Spain, Israel and War Crimes

From the desk of Soeren Kern on Sat, 2009-04-04 18:39

spanish-chronicles-soeren-k.jpg

Spanish National Court Judge Fernando Andreu says he will redouble his probe of seven top Israeli military and government officials for suspected “crimes against humanity.” He made the decision after determining that documents forwarded by the Israeli Embassy in Madrid show that Israel has decided not to prosecute anyone for the targeted assassination of Salah Shehadeh, the commander of the military wing of Hamas, in Gaza City in 2002. Spanish law allows the prosecution of foreigners for such crimes as genocide, crimes against humanity and torture committed anywhere in the world if the suspects will not be tried in their home country.
 
The case was brought to the Spanish court by the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, which is represented in Spain by Gonzalo Boyé, a Marxist revolutionary who was sentenced to 14 years in prison for collaborating with the Basque terrorist group ETA. A seven-page court document says the initial evidence suggests that the attack in the densely-populated Gaza City, which killed 14 civilians, “should be considered a crime against humanity.” Supporters of the lawsuit say Spain should pursue the suit because it has “universal jurisdiction” in such cases.
 
Andreu will now probe former Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, former Air Force Commander Dan Halutz, former head of the National Security Council Giora Eiland, and four other senior officials. Andreu will also seek testimony from Palestinian witnesses. The court will ask Israel to formally notify those named in the complaint so that they can be called by the judge to testify. Should Andreu decide to issue an international arrest warrant for any of the seven Israelis, they could be detained upon arrival in any EU member state.
 
The lawsuit has sparked outrage in Israel, which is trying to fend off foreign censure over the civilian death toll during Operation Cast Lead in January 2009. Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak has rejected the complaint as “delirious” and pointed out that Shehadeh was a terrorist mastermind responsible for the deaths of many dozens of innocent people. “Whoever calls taking out a terrorist ‘a crime against humanity’ lives in an upside-down world,” he said. Barak vowed to do “everything possible to get the investigation dismissed.”
 
Incoming Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu called the Spanish probe outrageous. “It’s absurd: Israel is fighting against war criminals and they are charging us with crimes?” said Netanyahu. “There is nothing more ridiculous and absurd than them accusing us, a democracy legitimately protecting itself against terrorists and war criminals, of these crimes; it is absurd and makes a mockery out of international law,” he said.
 
Knesset Member Aryeh Eldad, pointing to what many see as rank hypocrisy by Spain, has called for Israel to put former Spanish officials on trial for their role in the NATO bombing of Serbia in 1999. His official petition, which was sent to Israeli Attorney General Menachem Mazuz, says: “In those bombings, hundreds, perhaps thousands, of innocent civilians were killed because NATO pilots dropped their bombs from extremely high altitudes in order not to endanger themselves. They thus caused mass civilian casualties. It is fitting that the State of Israel try the Spanish political and military leaders for war crimes if Spain does not immediately revoke the charges against the Israeli Defense Minister and Chief of Staff.”
 
Sensing that the case has the potential to further cement Spain’s image as one of the most anti-Israel countries in Europe, Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Ángel Moratinos said his government would consider a proposal to amend the controversial war crimes law that now allows the court to investigate the Israelis. But he was immediately contradicted by Deputy Prime Minister María Teresa Fernández de la Vega, who stated defiantly that “Spain is a country ruled by law and the justice system [here] enjoys absolute independence. This was made clear to Israel and we are sure they understand this.”
 
Justice or Just Propaganda?
 
Spain’s investigation of Israel for war crimes is being motivated by at least three closely interrelated factors: judicial vanity; anti-Western globalism that uses international law to eat away at national sovereignty; and anti-Semitism disguised as concern for human rights.
 
Some Spanish commentators say Judge Andreu is pursuing the case against Israel because he is hungry for international publicity. They say he is following the “fame formula” used by his colleague and political soul mate, Baltasar Garzón, who in 1998 became an instant hero of the global Left when he issued an arrest warrant for former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. Since then, Spanish prosecuting magistrates have used the principle of universal jurisdiction to go after current or former government officials such as former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, and around 100 leaders of the 1976-1983 military junta in Argentina. Critics say Andreu now wants to capture some of Garzón’s stardust and the perks that go with it.
 
