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The Case Against Israel Rests on Lies

(Wall Street Journal) President of Israel Isaac Herzog - The international legal system has begun to ignore reality and truth. Justice is unrecognizable, and noble ideals are perverted by terrorists and cynics. These feelings were brought in focus as the International Court of Justice at The Hague in January considered South Africa's accusation that Israel was guilty of genocide. Amid the many demonstrable misrepresentations that emerged from the accusation against Israel, one caught my attention - a quote attributed to me. On Oct. 12, five days after Hamas terrorists butchered 1,200 people in southern Israel and kidnapped hundreds more, a line that there was "an entire nation out there that is responsible," referring to the Palestinians, was presented as if it justified the killing of civilians. At that news conference, not one journalist asked me about the pain in Israel or about the global implications of this act of catastrophic terror. They were instead preoccupied with the effect this would have on Palestinians in Gaza - the territory that had produced and then celebrated the perpetrators of the attack. The fact is that many Palestinian civilians entered Israel on Oct. 7 and participated in murder, rape and looting, much of it documented on film. Palestinians were filmed cheering the massacre and jeering and attacking the hostages as they were led into captivity. I pointed out that Hamas operates from within the heart of its civilian population and enjoys broad support. I then stated, in no uncertain terms, that there are many innocent Palestinians, and that the State of Israel and our security forces don't view innocent civilians as targets in any way. I made it clear that Israel acts in keeping with international law. These words were purposely distorted when presented to the court. The South African case, brought in support of Hamas, is a blood libel against the nation-state of the Jewish people - a shameful low for an international system that emerged from the ashes of the Holocaust. This abandonment of moral clarity, the desertion of the vision of international justice and its replacement by cynical politics and outright falsehoods, will have repercussions far beyond Israel.
2024-02-12 00:00:00
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