Ask Saddam Hussein or Slobodan Milosevic or Manuel Noriega or the Nuremberg Tribunal defendants if there is such a thing as sovereign immunity. Yeah, it exists under customary law – until under exigent circumstances, it doesn’t.
Same in domestic cases. Nicolai Ceausescu was above the law in Romania – right up to the point that a committee of public safety snuffed him out with a firing squad.
Behind, and superseding, all this fine, intricate skein of the rule of law is always the potential of unbridled force, for whoever happens to possess that force.
Neither side is innocent but naturally the West holds Israel to the same standard to which it holds other first world democracies. That means they can prosecute the war against Hammas but they have to do all possible to minimize civilian deaths. Israel doesn’t really want to be held to using precision guilded weapons.
It’s not like Hamas has elsewhere to go that is not “civilian space”. Remember the map. The north half , meaning Gaza City was a city with 600,000 people in it. They are now in southern Gaza behind a fence with zero escape possible. Northern Gaza is TWO miles wide. The south is about five miles wide. North to south is about 25 miles. It’s not a huge place. And 2.1 million people were living there before this blood letting began. 15,000 dead and counting in Gaza. 1200 dead in Israel. Isn’t that enough? If there are 2.1 million folk in a small space Hamas would not need to look far for a shield. Unless they all went under ground. But that would never stop the bombing of the civilians. Israel has already amply demonstrated that. Understand this. I do not like or support Hamas nor currently do I like or support Israel. Both are guilty of slaughter. I just want this to stop. I’ve seen death and combat. Way too close in fact. Ask the Russians about their invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 if you want details. Then have them cure my deafness. I hate when humans do unspeakable shit like this to each other.
Edit to add…
Folks were enclosed behind a fence nearly 20 years ago and basically cut off from the world. When held in an open air prison for nearly 20 years it tends to embitter people. I myself would not be happy living behind a high tech fence with folk that hated me if I was born Palestinian living on the other side of the fence. Hatred is the source of the problem and it exists in abundance on both sides.
Seventy five years ago the Israelies shoved the Palestinans out of Israel into an adjacent strip of land that might be considered the world’s largest prison camp. They have had “settlors” (think thieves land jumping in the name of god) encroaching on Palestianian land ever since. In the best of times the Palestianians have been limited to one of the smallest “countries” in the world -Gaza. They don’t have anyplace to go.
Worse, the Israelis have resisted acknowleging Palestinians as being God’s children most of the time since Begin was murdered. Especially since Likud took over Israeli politics prospects for peace have been grim. Under Netanyahu the Israelis don’t show any interest in solving the problem. They like keeping 2.1 million people in a sort of captivity no human being should endure because they believe it has been ordained by God.
Imagine being told to watch your phone for safe places to up and go with hundreds of thousands of other people. And having power cut and no way to chsrge your phone and the other side saying “you were told so it’s your fault”.
We had the same thought about the living conditions in the open air prison. It is amazing that nobody in Western media has the ability to recognize that Gaza is little more than the world’s largest prison camp.
Israel itself is not huge but Gaza is tiny. It has the land area of Las Vegas (approx) with several times the population.
I hate war… even war movies
Edit
Cnn is reporting hostages freed from Hamas report meager rations. Well, yeah… since food delivery has been less tham meager everywhere in Gaza since the war began. I doubt anyone is eating like fat city.
Or if, say (now work with me here), the Israelis would stop shooting at the innocent civilians? Just an idea, but it might just work. Perhaps they could considering giving it a try…
Just a quick comparison… 1200 dead on 10/7/23
And more I am sure during combat.
15,000 (rough approx) on the other side mostly women and kids.
A lot more death is coming.
Until this wzr I had reserved respect for Israel. That is gone. I never had respect for Hamas and the other armed fanatics. The suffeting of Palestinians and ordinary Israelis ought not be forgotten in this madness.
Something I was not aware of until recently… there are hundreds, if not thousands, of Palestinians in Israeli jails without charge or trial. Do Jewish people get the same treatment or do they get what we in America call, euphamistically, due process? Another ding on my list of things that are wrong in Israel. Praps trump could go to Israel. Throw some rocks and get chucked in jail.
If Skanky is the Second Coming that many christian and islamic theologians and conservatives believe, I would not want Him to visit Israel. He has also said that He is the King of Israel. The buybull has a lot of bad things happening in the Middle East during the Two Coming.
And of course, once Israel has bombed their little sector they will have ten minutes to move back to the rubble that used to be their house before Israel starts bombing the sector they fled to
Judge Chutkan decided that Trump has no immunity from criminal liability for the insurrection. So today, he got the double whammy. My guess is the 1st Circuit will quickly agree with her opinion - no President is a King and no immunity infers after leaving the office.
It looks like both the civil and criminal liability questions will be appealed to the Supreme Court at about the same time.
Will the SCOTUS even take the immunity questions up ? I guess we will wait to find out, but if I were Trump I would be thinking of a Plan B which would include a VFR Direct flight on “Trump Mango One” to either Moscow or St. Petersburg, in the Russia Federation.
