Who is responsible for the proxy war?

As Robert Fisk is wondering if there should be a War Crimes Tribunal, I'm thinking about who should be tried. Yes, of course, everyone is angry at Israel. They were the ones that bombed the houses; that used the phosphorus; that stopped the aide from coming in.

Yet, maybe we need to look at the bigger picture. I believe that Israel was used by the E.U. and the U.S. Killing the Gazans was a proxy for getting at Iran. Sure, the Israelis took it as their own. There is plenty of anger about the rockets hitting Israeli cities for months on end. But then, what about the embargo?

It's like a cat and mouse game that is no game. Its about death and destruction. And the U.S., in it's timely manner, just before Obama takes office, pushes Israel into becoming the aggressor (again).

As strong as Israel is said it be. I believe it is fragile. The Holocaust has colored their responses. There is no doubt the Holocaust was one of the most horrible thing that has happened in the history of mankind (along with the Middle Passage, the genocide of the Native Americans and other catastrophys that I can't remember at this moment). I applaud the Israelis for making sure we don't forget it. The thousands of photographs I saw last week at the Holocaust museum in Jerusalem are like ghosts that follow me everywhere I go. I see faces in my mind and can't imagine the horror.

The people are dead but the injuries live on, in the living and their descendants. The U.S. knows this and only has to push a little bit to get them going. Remember what happened at the U.N. - Condi Rice was about to go against U.S. policy in endorsing a cease fire and her boss called her up and told her to stop. Why is that? Why would anyone want to let a murderous rampage continue?

Israel is strategically placed in the Middle East. Is it the most secure outpost for the U.S. against it's imagined war with Muslim extremists who have become terrorists (not all Muslim extremists are terrorists, we have to keep reminding ourselves of that). More Jews live in New York than in all of Israel. So Bloomberg thinks its a good thing to take the trip to Israel and show his constituency that he cares. We have so many connections.

What is very important to remember at this point is that the Israelis are not the only culprits. They have acted out for the U.S. and the E.U. - just think.... Sarkozy makes life miserable for Arabs (and their descendants) in France, he desperately tried to broker a ceasefire. Why would he care? Actually he doesn't care. It's a political move, and the Israelis are doing it for all of us.

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So, I asked the UN secretary general, isn't it time for a war crimes tribunal?

London Independent

By Robert Fisk

Mr Ban said it would not be up to him to launch a war crimes tribunal. It was pathetic

Monday, 19 January 2009

It's a wrap, a doddle, an Israeli ceasefire just in time for Barack Obama to have a squeaky-clean inauguration with all the world looking at the streets of Washington rather than the rubble of Gaza. Condi and Ms Livni thought their new arms-monitoring agreement – reached without a single Arab being involved – would work. Ban Ki-moon welcomed the unilateral truce. The great and the good gathered for a Sharm el-Sheikh summit. Only Hamas itself was not consulted. Which led, of course, to a few wrinkles in the plan. First, before declaring its own ceasefire, Hamas fired off more rockets at Israel, proving that Israel's primary war aim – to stop the missiles – had failed. Then Cairo shrugged off the deal because no one was going to set up electronic surveillance equipment on Egyptian soil. And not one European leader travelling to the region suggested the survivors might be helped if Israel, the EU and the US ended the food and fuel siege of Gaza...more