Others say that activist judges like Andreu and Garzón (as well as many of their European ‘universal justice’ counterparts here, here and here) are in the grips of a post-modern and post-nationalist viral fever, which drives them to formulate international legal concepts like “universal jurisdiction” in order to undermine the national sovereignty of others. These self-appointed apostles of global government want to end nationhood, especially as it is defined by Israel and the United States, in order to usher in a new era of world harmony. Of course, a sustainable world peace requires world law that is supervised by global elites who know better than Israel what is right for Israel.
 
And last, but certainly not least, many observers believe Andreu’s pursuit of Israel is politically motivated. It is a legal ambush, they say, that has little to do with his concern over human rights and much to do with his personal rage over Israel’s ground invasion of the Gaza Strip in January 2009. They point to the fact that judges like Andreu and Garzón are highly selective about the cases they take. For example, they have never sought to prosecute any Hamas or Fatah terrorists for war crimes. Nor have they shown much zeal for investigating crimes against humanity in Chechnya or Darfur. Nor have they prosecuted any of the suspected Nazi war criminals who sought refuge in Spain after the end of World War II.
 
So far none of the lawsuits filed against Israel in Europe have ever reached the stage of a court trial where Israeli leaders have appeared before a foreign judge. But Spain’s case against Israel could open a Pandora’s Box as sundry political organizations try to use the Spanish legal system to charge Israelis and others who are fighting terror. Indeed, Israel is now bracing for a wave of lawsuits which accuse it of human rights violations during Operation Cast Lead.
 
At the moment, Israel’s best option for avoiding a messy and precedent-setting trial may be to exert diplomatic pressure to persuade Spanish authorities that Spain has a vested interest in protecting its justice system from malicious abuse. Britain reached that conclusion in wake of the Almog affair in 2006. And Belgium rolled back its universal jurisdiction law in 2003 after former US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld threatened to pull NATO headquarters out of Brussels.
 
Over the long term, however, countries fighting the war on terror will have to find a permanent solution to the challenge posed by universal jurisdiction. As the Obama administration warms to the idea of joining the International Criminal Court (ICC), Americans should demand that international law clearly differentiates between those who are war criminals and those who combat terrorism. Otherwise, in the words of Henry Kissinger: “Universal jurisdiction risks creating universal tyranny — that of judges.”

 
Published by Pajamas Media on March 31, 2009
 
Soeren Kern is Senior Fellow for Transatlantic Relations at the Madrid-based Grupo de Estudios Estratégicos / Strategic Studies Group.

chacun a son gout (2)

Submitted by Atlanticist911 on Sat, 2009-04-11 16:58.

Beer, wine, whiskey, gin, tequila, vodka, port, brandy, Champagne, Cava, ham, bacon, pork, punk, grun(d)ge, fashion shows, atheism, tao/dude-ism, abortion, homosexuality, the licence to be a tw*t and express your 'tw*tty' opinions? Well, certainly NOT under sharia.

@ thinkers

Submitted by Atlanticist911 on Sat, 2009-04-11 15:42.

The question I asked was who in their RIGHT mind would choose something qualitatively inferior to the 'thing' they reject and kappert very kindly offered a selection of 'things' he believes fits that criteria. Straight away, the thinking person will realise that, in doing so, kappert concedes the point that some 'things' (like culture) ARE qualitatively inferior/superior. Thus, the question isn't whether or not some cultures are better or worse than others, we ( both kappert and myself) have already established that fact, no, the problem rests with the individual (in this case, kappert) who KNOWS it's true, ADMITS it's true but simply wishes it ain't so. Pathetic.

pathetic

Submitted by kappert on Sat, 2009-04-11 16:28.

Sounds like eating Haggis in the Sahara, chacun à son gout.

who (2)

Submitted by Atlanticist911 on Sat, 2009-04-11 14:04.

