The point of efforts to bring legal action against IDF personnel for war crimes is part of a propaganda effort against Israel. The point is not that there will be actual prosecutions - the accusations & media attention are the real aim of such action. Just the fact that people will see accusations of ''war crimes'' directed against the IDF influences their view of the conflict.

The PLO should prosecute Hamas for what they did to them, also for using civilains ( a lot of children) as human sheilds. Israel for 8 years of torment to citizens of the south. Armies are not angels especially when at war, and here it is no case of genocide, Israel did not wipe out the gazans, they just defended their citizans after 8 years of terror, of not knowing when the next shell would come and fall. I also wonder who is putting up the money for all these courts, and if they went after every person that ever committed a "nasty" while at war, the courts would be brimming over with cases. War is hell and no wants it, but how far can any country be pushed!!!

That's the main outcome of demonizing Israel.

From the ivory tower, it sounds reassuring, but misses many points. 1. Israel has used universality, as he points out re Eichmann. Moreover, our court system is based on specious suits brought by persons not affected which is why the leftists hold sway. 2. What took place is Gaza is arguably a war crime if you are the injured party. 3. War crimes and genocide are "politically" defined and Israel is a political paraiah, much due to our own failure to make the case of war crimes against the Palestinians all these years. In sum, our military and government leaders have much to fear. Of course, if they take Olmert and his ilk then so much the better for us.

a) They get publicity and the sense that Israel is somehow guilty because of "all" the suits brought. b) It provokes a knee jerk reaction - people start "explaining", umming and ahhing and then the press claims anti-semiticism. In reality, every single one of these cases fail. They usually don't even make it to court but by then the news has moved on and people are left with a sense that Israel did something wrong - which is of course the point. The appropriate reaction is: 1) Point out the 100% failure rate of these cases. Point out that every single one of the claims of war crimes has been shown to be a lie. 2) Sue the people who bring the suits and sue the people who report it. Make it hurt them in the pocket. Make sure the failure of the suits gets the same level of attention..

for Assassinations. Probably a good idea to keep your war criminals away from the rest of us, like in Israel.