party that starts the war - and with a declaration of annihilation, yet - pays a price for it. Between 550,000 and 710,000 Arabs fled because of the war and a larger number of 850,000 Jews were expelled or fled from Arab countries (the "Jewish nakba").
Population exchanges and expulsions were the norm at that time, occurring in dozens of other conflict points and affecting about 52 million people. In all the population exchange precedents that occurred during or at the end of an armed conflict, there was no return of refugees to the previous region, which had turned into a new national state.
Only the Arab states acted completely differently from the rest of the world. Instead of assimilating the refugees, they crushed them despite the fact that they were their coreligionists and members of the Arab nation - instituting a regime of apartheid. So the "nakba" was not caused by the actual dispossession, which had also been experienced by tens of millions of others. The "nakba" is the story of the apartheid, oppression, abuse and denial of rights suffered by the Arab refugees at the hands of the Arab countries. (Maariv)

International Law and Military Operations in Practice - Col. Richard Kemp

"Islamist fighting groups study the international laws of armed conflict carefully and they understand it well. They know that a British or Israeli commander and his men are bound by international law and the rules of engagement that flow from it. They then do their utmost to exploit what they view as one of their enemy's main weaknesses. Their very modus operandi is built on the correct assumption that Western armies will normally abide by the rules, while these insurgents employ a deliberate policy of operating consistently outside international law. "

Lost Historical Moments

What Rabin’s last Knesset speech really said:repudiation of a Palestinian state

Rabin ruled out a fully sovereign Palestinian state :

“We view the permanent solution in the framework of State of Israel which will include most of the area of the Land of Israel as it was under the rule of the British Mandate, and alongside it a Palestinian entity which will be a home to most of the Palestinian residents living in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. We would like this to be an entity which is less than a state, and which will independently run the lives of the Palestinians under its authority.”

Rabin ruled out a total withdrawal from Judea and Samaria and thus a return to the pre-June 1967 borders :

“The borders of the State of Israel, during the permanent solution, will be beyond the lines which existed before the Six Day War. We will not return to the 4 June 1967 lines.”

Rabin ruled out withdrawing form the Jordan Valley:

“The security border of the State of Israel will be located in the Jordan Valley, in the broadest meaning of that term.”

Rabin ruled out uprooting settlement blocs, like the Gush Katif bloc in Gaza (which was subsequently uprooted by former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon):

“The establishment of blocs of settlements in Judea and Samaria, like the one in Gush Katif.

AND

Rabin ruled out removing any settlement before coming to a full peace agreement with the Palestinians:

“I want to remind you: we committed ourselves, that is, we came to an agreement, and committed ourselves before the Knesset, not to uproot a single settlement in the framework of the interim agreement, and not to hinder building for natural growth.”

Rabin insisted on Israel retaining full security control of the borders with Egypt and Jordan, contrary to Israel’s relinquishment of the Philadelphia Corridor on the border with Egypt:

“The responsibility for external security along the borders with Egypt and Jordan, as well as control over the airspace above all of the territories and Gaza Strip maritime zone, remains in our hands.”

Correcting Oslo Myths-Part 2

3) Kuttab laments that the post-1993 Oslo process resulted in a Palestinian Authority "whose ministers and legislators are not guaranteed passage between Gaza and the West Bank ...."

Before free passage or other perquisites, PA leaders were obligated, among other things, to eliminate the terrorist infrastructure in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, end anti-Israeli, antisemitic incitement in schools, mosques, and communications media, and resolve all outstanding issues through peaceful negotiations. They met none of these commitments, sometimes bolstering terrorism and greatly increasing incitement.

4) Kuttab complains that under Oslo the PA got "lightly armed police ---- but no real sovereignty over the land or contiguity between our communities in Gaza and the West Bank."

Oslo agreements repeatedly were revised, regardless of Palestinian non-compliance, until the authorized number of police grew from 8,000 to 40,000. Though they were to be the only armed forces in the territories, Israeli estimates early in the second intifada put the number of gunmen - police, "security services," terrorists, and armed gangs - at 85,000. Their armament reportedly included not only heavy machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades, but also anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles.

Sovereignty was to be negotiated in the envisioned 1998 "final status" talks - after a five-year period of confidence-building. Palestinian leadership chronically undermined the process. Palestinian terrorism made the 1993 - 1998 Oslo period more deadly for Israelis than the 15 years preceding it.

The United States doesn't have contiguity between the lower 48 states and Alaska and Hawaii; territorial contiguity between the West Bank and Gaza Strip - that is, through the 20 miles of Israeli territory between them - was never promised and would destroy Israeli contiguity.

5) "Palestinians have been made to endure hundreds of checkpoints in the West Bank, an eight-foot wall deep in our territories, and tight Israeli control over borders."

The security barrier is not "deep in Palestinian territories," but rather encompasses less than 8 percent of Judea and Samaria, and is mostly a fence, rarely a wall; the land in question is not "our [Palestinian] territories" but disputed territory to which, according to the authors of U.N. Security Council Resolution 242, Jews as well as Arabs have claims; and there are no international borders, only the 1949 armistice lines with Jordan. Under 242, borders remain to be negotiated. As for checkpoints - like the security barrier and "tight Israeli control" - Palestinian Arabs precipitated these measures themselves. No terrorism and there would be no fence or tight Israeli control and few checkpoints - like before the first intifada.

Correcting Some Oslo Myths

1) In Oslo "Israeli, Palestinian and other world leaders promised that ... Palestinian sovereignty would be solidified."

No, they didn't. The 1993 Declaration of Principles and subsequent Oslo agreements outlined a process by which final status negotiations about the West Bank and Gaza Strip would be reached. The process required an end to anti-Israel terrorism and incitement and a commitment to peaceful negotiations. The PA, Fatah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and other terrorist groups, sabotaged the process from the start.

2) "The reality is that, in defiance of U.N. Security Council Resolution 242, which states that it is inadmissible to occupy land by force, Palestinian territories are still under foreign military occupation."
Wrong again. Resolution 242 (1967) does note "the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war." It also affirms the right of every state in the area "to live in peace with secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force." There were no "Palestinian territories." Jordan occupied the West Bank, Egypt controlled Gaza. Israel did not have "secure and recognized boundaries," so retention of some of those territories was possible under 242. Israel is not a "foreign" military occupier in the West Bank but, pending final negotiations, the lawful military administrator as a result of a successful war of self-defense.

Doc's Talk