British Court Issues Arrest Warrant for ex-Israeli Defense Minister

Cross-posted by Gary Fouse
fousesquawk



Tzipi Livni


In an act of outrageous chutzpa, a British court issued an arrest warrant for the former Israeli defense minister, Tzipi Livni on charges of war crimes this week. The warrant was withdrawn when it was learned that she was not in the UK as previously thought. The British Foreign Office has reacted in embarrassment as well they should.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/dec/14/tzipi-livni-israel-gaza-arrest

Livni was the defense minister last year during Israel's Operation Cast Lead incursion into Gaza. It was believed that she was in the UK, which led the court to issue the arrest warrant based on a filing by attorneys acting on behalf of a group of Palestinians.

This is a classical example of how many European judges and magistrates can go off half-cocked on their own when they think they have more jurisdiction than they do. I saw much of this when I was working for DEA in Italy, where semi-autonomous judges and magistrates could issue arrest warrants willy-nilly whenever it suited them. Many were just trying to get attention. (I do not, of course, include Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, both of whom were assassinated by the Mafia, in that category).

But I digress. At any rate, an attorney in London by the name of Tayyub Ali, representing Palestinian clients, also recently petitioned a court to issue an arrest warrant for Ehud Barak, the former prime minister of Israel.

Of course, we know that the UK, under the pusillanimous prime minister Gordon Brown, is little more than a nation that has submitted to radical Islamists in its own country. Shariah law is already in place in certain Muslim communities, which means that Muslim women and other Muslims who immigrated to escape shariah are now subject to it in the West. Forget the rights that a Muslim woman would enjoy under the British constitution. She must now answer to lunatics like Anjem Choudary and his band of un-merry followers. Now British courts are acting like international bodies to enforce their own version of how the Middle East conflict should play out.

In my opinion, incidents like these have little to do with how Europeans really view the Israel-Palestinian conflict. It is really about fear and anti-Semitism. Yes, I know the argument that criticism of Israel is not necessarily anti-Semitism and to a certain extent, that is true. However, let us not forget (the Europeans haven't) that Jews control no oil. They are not threatening the world with violence and terrorism. Their numbers in Europe (and everywhere else) are few. Of course, we know why their numbers are few in Europe, don't we? Muslims, on the other hand, are not few in numbers in Europe. In a couple of generations, they will be the majority population on the continent. Thus, the Europeans are already adapting to their future status as dhimmis in their own countries.

Then there is this inconvenient little nation called Israel with its inconvenient population of Jews that stands in the way of "world-wide peace". If only Israel would go away, then all the problems with the Middle East and their restive immigrant populations would disappear.

Sure they would.

What the submissive Euros don't understand is that the Israel-Palestinian conflict is not really about land. It is about religion. If tomorrow, every Jew in Israel were to convert to Islam, the issue would be settled. No, what the Arab world cannot stomach is having that tiny nation the size of New Jersey in its midst that is not Muslim rather Jewish.

Instead, the Euros would prefer to hide behind comfortable myths of what will bring peace-at least that is true for its leaders. The Swiss are showing us that among the people, there is bitter resentment at what is taking place.

The British government owes a diplomatic apology to Israel. They also need to rein in rogue courts that try to meddle in international affairs. Finally, they need to stand up to radical Islamists in their own country.