Inspectors Fear Iran Is Hiding Nuclear Plants
By DAVID E. SANGER and WILLIAM J. BROAD
Published: November 16, 2009 NY Times {excerpt}
WASHINGTON — International inspectors who gained access to Iran’s newly revealed underground nuclear enrichment plant voiced strong suspicions in a report on Monday that the country was concealing other atomic facilities.
In unusually tough language, the International Atomic Energy Agency appeared highly skeptical that Iran would have built the enrichment plant without also constructing a variety of other facilities that would give it an alternative way to produce nuclear fuel if its main centers were bombed.
Monday, November 16, 2009
Washington Post editorial throws light on the impossible standard regarding asymmetric warfare applied to Israel and Israel alone.
The U.N.'s Goldstone commission missed a chance to promote accountability on 21st-century battlefields.
Sunday, November 15, 2009 Washington Post Editorial
IN ORDER to eliminate the Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, the United States launched at least 15 missile strikes in Pakistan this year and killed, besides Mr. Mehsud, somewhere between 200 and 300 people, according to a study by the New America Foundation. At least a quarter of those who died were civilians.
Was that toll "disproportionate" to the threat posed by a single terrorist and therefore a war crime? How about the recent NATO bombing of hijacked fuel tankers in northern Afghanistan, in which a mix of 80 to 120 Taliban militants and civilians died? Justified strike, accident or war crime?
This is the sort of fraught question that the United Nations and its Human Rights Council, in theory, ought to be focused on. Asymmetrical wars, in which terrorists and insurgents deliberately mix among civilians, are the story of the 21st century so far -- and there are no clear norms for managing the moral dilemmas they pose. Can a drone's targeter knowingly expose civilians to injury if a terrorist leader is in range? How should a civilized army respond when its soldiers are mortared, or its own civilians exposed to rocket fire, from a position inside a schoolyard?
A commission appointed by the Human Rights Council to investigate Israel's war with Hamas in Gaza last winter could have set an example of serious treatment of such issues. Headed by the respected South African jurist Richard Goldstone, the panel altered the one-sided mandate it received, so as to examine abuses by both Israel and Hamas during the three-week conflict.
But Israel refused to cooperate -- and the Goldstone commission proceeded to make a mockery of impartiality with its judgment of facts. It concluded, on scant evidence, that "disproportionate destruction and violence against civilians were part of a deliberate policy" by Israel. At the same time it pronounced itself unable to confirm that Hamas hid its fighters among civilians, used human shields, fired mortars and rockets from outside schools, stored weapons in mosques, and used a hospital for its headquarters, despite abundant available evidence.
By pretending it did not know whether Hamas employed such tactics and by claiming that Israel's actions were driven by a motivation to kill civilians on purpose, rather than to defeat Hamas, the panel dodged the hard issues it should have tackled. It did not seriously attempt to balance civilian deaths against the threats Israel was targeting or to understand the real motivations for the destruction in areas from which rockets were launched at Israeli cities.
As it happens, Israel is ahead of most other nations in managing these issues. In Gaza its forces used thousands of e-mails, phone calls and even non-lethal explosives to warn civilians away from airstrike targets. Its army's criminal division is investigating 45 complaints of abuses.
A broader, government-sanctioned independent investigation is called for: a number of specific allegations in the Goldstone report, one-sided though they are, deserve a full answer. Not just Israel but the United States and many other nations ought to face more pressure to justify the means they use to fight insurgents and terrorists. Sadly, the only thing proved by the Goldstone commission is that the United Nations is incapable of performing that service.
---
hat tip: Meryl Yourish yourish.com
The U.N.'s Goldstone commission missed a chance to promote accountability on 21st-century battlefields.
Sunday, November 15, 2009 Washington Post Editorial
IN ORDER to eliminate the Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, the United States launched at least 15 missile strikes in Pakistan this year and killed, besides Mr. Mehsud, somewhere between 200 and 300 people, according to a study by the New America Foundation. At least a quarter of those who died were civilians.
Was that toll "disproportionate" to the threat posed by a single terrorist and therefore a war crime? How about the recent NATO bombing of hijacked fuel tankers in northern Afghanistan, in which a mix of 80 to 120 Taliban militants and civilians died? Justified strike, accident or war crime?
This is the sort of fraught question that the United Nations and its Human Rights Council, in theory, ought to be focused on. Asymmetrical wars, in which terrorists and insurgents deliberately mix among civilians, are the story of the 21st century so far -- and there are no clear norms for managing the moral dilemmas they pose. Can a drone's targeter knowingly expose civilians to injury if a terrorist leader is in range? How should a civilized army respond when its soldiers are mortared, or its own civilians exposed to rocket fire, from a position inside a schoolyard?
A commission appointed by the Human Rights Council to investigate Israel's war with Hamas in Gaza last winter could have set an example of serious treatment of such issues. Headed by the respected South African jurist Richard Goldstone, the panel altered the one-sided mandate it received, so as to examine abuses by both Israel and Hamas during the three-week conflict.
