Striking ISIS is a good decision

President Obama´s decision to strike ISIS extremists in Northern Iraq should be supported by a large number of opinion-makers. It is time to say no to that type of medieval savagery as the one implemented by these fanatics.

This is a good point for the current administration in Washington at a time when the same administration has been losing credibility because of their vacillating position regarding Israel´s violations of international law and the lunacy of Hamas´s political decisions.

I appreciate John Kerry´s efforts

Copyright V.Angelo

Israel should be reminded of some basic principles of international law

Hamas is certainly an extremist group included in the Western list of terrorist organizations. It needs to be fought and its actions ought to be stopped.

But fighting Hamas is not an excuse for Israel to behave as a State that does not respect the laws of the war, the principle of proportionate force, and the overriding rules about the protection of civilians and the interdiction to inflict collective punishment on innocent populations.

These norms should guide the actions of any civilised State, even when that State is exercising the right of self-defence. In all legislations, self-defence has its limits and needs to be advised by a great sense of restraint. That´s what the modern world is about. 

War crimes are being committed

When the law of the war is not respect – and one should be reminded all the time that wars have their own body of international law that ought to be followed – war crimes are committed. And when they are committed the key leaders of the international community have to speak the words and say the right things. Leadership is about that. To call a spade a spade.  

Kerry is not welcome in today´s Israel

It is quite clear the Obama Administration is not welcome in Netanyahu´s Israel. With the current crisis having last for more than a week, and the very serious loss of civilian lives, it would have been appropriate to send John Kerry back to Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Ramallah. Furthermore, that trip would bring some credits back to the Americans, within the Arab world. But Washington knows this move would meet with Netanyahu´s opposition. Therefore, the Administration remains silent. Notwithstanding the noise coming from the fighter jets, the rockets, the human suffering and the death of many innocent civilians. 

Israel has to respond in a proportionate manner

Israel, as a close ally of the West, should be requested to behave with full respect for international law. In particular, it has to be told to be proportionate in the way it responds to the security threats coming from the other side of the wall. 

Israel and Palestine will be at it for a long time

The situation in Israel and Gaza is again at its worst. It reminds us, as it does so often, that there is no real mechanism to peacefully sort out major complex crises, if one or both sides believe that the only option that is left to them is through war. It is also a sharp and dramatic reminder of the ambivalence of the big powers. In this case, the US has shown that they cannot, for domestic political reasons, be part and judge of a conflict. You are either one or the other. And you assume it clearly.

I do not write often about this part of the world for a very simple reason. I do not see a solution to the conflict. This is one those violent disputes that will stay with us for another generation or two. In the meantime, people suffer and lives are just wasted. 

Israel and Palestine must talk about peace

Israel leadership is reacting the wrong way to the Palestinian reconciliation. Prime Minister Netanyahu should be happy that Hamas is now getting a bit more into the main stream. And he should re-engage the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on peace matters.

Peace talks, one should be reminded, are never held with your friends. They sit around the table people that have been at one another´s throats for quite some time. They take place between enemies. They are often very difficult to accept as the other side has been killing our own people. But there is no other way to sort out a conflict but by talking to our foes. In Middle East, in Northern Ireland, in South Sudan, all over the place.

Therefore the Palestinian move towards their own reconciliation is no acceptable excuse to stop the peace process. It can, however, be used as pretext to halt a move that in any case was not genuine. Is it the case?