Who in their right mind would have a personal preference for something, anything, be it shoes, clothes, food, culture etc., that is qualitatively inferior to the thing they reject? 

btw: The Arabs didn't give the Spanish the option to choose, they imposed their culture on a conquered and subjugated people, which is precisely the same thing the Spanish did to the peoples of S. America, something the kapperts of this world are forever bleating on about, that is, when they are not preferencing the Spanish. Bah, to hell with this, what's the point...?

think

Submitted by kappert on Sat, 2009-04-11 14:44.

Who in their right mind would have a personal preference for something, anything, be it shoes, clothes, food, culture etc., that is qualitatively inferior to the thing they reject?

Think of punk, grundge, piercing etc., or fast-food, wine in plastic bottles etc., or rainbow press, footboys, etc., or populism and fashion shows, ...

So many questions aka culture (2)

Submitted by Atlanticist911 on Sat, 2009-04-11 13:34.

If there is no such thing as "superiority of culture", how on earth is it possible to argue that Spanish culture is preferable  (i.e. superior, not equal or inferior) to Texan culture? How can the 'culture' in Waco be compared with and ultimately judged inferior to the 'culture' to be found in Toledo? Moreover, if any (i.e. ALL) foreign occupation is "illegal", how is it possible for kappert to make a previous claim that the occupation of Spain by the Arabs was a good thing because that occupation introduced a culture that was superior to the culture that existed in Spain prior to the Islamic invasion? And ... 

preferences

Submitted by kappert on Sat, 2009-04-11 13:45.

Preferences have nothing to do with 'superiority', you may like Aboriginal culture more than Paris fashion shows. The variety of cultural events, and therefore the possibility to chose, is the key point: Toledo > Waco; Islamic Culture > Visigoth Culture.

RE: Spain, Israel and War Crimes

Submitted by Kapitein Andre on Sat, 2009-04-11 06:08.

Certain former imperial powers have retained influence in their former possessions through periodic interventions according to the national interest e.g. Belgian "peacekeepers" and French Foreign Legionnaires in Africa. However, these shadow empires have embraced humanitarian intervention as a means to wield influence. The Hispano-sphere is no different.

 

If Madrid can successfully reconcile Hispanic Latin America's democratic and populist present, with its mixed or authoritarian recent history, it can accede further.

 

When the national interest is "exceptionalised" as the global interest, the words are almost worst than the actions.

Pertinencia 3.14.............. {in the sky arrogance)

Submitted by Atlanticist911 on Sat, 2009-04-11 00:33.

@ marcfrans

 

I have no intention of engaging in any further direct debate with kappert until he(?) is prepared to engage in serious debate with me. But, I am  ready to do so, at a moments notice, if he/she/ it  is prepared to abide by my 'terms and conditions'.  

 

While we are on the subject  of Spain and "terms and conditions", is this the same Spain that demands the return of Gibraltar to Spanish sovereignty, while at the same time denying the return of Ceuta (Sebta) and Melilla to Moroccan sovereignty?  

 

btw: NOT @ Takuan Seiyo

 

+++ Google the term 'listenining to the Dot-Commenters' by Doug Feaver (Washingtonpost.com)

 

 

PS. @ Soeren Kern. Thank you for allowing me to post this +++ important (off topic)  comment.

 

 

Pertinencia # 2

Submitted by marcfrans on Fri, 2009-04-10 23:49.

Which part of Spanish culture is he defending, you asked, Atlanticist?

The Zapa-the-tero, kumbayaaaaa, cowardly head-in-the sand, woolly-thinking (see-no-evil-unless-it-is-called GW), "change-you-can believe-in".... part of Spanish contemporary 'culture'. That is the one he thinks he is defending.

But, if I am not mistaken, the Conquistadores bit was a long time before Santa Ana's time and the Alamo. No, the Conquistadores was long before even the French were involved in Mexico. And Santa Ana was not fighting 'Americans', but Texans.   Perhaps, you could tell Kappert that there are major observable traces of Spanish culture in Texas, and even a bit of (now largely gone) Germanic earnestness/Grundlichkeit, but especially of British no-nonsense pragmatism and bulldoggery.  So there is much for Zapa...to envy about Texas.  Yet, no doubt, he shares Kappert's arrogance and illusions about Spain having "more culture" than Texas.  And, it is true that in my lifetime no Texas boys had to go and die for the 'liberation' of Spain. That had probably something to do with a kind of national-socialistic 'understanding' between Adolf and Francisco.  Talking about culture....  

