Eugene Kontorovich: A Palestinian ICC gambit would reach far beyond parties to the conflict
An ICC investigation into Hamas will place both Qatar and Turkey in the international spotlight, and will lead to intense international pressure on their senior leaders, including the Emir and increasingly belligerent and paranoid President Erdogan, to assist in the ICC’s investigation and deliver wanted persons to the ICC. These countries will doubtless react with hostility to such efforts, leading to diplomatic tension between them and the ICC’s Western supporters.Coverage of Israel should be accurate and impartial, but it's not
In other words, an ICC investigation could pull in much of the Middle East, in a way that is likely to be obnoxious and destabilizing, and will pit Western interests in diplomatic quiet with their commitment to justice.
Moreover, Israel sees a Palestinian turn to the ICC as the ultimate betrayal of the diplomatic process that created the Palestinian government itself. It may react by spreading the love. Thus it would have little to lose by joining the ICC itself, and forcing an investigation of Turkish settlements in Cyprus, and, if the Court allows for retroactive jurisdiction, perhaps Lebanese rocketing of Israel. It could also perhaps refer Iran for its incitement to genocide, which as I explain, could be understood as relating to the territory of Israel.
In other words, not only would a Palestinian turn to the ICC not be limited to Israel and the Palestinians – it would also sweep in much of the Middle East.
One cannot argue that the recent mistakes and misinformation are simply the result of the information age, the social networking sites, and the pressure to release reports about rolling events as quickly as possible. We've witnessed them before, when there was no Internet, too, and they occur in one direction only – Israel's.The Nazi Romance With Islam Has Some Lessons for the United States
For quite some time now, the Western media's coverage of Israel has suffered from mistaken reporting, exaggerations, double standards, the unbalanced use of sources, baseless associations, ridiculous analogies, selective and tendentious interviews and significant omissions.
The shortcomings stem from a sense of solidarity with the "underdog," the adoption of the Palestinian-victim narrative, intimidation and threats on the part of the Palestinians, the widespread conflicting and critical voices within Israel, and anti-Semitism. From the perspective of the Western media, Israel alone is to blame for the absence of a solution and the violence.
This puts Israel in a very difficult spot; but its spokespersons must make more of an effort to demand a higher level of professionalism and responsibility from the journalists, and to denounce and shame them when they slip up. The Western media's consumers expect accurate, reliable and impartial reporting. They need to be shown that when it comes to reports they are fed about Israel, this is often not the case.
Both Hitler and Himmler had a soft spot for Islam. Hitler several times fantasized that, if the Saracens had not been stopped at the Battle of Tours, Islam would have spread through the European continent—and that would have been a good thing, since “Jewish Christianity” wouldn’t have gone on to poison Europe. Christianity doted on weakness and suffering, while Islam extolled strength, Hitler believed. Himmler in a January 1944 speech called Islam “a practical and attractive religion for soldiers,” with its promise of paradise and beautiful women for brave martyrs after their death. “This is the kind of language a soldier understands,” Himmler gushed.
Surely, the Nazi leaders thought, Muslims would see that the Germans were their blood brothers: loyal, iron-willed, and most important, convinced that Jews were the evil that most plagued the world. “Do you recognize him, the fat, curly-haired Jew who deceives and rules the whole world and who steals the land of the Arabs?” demanded one of the Nazi pamphlets dropped over North Africa (a million copies of it were printed). “The Jew,” the pamphlet explained, was the evil King Dajjal from Islamic tradition, who in the world’s final days was supposed to lead 70,000 Jews from Isfahan in apocalyptic battle against Isa—often identified with Jesus, but according to the Reich Propaganda Ministry none other than Hitler himself. Germany produced reams of leaflets like this one, often quoting the Quran on the subject of Jewish treachery. (h/t Elder of Lobby)