It's OK to Eat Belgian Chocolate
by Uri Avnery

The storm broke when a Belgian court decided that Ariel Sharon can be sued for alleged war crimes, but only after finishing his term as Prime Minister of Israel. Israel army officers connected with the 1982 massacre in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps can be sued even now.

On an Israeli TV program, the anchorman, a lawyer, put it this way: "Anti-Semitic Belgium wants to judge the officers of a second country for crimes committed in a third country, while the accused have no connection at all with Belgium, are not on Belgium territory and the whole affair does not concern Belgium. That is megalomania, really a matter for psychiatrists!"

"Strange," I replied on the program, "I seem to remember a case where country A kidnapped in country B the citizen of country C for committing in country D crimes against the citizens of countries E, F and G, all this in spite of the fact the crimes were committed before country A even existed."

I meant, of course, the trial of Adolf Eichmann, to which we all agreed.
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Israel Sees War in Iraq as Path to Mideast Peace

Shaul Mofaz, Israel's defense minister, told members of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations last week that after Iraq, the United States should generate "political, economic, diplomatic pressure" on Iran.

"We have great interest in shaping the Middle East the day after" a war, he said.
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Blaming Arafat won't solve the problem
By Danny Rubinstein

If it's true that Arafat initiated the intifada and continues to be responsible for the bloodshed, then things would be much easier. Get rid of him and everything will resolve itself peacefully. But it's not the case. And who knows? Perhaps the people who replace Arafat will be helpless in the face of the problems and raise a governmental ruckus that will be even worse for us.
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Israel's Slippery Moral Slope

The chain of events since the outbreak of the second intifada suggests that the IDF has employed more and more force against a primarily civilian population, and that every action is justified by comparing it to more brutal actions the IDF could, theoretically, have carried out.

In the absence of a universal moral approach—whereby there are things that one simply does not do—one is left with a tribal or relativistic worldview. Here the right to human dignity is contingent on national, ethnic or religious affiliation.

Because the IDF has rejected the notion that human beings are created equal, every young commander who follows its codes will inevitably slide down the slippery moral slope. As the soldiers themselves seemed to understand at the outset of the lecture, universal moral values are what distinguish corrupt from worthy leaders—an axiom that must be applied to the IDF, too.
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  thanks to Aron's Israel Peace Weblog

In the Name of Democracy

Almost a year ago, in May 2002, the Israeli Minister of Interior decided to deport Fareg Ibrahim, an Arab-Egyptian married to an Arab-Israeli woman, and father to a two-month-old baby, Camela.

Since June 2002, Mr. Ibrahim has been held in custody, without being accused of any crime. The Tel Aviv District Court denied his requests to be released on bail. Usually, foreign residents, especially ones who are married to Israelis, are interrogated and released on bail. However, apparently because Mr. Ibrahim is an Arab, Israeli judges decided to keep him in detention.

Mr. Ibrahim has been living in Israel for 7 years. He entered Israel on a Visa, and after he married an Arab-Israeli woman, filed a request to become an Israeli resident. He was a hard-working man, committed to his family. He was not involved in any criminal activity whatsoever. He is not connected, directly or indirectly, to any terrorist organization. Nevertheless, the Ministry of Interior decided to tear him away from his wife and child and deport him to Egypt, implementing a policy denying family reunification to Arabs. This act is considered a crime according to international conventions and UN treaties.
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