To make such a term, one would have to refer to a war criminal who turns into a UN lacky. Goldstone is guilty of war crimes when he sentenced many blacks to death in South Africa under the guise of "justice". Yet in most western (what we think of as "civilized") countries, the death sentence doesn't exist and we consider such a sentence to be a crime against humanity. So Goldstone is guilty of crimes against humanity. Why should he be used as some standard? Any "Goldstone Effect" is simply a dumbing down of international standards and a reflection of the weakening of universal human rights.

There is a 'Goldstone Effect'. It is the invention of 'international laws' that only apply to democracies and have never been ratified or were invented out of whole cloth. It is also the misrepresentation of real international that are so distorted from what it written that the aggressor is always the victim. It includes ignoring existing international laws that prove to show that the democracy was in fact following the real laws.

These rules, which only apply in effect to Israel, are intended to undermine its willingness to defend herself - destroying morale and unit cohesion, resulting in hesitation to act out of fear of prosecution. It's unfortunate that Israel has internalized these protocols. They only encourage aggression by the enemy, and will result in more Israeli dead.

It used to be that the IDF had no trouble tossing out (or jailing) any soldier cowardly enough use a child as a human shield. Now that Goldstone has labeled any Israeli act of self-defense a war crime, the concept is meaningless. Now these two soldiers can claim they are being persecuted for doing their jobs and be taken seriously. War is an ugly business and there will always be innocent people killed. Despite that, there are still actions that are beyond the pale even in a combat zone.

One writes, beyond the pale, even in a combat zone. Hmmm. Over 200,000 mainly civilians were killed by two bombs, in 1945. Over 1m Vietnamese were killed..most civilians. We bombed the North recall. Lets not forget our incendiary bombing of German cities, including Dresden..and Japanese cities made of paper were totally demolished. Tens of thosuands of Iraqis, Afghans, have been made into dirt mounds. US soldiers regularly kill other soldiers, who have in essence given up, but show some slight movement. And Israel acquiesces to Goldstone..who himself murdered blacks.Ask the blacks what they think of him..yes, ask them. In war, most killed are civlians..read the casualties during WW1 and 2 on the Net. 25m Russians..3m Germans, millions of Chinese..get it. Its war baby.

what do you will happen now, at this hole?. do you think something is going to change?. nothing is giong to change!. our stupid leaders decides what to do, not us.

Killing civilians or putting them unecessarily in harms way is a war crime. Likewise the killing, injuring or torturing of detained combatants. Frankly, any 'soldier' committing such acts should rightly be tried for such crimes. Why is this so hard to understand? A violation of the Geneva Conventions should tightly be considered a war5r crime whether perpetrated by an Israeli, an American, an Iraqi, a NATO soldier or anyone else. Only when we come to the point of recognizing that every civilian life, whether Jew, Christian Muslim, Hindu, whatever, shall not be killed or injured with impunity by so-called 'combatants', is there hope for civilization.

as far as i can see the only war crimes committed were by hamas against their own people. i think we've gone crazy blaming soldiers for using any gazan to check out a possible 'bomb'. it's their government that might have set the bombs, and we were there as a result of that. I see no reason at all to expect our soldiers to jeopardize their lives when a gazan is around to be jeopardized by his own government in hiding. we're not moral here, we're nuts. and our courts it seems to me are even more off their rocker in these cases. the army will have to provide each infantryperson with two witnesses and an international lawyer when they are sent into battle. what on earth is happening to us?

Put on a uniform and find out what war is like before opening your mouth. You haven't a clue about combat and it shows everytime you write.

on earth is not happening yet ..and in heaven wooooooooo

The REAL war crime was the unilateral and illegal establishment of the Zionist state in the Holy Land, contrary to human and international law from the time of the God-ordained dispersion of Jews from there. All other offenses simply followed from that basic one.

European settlers taking away the native American lands, North, Center and south. So before you have any hypocritical thoughts, why don't you return you land to the natives? FYI, Jews lived in the land of Israel even after their so called dispersion, it's a myth backed by ignorant antisemite morons like you

mentality. We are not the proud Israelis of the first 35 years of our independence, but frighten Jews living in ghettos and waiting for the goys to get drunk and start a pogrom. We elect cowards for leaders and the I.D.F. has generals that are more afraid of the i.c.c. than losing their soldiers and civilians. Years ago, Israel would have told the i.c.c. try one member of the I.D.F. and the I.A.F. would level the court. We need to get rid of JAG. The army can use lawyers for contracts and other business. The JAG has no place interfering with combat missions.