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'Israel Defense Force is the most conscientious army in the history of warfare' - British Army Colonel redresses antagonistic BBC TV news interviewer

Former British Army Colonel, Richard Kemp, defended Israel's unprecedentedly conscientious war effort from maligning by the BBC-TV.

"From my knowledge of the IDF ... I don't think there has ever been a time in the history of warfare when any army has made more efforts to reduce civilian casualties and deaths of innocent people than the IDF is doing today in Gaza," Colonel Kemp told the BBC's global television audience. ...

"Hamas, the enemy that they're fighting, has been trained extensively by Iran and by Hezbollah to fight among the people to use the civilian population in Gaza as a human shield - and they factor their use of the civilian population as a major part of their defensive plan. So even though Israel, the IDF is taking enormous steps to reduce civilian casualties, it's impossible when the enemy is using them as a shield."




Media's dishonesty debunked: 'IDF civilian casualty ratio in Gaza - 3-times safer than Coalition Forces in Iraq or Afganistan'- independent network TV news report.

Despite Hamas' campaign to provoke civilian casualties by Israel's defensive incursion, Israel's Channel 2 News quotes military intelligence reports that only 288 of 1134 casualties were civilian.


This should update mainstream-media regurgitation of previously-demonstrated Hamas' questionably-credible allegations of Israel's disproportionate-response to curtailing 9-years of Palestinian rocket-terrorism against Israelis.

In Iraq & Afganistan, the U.S. Coalition Force's ration of civilian to combatant casualties ratio is 1 to 1. The conscientious Israeli conduct limited civilian casualties to only 1 out of 3, despite Palestinian government endeavors to sacrifice innocent Palestinians civilians to generate greater U.N. and international financial aid to Hamas.

Video: 'Why Hamas should be prosecuted for perpetrating war-crimes,' describes international legal expert Irwin Cotler

There is "almost no comparable example" anywhere in today's world of a group that so systematically violates international agreements related to armed conflict, delineates Irwin Cotler - a former Canadian Justice Minister, MP and law professor at Montreal's McGill University.

Hamas is committing at least six violations of international law, Cotler explained in this exclusive, video interview filmed live in Jerusalem.



"First, the deliberate targeting of civilians is, in and of itself, a war crime," he noted, referring to the Hamas rockets fired at southern towns for eight years.

"A second war crime is when Hamas attacks [from within] civilian areas and civilian structures, whether it be an apartment building, a mosque or a hospital, in order to be immune from a response from Israel," he went on. "Civilians are protected persons, and civilian areas are protected areas. Any use of a civilian infrastructure to launch bombs is itself a war crime."

Third, he explained, "the misuse and abuse of humanitarian symbols for purposes of launching attacks is called the perfidy principle. For example, using an ambulance to transport fighters or weapons or disguising oneself as a doctor in a hospital, or using a UN logo or flag, are war crimes."

The fourth violation, "of which little has been made, is the prohibition in the Fourth Geneva Convention and international jurisprudence against the direct and public incitement to genocide. The Hamas covenant itself is a standing incitement to genocide. [Similarly,] just before this fighting started, I saw Hamas leaders on television referring to Israel and Jews as the sons of apes and pigs."

The fifth crime relates to the scope of the attack on civilians, which upgrades the violation to a crime against humanity. According to Cotler, "when you deliberately hit civilians not infrequently but in a systematic, widespread attack, that's defined in the treaty of the International Criminal Court and international humanitarian law as a crime against humanity."

The sixth war crime for which Hamas is responsible is the recruitment of children into armed conflict.

"Hamas is a case-study of each of these six categories of war crime," said Cotler. "There has to be moral and legal clarity as to responsibility. When Israel responds and civilians are killed because Israel is targeting an area from which rockets were launched, then it is Hamas which bears responsibility for the deaths, and not Israel, according to international law." (Print article written by Haviv Rettig Gur published in The Jerusalem Post

At Jerusalem Conference, Israeli candidates address Jews' domestic and global-relations concerns

Obama pulls Netanyahu towards concessions
to cede land to Palestinian state led by Abbas
The 6th Jerusalem Conference is an annual forum for the discussion of Israel's national priorities, social values, and aspirations, which hosts key figures and policy makers from Israel and around the world -- all leaders in the political, economic, academic, communal, security, military, and rabbinic spheres. 

The 2009 Jerusalem Conference focused on the "New Leadership and New Direction" that will emerge this year in Israel and the United States following the national elections in both countries. 

Former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who leads the Likud Party, discusses maintaining the Jewish integrity, demographically and politically, between life in Jerusalem, East Jerusalem, and Yesha.

Amb. Danny Ayalon, Deputy Foreign Minister's addresses the 6th Jerusalem Conference.

Tzipi Livni of 2008/9 Kadima Party addresses Jerusalem Conference (English translated)  

Compiled speeches by MK Maj. Gen. Danny Yatom (Labour); Dr. Martin Kramer, historian / political analyst; MK Yuval Steinitz (Likud, Chairman of the Subcommittee on Defense Readiness); and MK Dr. Arieh Eldad (National Union).
 

After Netanyahu's Jerusalem Conference speech, he convened with his fellow party member Dr. Yuval Steinitz and Ichud Leumi (National Union) party Chairman Yaakov Katz. Katz asked the Likud chairman what his plans are for a coalition after the Israel elections. Netanyahu responded, "We will establish a broad coalition based on all the Zionist parties - blue and orange."