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The UNHRC Adopts the Goldstone Repoirt (Sort of)
The Moderate Voice — ... That gets, somewhat obliquely, to Jeffrey Goldberg’s warning to the West that the precedent set by this commission will come back to bite it once American or British or NATO commanders are arraigned on war crime charges. Insofar as the commission’s standards have made terrorist tactics nearly immune from retaliation (essentially, if you’re willing to kill off the civilians you’re supposedly “defending”, you’re in the clear), that’s going to hurt America in Iraq or NATO in Afghanistan as much as it hurts Israel in Gaza. ...

War Crimes Tribunal For Petreaus?
Dr. Melissa Clouthier — Why the UN Council going after Israel is dangerous: Tactics deployed to hurt Israel inevitably cause collateral damage. It’s a good thing that the United States, and a handful of European countries, have opposed the referral of Israel to a war crimes tribunal, but they aren’t doing enough (and, of course, France and Great Britain absented themselves from the vote). They would do more, I think, if they understood that Israel represented a kind of test run for a uniquely nefarious idea. Israel may find itself in the docket soon, but the U.S., and ...

Some Thoughts on the UNHCR Endorsement of the Goldstone Report
The Moderate Voice — ... Times piece again, “allowing the issue to snag on haggling over whether existing settlements should be allowed to build extra kindergartens and house extensions.” The UNHRC, having taken up the Goldstone report after Abbas was forced to reverse himself on the six-month delay following a storm of Palestinian outrage, votes to endorse the report’s findings. Hawkish Israelis, as well as the hawkish, right-wing Israel-is-always-right-even-when-it’s-wrong ( ...

Raiding Strategies with Predators
The Volokh Conspiracy — ... , the strategic considerations favor increased use of targeted killing by the US on pretty much every matrix.  That places great pressure on the legal rationales that allow the practice as the US carries it out.  Jeffrey Goldberg correctly observes at the Atlantic that, for example, pressures on Israel’s targeted killing practices – moves to indict its military leaders, for example, for undertaking these tactics – will inevitably point to similar US policies: ...