De Israelische Oorlogsmisdaden 80

'Israel risks isolation after Gaza assault, warns Olmert
* Jason Koutsoukis in Jerusalem
* March 24, 2009
EVEN Israel's strongest supporters would agree that since the war in Gaza in January, the country's image has taken a pummelling abroad.
The news reports and images of the devastation wrought by Israel's 22-day assault on the densely populated Gaza Strip were bad enough. The revelation of the grim testimony of soldiers who participated in the Gaza war, and details of the deplorable conduct of some of their colleagues, has further tarnished Israel's reputation.
During the war itself, despite the international media's negative coverage, Israelis displayed little concern for what the rest of the world thought.
But now the accounts provided by a number of soldiers attached to the Givati Brigade have prompted a wave of national soul searching.
News and talkback radio have been dominated by the soldiers' accounts of what they saw and prompted many to question Israel's oft-repeated claim that its troops are part of the world's most moral army.
The Hebrew editions of the country's biggest newspapers have carried prominent stories detailing the international reaction to the soldiers'
revelations, suggesting that a certain degree of angst at what the rest of the world is thinking has crept into the Israeli mindset.
But the aftermath of the conflict in Gaza is only one public relations problem that Israeli opinion makers have to deal with at the moment.
The moves to demolish more than 100 Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem over the past few weeks to make way for Jewish housing has not only earned a sharp response from the US Secretary of State, but revived international concerns that Israel is not serious about finding a peaceful solution to its conflict with the Palestinians.
The Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, warned an Israeli cabinet meeting on Sunday that the Prime Minister-designate, Benjamin Netanyahu, risks isolating Israel on the world stage.
"Anyone who goes into a government whose coalition guidelines do not include the principle of two states for two peoples is knowingly liable to subject Israel to isolation, the likes of which it has never known since its establishment … History will not forgive them," he said.
So serious are those international fears that the European Union's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, warned last week that the EU would have to reconsider its relationship with Israel if it postponed the pursuit of a two-state solution.
Mr Netanyahu's likely choice of foreign minister, the Soviet-born Israeli nationalist Avigdor Lieberman, may serve to deepen Israel's public relations problems.
Writing in the mass circulation daily Yedioth Ahronoth, the Israeli columnist Boaz Okon said that "the rolling thunder of Israel as an apartheid state is not far off. The sound is growing closer, and it is unequivocal."'

Zie: http://www.smh.com.au/world/israel-risks-isolation-after-gaza-assault-warns-olmert-0090323-97id.html