By Ted Belman
Yonah Jeremy Bob introduces us to Daniel Reisner, “godfather of Israeli experts on international law and war crimes”. He was the guy who shifted Israel’s approach to Palestinian violence from a law-enforcement paradigm to an armed-conflict approach. So far so good.
But argues that we should comply with international treaties;
Hamas, Hezbollah and other Israeli adversaries “don’t play by these rules, because they don’t care,” he said, noting Israel could have argued that it does not need to grant international law protections to those who ignore and abuse the system.
But Reisner is firmly in favor of Israeli compliance with international law even when fighting terrorist groups that ignore it, because, “we can’t define legal and moral standards by our enemy, we need to be who we are, not who they are.”
With all due respect I think he has got that wrong. The essence of these treaties is the provisions are reciprocal. The only reason we should abide by them is because the other party is likewise bound. But if the other party is not bound, there is no obligation on us to be bound.
For the hypocritical Int Community, to every rule their is an exception. Therefore, ONLY the Jews must abide by the Int community rules ESPECIALLY if NO other country cares to respect them. Colonel R. Kemp will probably that IL must do the best she can! Not the absolute best. We are after all humans like the others.
If Israel could get recognition for its already high standards of conduct regarding any aggression against it, it would be worthwhile to observe compliance with international law. The problem is that the enforcement of international law is utterly corrupted against Israel.
Those who monitor international law need to step forward and recognize Israel for how it is already spontaneously in compliance with international law. And furthermore, that same international community so concerned with international law should step forward and encourage Israel to be more aggressive in defending itself and its citizens.
We need to fight wars to win! Not to play by the rules. War is not a football match or a baseball game.
Destroy the enemy or so completely defeat them that they can no longer fight.