Love of the Land: Universal jurisdiction — a really bad idea

Universal jurisdiction — a really bad idea

FresnoZionism
24 December 09

Universal Jurisdiction sounds like such a great idea (well, to some people, anyway). One moral nation, acting for a moral world, can bring war criminals to justice, even when crimes are committed outside of its territory. You can understand why in principle this could be a good idea, especially if said war criminals are powerful enough in their own countries as to be untouchable. The concept has been supported by those watchdogs of international morality, the ‘human rights’ NGOs like Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, etc.

Anybody that lives in the real world must know that the facts of international politics make the just application of this principle impossible. It would seem to me that anyone who has finished elementary school and read at least one history book would understand this, but apparently the people at the NGOs either don’t meet this standard or are dishonest. Judging by what they did with the war in Gaza, I vote for the latter.

The fatal defect of this idea is that it is based on analogy to criminal law inside a jurisdiction, where there is, at least in the best circumstances, a disinterested justice system and rules of evidence and of judgment intended to ensure fairness. For example, in our courts hearsay is not admitted as evidence, and juries are selected in ways designed to produce impartiality. Even rules for determining probable cause for an arrest are stringent. But this is exactly what isn’t the case in the international arena.

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Love of the Land: Universal jurisdiction — a really bad idea

Love of the Land: Goldstone’s doubly revealing nightmare from which we have not awoken

Goldstone’s doubly revealing nightmare from which we have not awoken

Richard Landes
Augean Stables
10 November 09

In his “debate” on Thursday November 5, at Brandeis, during question and answer, Goldstone got chummy with the audience and told them an anecdote about how he felt going into Gaza:

As far as conditions in Gaza are concerned, I must say that my visit to Gaza turned out very differently from what I had anticipated. Frankly, and I make no, no, no, and I’m not ashamed to say it, I was very nervous about being a Jew going into Gaza on probe by Hamas, especially when the first reaction to my appointment by Hamas was to reject a meeting with me because I was Jew.

And my wife sitting here will remember that three nights before I went, I woke up in the middle of the night after a terrible nightmare, with sweat on my brow, because I had a vivid dream that I’d been kidnapped by, by Hamas, and people in Israel were rejoicing. [laughter] That was the nightmare, based on real fears.

Now Goldstone clearly didn’t tell this anecdote in order to reveal the utter intellectual bankruptcy of both his Report’s methods and and conclusions. But that’s what he did.

I’ve written many times about intimidation and its impact on the MSNM. And at Understanding the Goldstone Report, we’ve addressed the issue of intimidation of witnesses before the Goldstone Mission and Goldstone’s denial. Let’s start with some evidence of Goldstone’s formal state of denial on the subject: (HT Elder of Ziyon)

Already, back in June of 2009, when Goldstone was in Gaza, questions arose about the presence of Hamas in the Mission’s work. On June 9, the Palestinian Ma’an news agency, citing an AP article, mentions the problem:

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Love of the Land: Goldstone’s doubly revealing nightmare from which we have not awoken