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Decision on FBI Investigation Undermines Pentagon and State Department

(JNS) Yaakov Lappin - The decision by the FBI to investigate the Israel Defense Forces over the death of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh undermines the official positions of the Pentagon and the U.S. State Department, Prof. Eytan Gilboa of Bar-Ilan University, an Israeli expert on U.S.-Israel relations, told JNS. "Not only is it a vote of no confidence in the IDF's investigation, but also in the Pentagon, since the U.S. Coordinator for Israel and the Palestinian Authority, Lt.-Gen. Michael R. Fenzel, himself welcomed the IDF's investigation....If it was Israeli fire, it's clear that it was an accident. The decision therefore to investigate is unprecedented," said Gilboa. The FBI's decision harms American interests, too, by creating problematic precedents regarding unintentional deaths during armed conflicts. "According to a study by Brown University published in September 2021, during the campaign known as the global war on terror...680 journalists were killed. A body known as the Committee to Protect Journalists found that 13 journalists were definitely killed by the U.S. military in Iraq. Washington said that its soldiers did not violate regulations in any of these cases." "In 2007, U.S. Apache helicopters killed noncombatants, including two Reuters journalists. The U.S. can't demand of us what it does not demand of itself....Israel has to stop this quietly, at a high level....Clearly, the FBI has no authority in Israel and can't investigate any [Israeli] soldier. The entire issue has [already] been examined in any case." Even if one assumes that it was indeed an Israeli bullet that killed Abu Akleh, it's obvious that her death was an accident, "so what is there to investigate?"
2022-11-17 00:00:00
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