http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/65525b90-e8ed-11de-a756-00144feab49a.html?nclick_check=1
Israel warns UK over Livni arrest threat
By James Blitz in London and Vita Bekker in Tel Aviv
Published: December 14 2009 22:08 | Last updated: December 15 2009 17:02
Britain’s ambassador to Israel was summoned to the Israeli foreign ministry on Tuesday as Israel warned that relations with London could be damaged by an attempt to arrest former foreign minister Tzipi Livni in London.
A warrant for the arrest of Tzipi Livni, the Israeli opposition leader, was formally issued by a London magistrates court last Saturday, one day before she had been scheduled to address a conference in the capital, insiders close to the case have told the Financial Times.
In a move that has triggered acute embarrassment for the British government in its relations with Israel, Westminster magistrates court ordered the issue of an arrest warrant for Ms Livni, a move that would have led to her immediate detention by police upon arrival in the UK.
The Israeli foreign ministry warned that its relations with London could be damaged should there not be “decisive and immediate” action to prevent such arrest warrants against Israeli officials in the future.
The Israeli ministry said in a statement: “If the leaders of Israel will not be able to visit Britain in a respectable and appropriate manner, it would naturally be a real obstacle to Britain’s willingness to play an active role in the Middle East peace process.”
continued at link...
Maybe I'm unable to see this objectively because I'm British, but the language used by the Financial Times is curious...
AntwortenLöschen"Israel warns UK". Surely you're not in the position to be warning anyone if there's reason to put a warrant out for the arrest of your opposition party's leader?
"acute embarrassment". Why? When did this last happen to Nick Clegg or David Cameron? The language here is tilted blatantly in Israel's favour, and I'm not being funny... but I really don't see why.
What's the FT's agenda?
Israel can warn all it likes. It needs to remember that we are NOT right next door, that we are better armed than their neighbours, and that just like Iraq Israel is in breach of numerous UN treaties too. Britain is not afraid of Israel, and is objective enough to see that Israel has committed some monstrous and disproportionate acts in recent years. The holocaust was 70 years ago. It does not give a "get out of jail free" card to commit warcrimes for ever more.
AntwortenLöschenAs for Britain being an obstacle to the middle east peace process, it would appear that Israel IS the obstacle to middle east peace.
So? As a member of the British public, why is that my problem? Let them get on with it... as bad as each other, both sides. My taxes might even go down.
AntwortenLöschenWell said! But I would add that Hezbollah should extend an olive branch too for there to ever be peace.
AntwortenLöschenAs for the theoretical situation of falling out, militarily, with Israel.... do you think we'd be a bit more concerned if USA were on their side? It would never come to that... diplomatic arms would be twisted all over the shop.
Ah, I was looking for the reason for the arrest warrant: alleged war crimes. Well tough cookies, Henry Kissinger can't visit a lot of EU countries for the same reason. It is rare though that one has been brought against a sitting defense minister, they usually wait until the person is no longer officially part of the government. I am sure someone will get the bright idea to do the same thing for Rumsfield or Cheney if they ever come to visit.
AntwortenLöschenDoing the same thing to a sitting official is kind of unheard of, I don't often agree with Israel, in fact it is closer to never, but they are right about this one.
She's not. Was at the time of the Gaza war crimes in January, but is now Opposition Leader, yes? Was she foreign secretary or something, or was that Ehud Barak? Didn't she run against Netanyahu? I forget who the main parties in the Knesset are...
AntwortenLöschenI can find absolutely no reference to this - you'd think an international warrant for the arrest of a former Mossad agent-turned-political-party-leader was fairly newsworthy - on the site of the American-Israeli Public Affairs Committee:
AntwortenLöschenhttp://www.aipac.org/
(undoubtedly updated often)
Oh... there's one video as low down in the bottom corner as it can be, and still be on the page - related, but indirectly. British officer defends IDF. Nothing about Livni.
The USA would undoubtedly be on Israel's side - however, we have not made a declaration of war, merely issued an arrest warrant. It would be pre-emptive for the US to become involved at all considering this is a legal matter rather than a hostile attack.
AntwortenLöschenIsrael needs a clear signal that it cannot do as it pleases without repercussions and I would hope that Obama would realise that militarily the UK is a better ally than Israel. Right at this moment in time, the UK is about the only ally that the US has, and also it's stepping-stone to europe and beyond. To risk falling out with the UK is to risk losing it's air bases here and access further afield. Politically it would be a very bad move for the US to comment.
And yes, hezbollah and hamas need to do some work regarding the peace process too!
AntwortenLöschenIt made the AP wire: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091215/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_israel_britain_livni
AntwortenLöschenBritain is walking a fine line here pigeon. The problem is its judicial system is messing with foreign relation issues. You can't arrest a person in the US like that, the government has to institute the action, it can't be a private citizen (even under Bush). Britain is either going to have to change that law or become the defacto international court for all accused of any crimes anywhere. So what happens the first time a Taliban resident want's to have a US official arrested?
That would be fine if the British government had brought about the suit. It didn't. It was private citizens getting that arrest warrent.
AntwortenLöschenUnder universal jurisdiction, a legal principle of which Israel is also a supporter, it is legal for an arrest warrant to be issued against any person considered to be guilty of crimes against a state or peoples including genocide and war crimes, given sufficient grounds. As Livni no longer has diplomatic immunity, and the courts apparantly consider there to be sufficient grounds to issue it, the arrest warrant is legally valid.
AntwortenLöschenhttp://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/8415161.stm
AntwortenLöschen"I'm proud of decisions I made as a Foreign Minister" - Tzipi Livni
(see video)
The British law will change
AntwortenLöschenInternational law is undoubtedly a complex subject, but my initial feeling remains... 'who do Israel think they are? Nobody is above the law'.
AntwortenLöschenIf I'm missing crucial info to be properly informed here, not least the Israeli point of view, please spill it?
The International Court in the Hague is the proper place to try such things. What needs to happen is if they produce a warrant for somebody's arrest, all signatory countries are bound to honoring it. The problem is that venue does not have the proper arresting authority, as countries only honor its requests if they feel like it. Starting up a parallel process in England is counter-productive. The warrant should be from the IC not British Courts.
AntwortenLöschenIf you don't to that you are going to continually have cases like this. It isn't that universal jurisdiction is wrong, it's that any one country can claim it. You get into situations like the US bringing terrorists, who's crimes happened in another country, and did not necessarily include the US in scope, being tried in the US.
And we are all against that outside of US conservatives, right?
great answere
AntwortenLöschenUk Population approximately 62,000,000
AntwortenLöschenIsrael Population approximately 7,500,000 (Palestinians included?)
How is the UK interconnected with Israel that this small group can warn you in this way?
If you don't like warnings solve it and throw them out.
Maybe they has oil
AntwortenLöschen??? Israel ....oil... gas maybe before the "lol" Palestinian coasts of gaza.
AntwortenLöschenIf they own British companies you can always legally nationalize them...just pretend a bank crisis or something.