But Israel refused to cooperate -- and the Goldstone commission proceeded to make a mockery of impartiality with its judgment of facts. It concluded, on scant evidence, that "disproportionate destruction and violence against civilians were part of a deliberate policy" by Israel. At the same time it pronounced itself unable to confirm that Hamas hid its fighters among civilians, used human shields, fired mortars and rockets from outside schools, stored weapons in mosques, and used a hospital for its headquarters, despite abundant available evidence.
By pretending it did not know whether Hamas employed such tactics and by claiming that Israel's actions were driven by a motivation to kill civilians on purpose, rather than to defeat Hamas, the panel dodged the hard issues it should have tackled. It did not seriously attempt to balance civilian deaths against the threats Israel was targeting or to understand the real motivations for the destruction in areas from which rockets were launched at Israeli cities.
As it happens, Israel is ahead of most other nations in managing these issues. In Gaza its forces used thousands of e-mails, phone calls and even non-lethal explosives to warn civilians away from airstrike targets. Its army's criminal division is investigating 45 complaints of abuses.
A broader, government-sanctioned independent investigation is called for: a number of specific allegations in the Goldstone report, one-sided though they are, deserve a full answer. Not just Israel but the United States and many other nations ought to face more pressure to justify the means they use to fight insurgents and terrorists. Sadly, the only thing proved by the Goldstone commission is that the United Nations is incapable of performing that service.
---
hat tip: Meryl Yourish yourish.com
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Rabbi Eric Yoffie this week on The Whole Megillah
Rabbi Eric Yoffie, the President of the Union for Reform Judaism (URJ), will be the guest during the first hour of Rabbi Kaufman's - The Whole Megillah, Thursday, Nov. 19. The interview with Rabbi Yoffie will take place live from 2-3 pm Central on www.macsworldlive.com. You may find the recordings and podcasts of this show and previous shows through Rabbi David Kaufman's blog www.rabbikaufman.blogspot.com. Please join us! If you have any questions please ask them through the chat room.
Rabbi Kaufman's - The Whole Megillah is an internet radio show, reaching a diverse audience around the world, which is dedicated to issues related to Israel, the Middle East, American Foreign Policy, Judaism and Religion in general. It airs every Thursday from 2-4 pm on www.macsworldlive.com, home of the Des Moines Local Live network.
Link to Rabbi Eric Yoffie's bio.
Rabbi Kaufman's - The Whole Megillah is an internet radio show, reaching a diverse audience around the world, which is dedicated to issues related to Israel, the Middle East, American Foreign Policy, Judaism and Religion in general. It airs every Thursday from 2-4 pm on www.macsworldlive.com, home of the Des Moines Local Live network.
Link to Rabbi Eric Yoffie's bio.
Friday, November 13, 2009
Palestinians refusing to negotiate for a Palestinian state
Robert Satloff, the executive director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, says what he calls a truly amazing situation now exists in the Middle East.
Satloff says for a generation Palestinians have asked America to convince Israel to negotiate the terms of a Palestinian state. Now Palestinians are refusing to come back to such talks.
"When America and Israel want to try to bring the Palestinians to the negotiating table at least to talk about statehood and Palestinians, perhaps for very good reasons of their own, are balking, this is history turned upside down," said Robert Satloff.
Satloff says for a generation Palestinians have asked America to convince Israel to negotiate the terms of a Palestinian state. Now Palestinians are refusing to come back to such talks.
"When America and Israel want to try to bring the Palestinians to the negotiating table at least to talk about statehood and Palestinians, perhaps for very good reasons of their own, are balking, this is history turned upside down," said Robert Satloff.
(Voice of America report, Novermber 11, 2009)
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Ehud Barak: PM and myself leave no stone unturned in peace efforts
| Published: | 11.10.09 |
Defense Minister Ehud Barak said at the end of his meetings in Washington before flying back to Israel, "Prime Minister Netanyahu and my visit was very important. We are leaving no stone unturned in the effort to reignite negotiations."
Barak added, "During my meeting at the Pentagon and our meeting at the White House, we again were met by President Obama in an environment attentive to Israel's defense needs." (Yitzhak Benhorin, Washington)
Monday, November 9, 2009
Israeli PM Netanyahu’s Speech at the Jewish Federations of North America General Assembly Excerpt
My goal is not negotiations for negotiations sake. My goal is to reach a peace treaty, and soon.
But to get a peace agreement, we must start negotiating. Let’s stop talking about negotiations. Let’s start moving.
This past June at Bar-Ilan University, I put forward a vision of peace that has united the vast majority of Israelis.
In this vision of two states for two peoples, a demilitarized Palestinian state would recognize the Jewish state.
Now, what do I mean by a Jewish state? It is a state in which all individuals and all minorities have equal individual rights. Yet our national symbols, language and culture spring from the heritage of the Jewish people. And most important, any Jew from anywhere in the world has a right to immigrate to Israel and become a citizen.
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