Why does Israel investigate war crime accusations when her military actions represent justifiable self-defense? It’s because you cannot divorce the State of Israel from her Jewish nature — Israel holds herself to a higher authority. 

It is well known that any time Israel defends herself against provocation from her enemies, the UN launches an investigation. Israel is regularly investigated for crimes that she didn’t commit. Meanwhile, the rest of the world sits back in silence as hundreds of thousands of innocents are killed across the Middle East, not to mention the other human rights violations that occur around the world.

Some have accused Israel of trying to cover up something whenever she refuses to “cooperate” with an investigation, knowing that from the outset, the verdict is predetermined and that there won’t be a real investigation, but rather a simple attempt to further the investigators’ premeditated agenda.

What seems to be missing from the picture, though, is that part of the reason Israel does not need to submit to such dubious investigations is because Israel investigates these incidents herself. Often her own worst critic, Israel’s investigations seek the truth, without bias, unlike the mockeries that the UN calls “investigations.”

The fact remains that the death toll in the most recent Israeli military operation doesn’t even approach the atrocities committed by other countries in the Middle East, even if we took the PA-promulgated death toll as accurate – despite proof to the contrary. By some estimates, the actual Gazan death toll from Operation Protective Edge is less than one-third the amount that the PA reported. The PA’s account includes victims’ names repeated two or three times, some of whom are actually still alive.

IDF Investigates Allegations

Several different investigative units from the IDF have been charged with looking into incidents that may have involved violations of orders or other infractions resulting in unnecessary civilian deaths.

To date, the military prosecutor’s office has examined initial inspection complaints and reports regarding over 100 incidents. Allegations regarding these were initially submitted to an investigative department in the IDF General Staff. Of the original 100, 50 incidents were preliminarily investigated and determined to unsubstantiated.

In the end, the IDF has determined that 5 incidents which took place during the operation warrant further investigation to determine if there was criminal wrongdoing. One of those incidents involved the deaths of four minors on the beach in Gaza. At the time the incident occurred, Israeli officials took responsibility for the tragedy and promised an investigation.  According to a report by Honest Reporting, evidence was very quickly revealed that it was likely a Hamas mine that was responsible for the deaths, and not the IDF.

Even with the above information, the Israeli government takes accusations of wrongdoing very seriously and is continuing to investigate the incident.

Israel: A Jewish Nation

Given the fact that Israel’s military actions involve justifiable self-defense, why does she investigate accusations of wrongdoing with such thoroughness?

It’s because you cannot divorce the state of Israel from her Jewish nature. In practice, Israel holds herself to a higher authority.  Speaking on IBA television on July 23, 2014, former British commander in Afghanistan, Colonel Richard Kemp said that he’s been watching the operation very closely and called the IDF the most moral army in the world. The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), on the other hand, has a history of anti-Israel bias, with a scant record of addressing the human rights violations of Council member countries.

By Penina Taylor, United with Israel

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