English Judge Bathurst-Norman an antisemite

From the BBC, 07 October 2010:

A judge who compared Israel to the Nazi regime in the Hove Crown Court trial of seven anti-war campaigners has been formally reprimanded.

Judge George Bathurst-Norman made the comparison in a case where seven Smash EDO activists were cleared of plotting to damage a Brighton weapons factory.

... his comments were offensive, one-sided and unbalanced.

The Office for Judicial Complaints said the judge had been reprimanded ...

Judge Bathurst-Norman declined to comment.

The Office for Judicial Complaints issued a statement which said:

"...A number of complaints were made about some of the observations he made during the trial and summing up...An investigation found that a number of these observations did not arise directly from the evidence at trial and could be seen as an expression of the judge's personal views ..."

...the judge had been presiding over the case of campaigners alleged to have caused criminal damage in 2009, after breaking into the EDO MBM Technology building in Moulsecoomb that manufactured weapons components for Israeli fighter planes.

The defence by campaigners from Smash EDO was that they had been protecting property in Gaza from being damaged by the Israeli airforce and they were entitled to use force to prevent war crimes.
Christopher Osmond, 30, and Simon Levin, 35, both from Brighton, and Elijah Smith, 42, Tom Woodhead, 25, Ornella Saibene, 50, Bob Nicholls, 52, and Harvey Tadman, 44, all from Bristol, were cleared of conspiracy to cause criminal damage.

During the summing up, the judge compared scenes in Israel's December 2008 bombing campaign in Gaza to those of the Nazi regime...

Also see this earlier posting.

Heaviest rocket attacks from Gaza since Cast Lead

From the IDF Blog, 6 October 2010:

All in all, terrorists have fired 11,293 rockets at Israel in almost nine years.

Since Hamas’ takeover in the Gaza Strip rocket fire at Israel had risen exponentially, peaking at the period right before Operation Cast Lead with 3,278 rockets fired at Israel in 2008, and steeply decreasing since the end of the Operation in 2009.
 

September 2010 saw more missile and mortar attacks against Israel by Gaza terrorists than any other month since the period immediately following IDF Operation Cast Lead in early 2009.



Philippe Petain's antisemitism unmasked

From Ynet News, 4 Oct 2010, from AFP:

[The discovery of an original W2 document establishes Vichy leader Philippe Petain's decisive role and reveals his deep antisemitism, French Nazi hunter Serge Klarsfeld told AFP.]

...Petain, a military hero in World War I, became head of the rump state based at Vichy in central France which collaborated with the German Nazi occupiers following defeat in World War II.

The penciled-in changes to the document, from October 1940, are a "profound alteration" of the document's nature, Klarsfeld said.

While the original set out to exclude "descendants of Jews born French or naturalized before 1860", Petain crossed out this reference, thus applying the measures to all Jews in France.

The scope of Jews' exclusion is considerably widened, with the minority being barred from jobs in teaching and the judiciary as well as prevented from standing for elected office.

"The main argument of Petain's defenders was to say that he protected French Jews. This argument has now fallen," he said...

'Desire to turn Jews into scapegoats'
...Now, we have definite proof that the Jews' status was the personal will of marshal Petain," said Klarsfeld.
Petain wanted "to show that France deserved to be at the forefront of the new European order. There was also the desire to turn the Jews into scapegoats for the defeat" of France by the Nazis, said Klarsfeld.

"The status of Jews was a specifically French measure, spontaneous. The Germans didn't ask Vichy France to take this measure...

Nevertheless, of all Nazi-occupied countries, France was the one where "the Jewish community suffered the least tragic harm," said Klarsfeld. Around three-quarters of the Jewish population survived, or around 240,000 out of 320,000. "That's not thanks to France but to the French, thanks to all the courageous people who helped the Jews all over the place," he said.

PA wants what?...tell them they're dreaming....

From International Analyst Network, 30 Sep 2010. by David Singer:

...President Abbas dithered for more than nine months of the initial ten month moratorium period before deigning to enter into direct negotiations with Israel. He demanded then what [PA negotiator Nabil ] Shaath is now recycling - a total building freeze. It proved - and will continue to prove - to be a disastrous error of judgment by the PA. Abbas can only blame himself for the dilemma he currently faces as to whether to resume negotiations or not in view of the expiry of the moratorium period on 26 September.

Assuming however that some compromise is eventually agreed on for a further moratorium - questions must be asked and answers given as to the basis on which such negotiations are to be resumed.

Israel’s position is clear but the PA‘s position is steeped in uncertainty.

The parameters under which Israel has been negotiating are:

1.The Bush Roadmap - subject to Israel‘s 14 expressed written Reservations to it
2.United Nations Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338 and
3.The letter from President George Bush to former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon dated 14 April 2004
Roadmap references to the Saudi Peace Plan - adopted subsequently as the Arab Initiative - were expressly rejected by Israel as playing any part in the negotiating process - the Reservations stating:

"The removal of references other than 242 and 338 (1397, the Saudi Initiative and the Arab Initiative adopted in Beirut). A settlement based upon the road map will be an autonomous settlement that derives its validity therefrom. The only possible reference should be to Resolutions 242 and 338, and then only as an outline for the conduct of future negotiations on a permanent settlement."

Israel was also adamant in its Reservations that :

“… declared references must be made to Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state and to the waiver of any right of return for Palestinian refugees to the State of Israel.”

...America did indeed pay serious attention to Israel’s Reservations - as was indicated in the letter President Bush gave to Prime Minister Sharon on 14 April 2004 which stated:

“The United States is strongly committed to Israel's security and well-being as a Jewish state. It seems clear that an agreed, just, fair, and realistic framework for a solution to the Palestinian refugee issue as part of any final status agreement will need to be found through the establishment of a Palestinian state, and the settling of Palestinian refugees there, rather than in Israel.

As part of a final peace settlement, Israel must have secure and recognized borders, which should emerge from negotiations between the parties in accordance with UNSC Resolutions 242 and 338. In light of new realities on the ground, including already existing major Israeli populations centers, it is unrealistic to expect that the outcome of final status negotiations will be a full and complete return to the armistice lines of 1949, and all previous efforts to negotiate a two-state solution have reached the same conclusion.

The PA has consistently refused to accept these parameters as defining the goals of the negotiating process.

On 27 November 2007 Israel’s then Prime Minister Ehud Olmert once again clarified these parameters at Annapolis before the leaders of the international community assembled there when he said:

The PA clearly is not negotiating on the same wavelength as Israel as it continues to:.

•Demand the right for millions of Arabs to emigrate to Israel
•Refuses to accept the right of any Jews to live in the West Bank
•Attempts to introduce the Saudi Peace Plan into the negotiations
•Refuses to recognise Israel as the national state of the Jewish people
•Refuses to accept Israel’s Reservations to the Road Map as having any relevance

Israel and the PA have each been playing the negotiating game under different sets of rules. Until they start to play the game under the same rules - any further talks will - like the talks held since 2003 - prove to be a complete waste of time.

“The negotiations will be based on previous agreements between us, UN Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338, the Roadmap and the April 14th 2004 letter of President Bush to the Prime Minister of Israel.”

It is realistic to expect that any final status agreement will only be achieved on the basis of mutually agreed changes that reflect these realities.”