Yaacov Lozowick: Israel’s Gaza report

Yaacov Lozowick is the Israeli author of Right to Exist and the proprietor of Yaacov Lozowick’s Ruminations. He flags Israel’s report on the Gaza operation, commenting that the “report, in my reading, is a game changer, or should be. Yet as far as I can see, almost no one has noticed it, much less read it.” Lozowick has posted a synopsis of his summary of the report:

Self anointed human rights organizations, followed by much of the media, have cast Israel as a serial transgressor against international law. The most recent case of this was Israel’s incursion into Hamas-controlled Gaza in January 2009, which was widely portrayed as criminal from inception to smallest detail. Defenders of Israel’s actions, generally not well versed in the minutiae of international law, have allowed themselves to be wrong footed, claiming that facts are wrong, or mooting the unacceptability of international law itself if it forbids Israel to defend its citizens.
The State of Israel has now published its legal and factual rebuttal. The authors of the report emphatically embrace international law and insist that its principles guide the IDF as it trains, plans, executes and investigate; they demonstrate all these actions on the case of the Gaza incursion.
The report is serious and learned, which means it is open to discussion and disagreement. Yet such a discussion must be informed and reasoned – precisely as much of the criticism leveled at Israel isn’t.
The full report, at 164 pages, is here. I urge anyone who feels the need to express an opinion to read it. My 20-page summary and commentary is a service for the hasty; it’s here.

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