Rivlin: Israel Pays Price of World's "Double Moral Standard"

Hillel Fendel
A7 News

Meeting with foreign ambassadors in the Knesset on Tuesday, Knesset Speaker Ruby Rivlin (Likud) said, "If the trend doesn't change, the U.S. and Britain will be next in line" to pay the price for the world's double standards, and for their willingness to fight, in the war against terrorism. "According to the standards laid down by the Goldstone investigation," Rivlin said, "Winston Churchill should have been charged with war crimes, as should the American and British armies in Iraq. In the meanwhile, though, only Israel is paying the price of the double standard that does not differentiate between attacker and victim, or between terrorism and self-defense."

The Goldstone Commisssion, charged by the United Nations with investigating Israel's counter-terrorist Cast Lead offensive against Hamas-run Gaza in late 2008 and early 2009, accused Israel of war crimes, attacks upon civilians, and the like.

"If the trend doesn't change," Rivlin continued, "the next in line to be accused will be the members of the militaries of Great Britain, the U.S., and the other countries of the free world."

Some 70 ambassadors and foreign representatives took part in the Knesset event, which dealt with the fight of the democratic countries against terrorism.

New World War?

Rivlin warned of another terrific loss of life such as occurred in World War II: "If these new, corrupt ethics take over international law and institutions, a new era in Western civilization will begin – similar to that which we remember all too well from the Munich agreements, that enabled dictatorships to cause the free world to bleed, and to nearly be defeated."

"Terrorism is trying to paralyze and silence democracies fighting against it," the veteran Jerusalemite Knesset Member said, "exactly as was manifest in the world's reaction to Israel's counter-terrorist offensive Cast Lead in light of the Goldstone Report."

Rivlin called on the nations of the world to stand by Israel in its fight against terrorism – a struggle that he said is "beginning to take on dimensions of World War III."

"The most dangerous threat of international terrorism is the paralysis of the solidarity between democracies," Rivlin declared. "If you do not now, as a collective, take a firm stand against Goldstone; if you do not stand behind the Israeli democracy in its just and moral struggle against expanding terrorism; if you don't prevent this widening witch-hunt, international arrests, indictments in the Hague, the erosion in the UN, and the incitement against Israel; if you sit by quietly with your hands folded – then the legitimacy of your own struggle against terrorism will be undermined…"

The Knesset Speaker expressed the hope that the gathering of ambassadors in the Knesset will become a yearly tradition for the exchange of ideas in a direct manner.