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Netanyahu: Israel 'won't let its soldiers be dragged' to ICC
RT,
4 January, 2014
Israel will not permit its soldiers to appear before the International Criminal Court (ICC) on potential war crimes charges, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday. His comments came two days after Palestine applied to become a party to the court.
"We will not let Israel Defence Forces (IDF) soldiers and officers be dragged to the International Criminal Court in The Hague," Netanyahu said at the start of the weekly Cabinet meeting, AFP reported.
The Palestinian move to join the ICC on Friday was followed by Israel’s punitive measure of freezing the transfer of half a billion shekels ($127 million) in tax revenues to the Palestinian Authority.
"The Palestinian Authority has chosen to take a path of confrontation with Israel, and we will not sit idly by," Netanyahu said. "IDF soldiers will continue to defend Israel with determination and strength – and as they defend us, we will defend them, with the same determination and the same strength."
According to ICC sources, the Palestinian Authority wants the court to investigate war crimes committed in the Palestinian territories since June 13, 2014. It includes the 50-day Operation Protective Edge that took lives of over 2,200 civilians, most of them Gazans.
Netanyahu said it was the Palestinian leadership that should be taken to the ICC – for signing a 2014 reconciliation agreement with the Hamas movement that Israel considers to be a terrorist organization."Those who should face justice are the heads of the Palestinian Authority who signed a covenant with the war criminals of Hamas," he said.
Netanyahu also urged the ICC not to grant membership to the Palestinian Authority "because it is not a state."
Last June, a national consensus government was established by the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah and the Hamas-led government in Gaza.
Israel’s monthly payments to the Palestinian Authority account for tens of millions of dollars in customs duties for goods, transferred to Palestinian markets via Israeli ports. They comprise two-thirds of the Palestinian Authority's annual budget, without foreign aid.
The International Criminal Court is a tribunal with the jurisdiction to prosecute individuals for the international crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, committed since July 1, 2002, when the ICC’s Rome Statute treaty came into force.
Palestinians seek to resubmit statehood bid to UNSC
Prince Andrew Named in New Underaged Sex Ring US Lawsuit
With the public still questioning the relationship between serial paedophile and sex criminal Sir Jimmy Savile OBE and Prince Charles, another episode of ‘Prince and the Paedophile’ threatens to boil over – this time with the Prince of Wales’s brother, the ‘Duke of York’, Prince Andrew, who appears to have been snagged in yet another embarrassing under aged sex scandal with his fellow elite playboy pal, disgraced American billionaire Jeffrey Epstein.
http://21stcenturywire.com/2015/01/02/prince-andrew-named-in-new-underaged-sex-ring-us-lawsuit/
From the Guardian. Of course Moscow is to blame!
US and Russia in danger of returning to era of nuclear rivalry
American
threats to retaliate for Russian development of new cruise missile
take tensions to new level
A
widening rift between Moscow and Washington over cruise missiles and
increasingly daring patrols by nuclear-capable Russian submarines
threatens to end an era of arms control and bring back a dangerous
rivalry between the world’s two dominant nuclear arsenals.
Tensions
have been taken to a new level by US threats of retaliatory action
for Russian development of a new cruise missile. Washington alleges
it violates one of the key arms control treaties of the cold war, and
has raised the prospect of redeploying its own cruise missiles in
Europe after a 23-year absence.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/04/us-russia-era-nuclear-rivalry
Alexis Tsipras or Antonis Samaras? Greece begins to weigh up the options
Polls suggest leader of radical left Syriza party still has the edge over country’s prime minister in runup to 25 January election
One
hails from the old world of Greek bourgeois society, and is a Harvard
business school graduate with stridently conservative views. The
other, state-educated and middle class, was raised in the decidedly
newer world of rough-and-tumble leftist politics.
The
stark differences between Antonis Samaras, Greece’s prime minister,
and Alexis Tsipras, the man who wants his job, will to great degree
define the contours of the battle ground as the country heads to snap
polls on 25 January. It is a clash whose outcome will affect Europe,
too.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/04/alexis-tsipras-antonis-samaras-greece-syriza-election
‘Germany wants Greece to stay under domination of troika’
Germany believes EU can survive the exit of Greece; the situation in Greece is devastated, according to official statistics.
A Greek Demands No More Lies: "If We Opt For Comforting But Phony Rhetoric We Dig Our Own Graves"
4
January, 2014
By
Alexis Papachelas, first posted in Kathimerini
No
More Lies
We
have become accustomed to cynicism and lies that we have are immune
to anything that is said. Various people come up with comments like:
“Come on, SYRIZA is all talk, it won’t actually carry out what it
says; I’m certain of it. It will do an about-face.” This position
is not adopted by voters alone. Opposition officials are reassuring
representatives of the establishment that they have nothing to fear
with regard to what’s on the party program as it is not binding in
any way.
Of
course this was also the case with the previous opposition and the
one before that. They promised one thing in public, another in their
program and ended up delivering something completely different in the
end. This is something of a political disease in Greece. In a normal
country citizens would not elect anyone who so blatantly showed that
what was said during the pre-election period was merely a gimmick to
attract votes. Sure, we put up with it in the past and still do
today. It’s a populist tradition that began with the tough-guy
attitude of Andreas Papandreou. Remember the US military bases issue?
We glorified Papandreou as a political maestro as he fooled people
with promises of closing the bases and then fooled them again by
keeping them open. We ended up giving legitimacy to lies and
accepting hypocrisy as a legitimate tactic used by our leaders.
Despite the crisis, this tradition stands today. Politicians utter
big words for the public with a wink to those in the know, a tip that
they will not do as they say.
What’s
worse is that Greek politicians have lied to our foreign partners and
creditors with same ease with which they lie to us. For instance,
they signed a memorandum with dozens of reforms they pledged to
implement within a given period of time. Then they started the funny
business: laws were passed but either left unimplemented or even
canceled altogether. Then, just before a new bailout tranche was to
be released, the excuses would start, blaming others or forces beyond
their control for their lack of progress. Those outside Greece could
not understand why any responsible politician would sign on the
dotted line when they couldn’t deliver and our credibility
suffered. The cost ultimately fell on those who were unable to shield
themselves from amendments passed on the sly, directives that only
the most savvy could possibly understand; in short, it fell on the
taxpayers, who were bled dry.
It’s
time for citizens and the media to grow up. To pressure politicians
for the truth and not to ostracize those who dare to tell it like it
is. If we opt for comforting rhetoric, knowing how phony it is, we
will be digging our own graves.
Catch me if you can: More drones break into France's nuclear air space
The latest intrusion happened at a nuclear power plant in Nogent-sur-Seine in north-central France, AFP reported on Sunday.
"Around 6:40 p.m., site safety officers observed two flying objects that flew over the land reserve located on the perimeter of the nuclear plant," a spokesman for the power station told AFP. The objects were believed to be drones, and the gendarmerie has been alerted.
ISIS Is Hiring
Having
previously searched for doctors, lawyers, and engineers;
The Islamic State is now building out its workforce...
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-01-04/isis-hiring
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