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Saturday, January 10, 2009

If Israel has lost the Murdoch Wall Street Journal, it's lost everyone
Posted by Jill | 10:43 PM
When even the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal, a reliable outpost of wingnuttia, says Israel is committing war crimes, they and the knee-jerkers here at home ought to listen:
Israel's current assault on the Gaza Strip cannot be justified by self-defense. Rather, it involves serious violations of international law, including war crimes. Senior Israeli political and military leaders may bear personal liability for their offenses, and they could be prosecuted by an international tribunal, or by nations practicing universal jurisdiction over grave international crimes. Hamas fighters have also violated the laws of warfare, but their misdeeds do not justify Israel's acts.

The United Nations charter preserved the customary right of a state to retaliate against an "armed attack" from another state. The right has evolved to cover nonstate actors operating beyond the borders of the state claiming self-defense, and arguably would apply to Hamas. However, an armed attack involves serious violations of the peace. Minor border skirmishes are common, and if all were considered armed attacks, states could easily exploit them -- as surrounding facts are often murky and unverifiable -- to launch wars of aggression. That is exactly what Israel seems to be currently attempting.


This is another reason why the incoming Obama administration's reluctance to examine and prosecute Bush Administration officials for their own crimes is so troubling -- and so dangerous. If the United States sets the example that war crimes may be permitted with impunity by refusing to investigate and prosecute, we have ZERO moral authority in dealing with the madness that is going on between the Israelis and the Palestinians right now.

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Blogger Unknown said...
To be accurate, it wasn't an editorial, it was an Op-Ed piece, and one not especially representative of the WSJ editorial board, from what I've seen.

You also might be interested to know that as a long-time Journal reader myself, I've noticed a pronounced left-ward slant since Murdoch took over. Seriously! He hired Thomas Frank, and features opinion pieces like the one you link here more and more frequently. Just my $0.02.
1/11/09, 9:27 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...
I should have said left-ward "shift" instead of left-word "slant." It's still solidly right of center.
1/11/09, 9:28 AM  
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