Israel Matzav: Israel may restrict travel to Europe; Qatar hires US PR firm for fight against Israel

Israel may restrict travel to Europe; Qatar hires US PR firm for fight against Israel

In the Washington Times, Eli Lake reports that Israel is 'seriously considering' restricting travel to Europe by senior officials and military officers out of fear that they will be arrested and charged with offenses cited by the Goldstone Report.

Avital Leibovich, a spokeswoman for the Israel Defense Forces, told The Washington Times on Monday, "Currently there is no specific advisory and different senior officers are continuing their travel as planned. However, we are in touch and we are discussing with the foreign ministry and other legal authorities whether we need to take additional steps like potential restrictions of travel."

And then there's this little tidbit.

In March, the queen or sheikha of Qatar, Mozah Bint Nasser al Missned, hired a U.S. public relations firm, Fenton Communications. According to the contract filed with the Justice Department, Fenton will support an "international public opinion awareness campaign that advocates for the accountability for those who participated in attacks on schools in Gaza."

And Israel has - thankfully - started to issue not-so-veiled threats as to what might happen if the madness does not stop.

"There is ongoing work with Spain, Norway, Britain and other countries," the official said. "It is an ongoing effort to explain the dangers of universal jurisdiction [allowing third parties to take court action involving disputes to which they were not a party]. This should be about Somalia and Sudan who have no ability or interest to investigate themselves."

This official added that there also could be implications for Israeli cooperation with the Palestinian Authority on the West Bank.

Once again, the problem is that with the Obama administration abdicating the United States' traditional leadership role, the West has no recognized leader. What ought to be happening is that the American administration ought to be going around telling its European allies that they need to help squelch this report because it could clearly come back to bite both them and the United States. Instead, Obama has apparently decided to defer to the United Nations and allow the story to play itself out - possibly even abstaining in the Security Council when and if it gets there.

What could go wrong?

The picture is IDF chief of staff Gabi Ashkenazi.

Israel Matzav: Israel may restrict travel to Europe; Qatar hires US PR firm for fight against Israel