Pertinencia

Submitted by Atlanticist911 on Fri, 2009-04-10 22:34.

@ marcfrans

Notice how Kappert tries to come across here as the defender of Spanish cultural heritage. But, and correct me if I'm wrong, isn't this the same nestbeschmutzer who has previously railed against ALL things culturally European? As for the Alamo, am I wrong to suggest that there wouldn't have been a battle of the Alamo if it hadn't been for (keywords in reverse order) Santa Ana, Mexico,Conquistadores, and Spain's determination to impose its 'culture' on that part of the New World ?

Exit question. If I'm right, and I believe I am, which 'part' of Spanish culture is Kappert currently defending?

relevance # 3

Submitted by marcfrans on Fri, 2009-04-10 20:57.

Obviously, some people mistakenly think that they have a monopoly on understanding what "culture" rationally could mean.  And, the inability to make a distinction between quantitative indicators (of anything, really) and qualitative criteria to judge 'culture', is indicative of superficial and shallow minds. For example, if moral character has no place in determining "culture", then perhaps the nazis had achieved a pinnacle of 'culture'.

As to "arrogance", it has little to do with 'calling a spade a spade' - one has to call them as one sees them - but everything to do with judging oneself (or one's proxies, in casu Zapa-the-tero's Spain) 'culturally superior'.   

relevance # 2

Submitted by marcfrans on Fri, 2009-04-10 17:03.

The spectacle of a nutcase on the right (Yohanan) being responded to by a nutcase on the left (Kappert) is not a pretty one, and it certainly does not provide any insight into anything.  

Yohanan seems to think that the total population of Texas is larger than that of Spain, whereas in fact Spain has about twice as many people as Texas.  Perhaps, he is indicative of a certain type of ignorance (and lack of interest) that many Americans often display about the realities in the rest of the world (and which also helps explain the election of a selfhater like Obama). 

Kappert's comment about "more culture" is indicative of another kind of ignorance, and also of a type of cultural arrogance which is very typical (but certainly not solely) 'European'. And yet, absurdly, Obama apologises for American presumed 'arrogance' to arrogant Europeans, and attacks his own country and his predecessor on foreign soil. He really and foolishly loves to be a celebrity and to be 'loved'. The notion that Angela Merkel, Germany's chancellor, would publicly criticise her own country and Schroeder abroad, it is unthinkable.

Mr Kern wrote another interesting and very topical article, and he deserves better commenters than these two (Yohanan and Kappert).

Relevance of nutcases

Submitted by kappert on Fri, 2009-04-10 18:58.

Discriminating commentators as nutcases is as far arrogance can go. As for the variety of museums, theatres, expositions, architecture, history, painting, literature, gastronomy and music, Spain certainly can match with Texas - without any arrogance, which is indeed common within the Western hemisphere.

@ kappert

Submitted by traveller on Sat, 2009-04-11 10:20.

As a Flemish descendant of tortured Flemish patriots during the Spanish "rule" over Flanders.
As a Flemish descendant of Flemish people who were pushed back in the dark ages by the Spanish "rulers" and their "cultural messengers" for hundreds of years, fact which is still creating problems for Flanders today, and which created the rich Netherlands, I deny you any right to portray the Spanish people as a culturally positive entity.
No other people in Christian history have murdered and pillaged for such long periods.
They have created havoc for hundreds of years in South and Middle America and in Flanders.
Germany and Russia have murdered more people but for a less prolonged time. Spanish "culture" has created mass murder with primitive weapons as a culture of state for hudreds of years.
If you talk about that "culture" we can agree.

everyone's culture

Submitted by kappert on Sat, 2009-04-11 12:57.

