The truth about violations of international law

by Jim Babka

If violations of international law justified war then we might have to invade Israel, and no American wants to do that. We would also have to repudiate many of our government's past and current actions.

• A study by Stephen Zunes of the University of San Francisco shows that Israel has violated 32 UN resolutions since 1968—nearly twice as many as Iraq.
  
  Many of these violations relate to illegal Israeli settlements on land reserved by the UN for the Palestinians on the occupied West Bank. These settlements are the major barrier to peace between Israel and Palestine. If they were dismantled the Palestinians would lose their only justification for continued resistance against Israel. They would have to make peace, or risk losing the support of the world, and possibly even their Arab neighbors for whom the long Palestinian conflict has become very destabilizing.
  
  Our government has quite correctly criticized the violence of the Palestinians, but has remained strangely silent about Israel's illegal settlements.
  
  Israel is also known to have "secret" nuclear weapons. Apparently we invoke international law only when it suits us. (The details can be found in the October 8, 2002 edition of the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz, and the October 9, 2002 edition of Newsday. The respective websites are haaretzdaily.com and newsday.com.)

• In the 1980s our government joined with the Soviet Union to protect Iraq from UN action related to its invasion of Iran and its use of chemical weapons during that war. The Reagan administration, with George Bush, Sr. as Vice President, actively assisted Iraq during this war, in spite of its use of chemical weapons. Once again it seems that we only invoke international law (or the evil of chemical weapons) when it suits us. (For more details see Iraq and The Iran-Iraq War, both by Dilip Hiro.)
  
  
• President George Bush, Jr. has already pledged to continue our government's long standing policy of ignoring international law by invading Iraq, even if the UN disapproves. President Bush has cited many justifications for his position, but none of them can stand up to close scrutiny.

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