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23 Oct 2009 09:47 am
The Assault On Human Rights Watch, Ctd
Henry Farrell ponders different sorts of international law:
[T]he ‘but he did it first’ excuse is not, and cannot be a
justification for committing war crimes. Nor does the ‘self-hating Jew’
claim, or other ways of attacking the messenger ... really stick – if you are
unnecessarily killing or seriously injuring hundreds or thousands of
civilians, you are unnecessarily killing or seriously injuring hundreds
or thousands of civilians, and there is no very good way of getting
around this awkward fact.
Both Gideon [Rachman] and Eric [Posner] would point to the
undoubted fact that the leading politicians of great powers (or their
important clients) are highly unlikely to find themselves in the dock
for war crimes. But direct punitive sanctioning is not the only effect
of law. It can influence the perceived legitimacy of a particular
state, its actions and its leadership. It is quite clear that Israel
has taken a substantial reputational hit from the Goldstone report,
even if it will never be condemned by the UN Security Council, and that Israel’s leaders are worried and upset about this.
And that is a good thing (even if it is inconceivable that Hamas' leaders would ever begin to feel something similar).
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