Obviously marcfrans is not able to 'define' culture himself, I would like to hear his quan/qual indicators to determine the ranking. If there is no ranking he wouldn't need quan/qual indicators. His hint on 'moral character' (???) is funny. Please note that I did not speak of any 'superiority of culture' that only exists in marcfrans' brain. Probably the protestant nordics haven't visited Spain for a long time turning themselves ignorant. As for Texan beer, the Pecos region, old-Galveston, it's surely a lovely country; still, comparing Waco and Toledo, I have my preferences.
As for Gibraltar and Septa: any foreign occupation is illegal.
To traveller: You are lucky that the III Reich only existed 12 years. If it would have continued, your statistics would suffer.

@ kappert

Submitted by traveller on Sat, 2009-04-11 14:11.

I was not talking statistics, I was talking about your "preferred culture" which I refuse to call culture of a nation.
By the way, their greatest painter, in my humble opinion, was a greek. Their greatest modern painter/artist was a refugee in the decadent South of France. His greatest painting was an expression of the "main activities" of Spanish "culture", war.

@traveller

Submitted by kappert on Sat, 2009-04-11 14:50.

Yet, the Greek had to exile himself, first to Italy, and then to Spain where he spend 37 years peacefully inmidst the 'main activities' of the spaniards.

Why not haul the pakki fascists to Madrid/the Hague?!

Submitted by Miriam on Tue, 2009-04-07 02:20.

Why cant "judges like Andreu and Garzón [who] are highly selective about the cases they take," become more inclusive and prosecute the pakki fascists who have caused war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in three countries, BANGLADESH WHERE MILLIONS WERE KILLED JUST BEFORE THE BIRTH OF THAT COUNTRY, AFGHANISTAN AND INDIA WHERE THEY HAVE EXPORTED ANARCHY LIKE CHARLES TAYLOR NOW JAILED IN THE HAGUE?

Why is the world so passive and indifferent to sub-human and inhuman behavior of the pakki barbarians?!

INSTEAD OF PUNISHING THESE CRIMINALS, WE ARE REWARDING THEM WITH BIL-S OF DOLLARS!! HOW IRONICAL!!!

Spain What?

Submitted by Yohanan on Thu, 2009-04-09 20:13.

Spain certainly is not a relevant country anymore, idiot socialist-like leadership in the southern regions has them now suffering greatly economically, oppressing her own citizens with ridiculous "unproven-theory-based-green-solutions". I have some news for Spain, Texas of the USA, has more people and resources than all of Spain. Pushy, blaming, small, voices make many folks in other countries think of Spain as not a great place to invest. Say hello to the new Chavez embracers. As if Spain doesn't have her own skeletons in her closet, northern Spain should succeed the south, before their economies are destroyed by the same liberal thinking, and wanna-be mentalities. Be proud Spain, stand alone, be ingenious, welcome strangers, embrace what you have, and don't let your leaders make you all a laughing stock of the world!

relevance

Submitted by kappert on Fri, 2009-04-10 13:49.

Interessting, the 'relevance' of a country, can we apply this thesis on Michigan or West Virginia? Spain, after the centralizing faschist period, ressurrected cities like Barcelona, Valencia and Sevilla, invested in infrastructures and boosted export. The turbo-capitalism of Aznar produced mirages which are imploding now. That Spain is the biggest producer of solar energy in Europe, is not so bad as Yohanan might think. As for the comparison with Texas, Spain has a bit more culture to present than The Alamo.

@ KO American largess in 'fakistan' - infidel tax

Submitted by Miriam on Mon, 2009-04-06 01:29.

"terrorist sympathizers are [most] prominent in [fakistan]. It also appears they are bucking for their country to be given rogue nation status. It works for the pakki fascists - the worse [they] act, the more money [reckless] Westerners will throw at [them]. Some form of retaliation is called for or we will just get more of the same."

What is protection racket? Isnt that mafiosi antics? "If you show money, I will pretend to keep you safe" is the sort of arg that the pakkis and afghans are using as they are good as extortion, subversion, using the perverse logic of the worst antics of mafia. Ready for another DONOR CONFERENCE? ANY ONE??

THE QURAN DEMANDS INFIDEL TAX FROM INFIDELS, REMEMBER THAT!!

Tribute

Submitted by KO on Mon, 2009-04-06 22:18.

To Miriam: I agree that payments to Moslems in Pakistan, as in Afghanistan and Iraq (and Egypt and the "P.A."), invite being labeled as tribute or an infidel tax. They could also be characterized as bribes or alowances. It depends on what the U.S. gets for its money, and what the alternatives are. In general, foreign aid by the U.S.A. has become so institutionalized that people forget that it is the nature of a powerful country to accept money from others, not to give it out. The U.S.A. should have been a little tougher since 1945. In retrospect it can look cowardly for a great state like the Chinese or the Roman empires to pay off the barbarians on the frontier, but sometimes such arrangements may have made good sense at the time. Our problem today is that sentimental left-liberalism dominates our thought to such an extent that we give away money when we don't need to, and spare enemies when we could and ought to crush them. There is also the element of corruption on both ends of the transaction. Some Americans can profit from subsidizing regimes it is against the country's interest as a whole to subsidize, just as some locals can profit from receiving payments when it is not in their nation's interest to be in the relationship such payments foster.

Gee, What Next, A One World Government?

Submitted by Steve Atkinson on Sun, 2009-04-05 23:31.

Ubiquitous, is what I call it. The very idea of a world, or so-called "universal justice" component of a broader global system that replaces nations sovereignties, is scary. Once more, we are dragged into an argument whose time will never come, that is, unless there are those willing to sacrifice their sovereignty for a "greater world good".

It appeares that our president Obama has been hoodwinked, or has he? He struts about the world stage much as did Oliver Cromwell four centuries ago. Cromwell enjoyed fame and adoration in Britain back then, as he fought against the "evil" King Charles. However, do not make the mistake of looking for statues of Cromwell when next you visit Ireland. You will find only a hateful dislike still lurking in the hearts of all Irishmen for this man.

Obama, like Cromwell before him, perhaps sees the similarities through the eyes of John Spittlehouse, who referred to Cromwell as the "Moses" who led the English safely through the Red Sea of English civil wars. This characterization, in Spittlehouse's "A Warning Piece Discharged", may one day soon, be replicated by some swooning historian as worthy a description of Obama, for his tireless efforts at leading an unknowing America through it's own "Red Sea" of global unawareness.

If this be true, then, who will be Obama's "Ireland"? The American people, that's who! And what of Obama's legacy? Shall it too, be buried as Cromwells decapitated head was, in the Washington equivalent of Sidney Sussex College at Cambridge?

Spanish stupidity

Submitted by PatriotUSA on Sun, 2009-04-05 09:03.

Spain obviously thinks it is important and really matters, well you don't, Spain. The article sums it up rather nicely and I think this is where the heart of the matter is:

 

And last, but certainly not least, many observers believe Andreu’s pursuit of Israel is politically motivated. It is a legal ambush, they say, that has little to do with his concern over human rights and much to do with his personal rage over Israel’s ground invasion of the Gaza Strip in January 2009.

 

 

Add to this, the fact that it is "popular" right now to be anti-Israel and hate Israel. Jew bashing and comdemnation is rapidly accelerating around the globe and Spain has proven to be very anti-semitic in the last few years. The article mentions that Spain has NOT gone after hamas, fatah, nasrallah or other islamofacist scums. Nor have they brought any probes about Sudan, Darfur, the Balkans.

Universal jurisdiction needs to be fair, as mentioned to those who fight against horrific causes such as islamofacism, anti-semitism and not ignore those who are actually responsible for such acts of terroism. If UJ cannot be set up like that, then it should not be used at all. There is already enough out there that terrorists get away with and the world does not need UJ to aid and abet such violence.

 

Rogue Nation

Submitted by KO on Sun, 2009-04-05 11:39.

Terrorist sympathizers are apparently prominent in Spain. It also appears they are bucking for their country to be given rogue nation status. It works for the North Koreans--the worse you act, the more money feckless Westerners will throw at you. Some form of retaliation is called for or we will just get more of the same.

Well done

Submitted by Natalie on Sat, 2009-04-04 20:36.

This is an absolutely excellent article.  Well done.