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Monday, February 15, 2010

Arrest Me if You Dare

The London Times speculates that Tzipi Livni is mulling a trip to the UK to provoke her arrest on war crimes charges.

How long would she sit in the clinker - a day? 6 hours? Her popularity would go stratospheric (due disclosure: I voted for her), the UK leaders presiding over the war in Aghanistan in which civilians are tragically being killed would be shamed to change their silly rules, Netanyahu would be forced to praise her (hee hee), and she'd still be home before Shabbat.

Sounds like a fine publicity stunt to me.

8 comments:

  1. potentially bad on Google: in Anglo-papers Tzipi Livni is usually spelt with just one P.

    There seems to be no end to the nuttiness currently reigning in Britain - they must have been legislating everything they could think of without any consideration for wider or longer term consequences.

    All this crazy Labour-policy-stuff makes me wonder if there is a connection to the fact, a study has recently found, that the BNP=British National Party enjoys its biggest increases in Labour-areas. That should be very galling to the Guardian's Polly Toynbee or is this the first sign of the very left and the very right connecting?

    For all those who haven't "met" the BNP yet, look at this - it is quite a treat
    http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article7027047.ece
    Silke

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  2. off topic but interesting in connection with Lieberman on Syria - the Betrayal refers to the Hariri murder investigation
    Silke

    "A U.N. Betrayal in Beirut"

    http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/14/opinion/14young.html?ref=global-home

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  3. Actually no. We're talking about the UK here. Her arrest would result in 'due process' followed by no change in the law.

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  4. Are you sure she would be released so quickly? On what grounds? Surely a person arrested based on British law wouldn't be released for mere political considerations. Due process would be required.

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  5. Her release would be even MORE embarrassing for Britain, as it would imply that Israeli leaders are literally above British law.

    If Livni wants to be a hero, then let her do it. She is one of three people - the others being Barak and Olmert (perhaps there are a few others) - to intimately understand every facet of Cast Lead.

    If she wishes to fall on a sword, she better be prepared to deal with the consequences. If she does, she will be the next Israeli PM.

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  6. British forces are killing civilians in a just war even as we discuss this, as they have been doing for years (centuries?) and will continue doing for a while yet. Jailing an elected leader from a democracy that does the same would be more than embarrassing for them. It would be directly threatening. She'd be out in a jiffy, and the law would be changed, because there's no way democracies can wage just wars without killing civilians, and the UK legislators (most of them) would be forced to face this.

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  7. Yaacov, as a Holocaust historian, you of all people should appreciate the mental gymnastics and compartmentalization human beings are capable of.

    Perhaps such a stunt will be good for Livni, and perhaps it will jolt the British establishment into action on this one law, but the fallout of Livni being freed from judicial custody on political diktat - even if that were possible - would be bad for Jews and bad for Israel.

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  8. Livni in custody in England
    - I hope they'll manage to keep the where really really secret otherwise I guess they will have to deal with major demonstrations and a real problem to get her out safely
    if only half of what is reported here about goings on on British campuses is correct - these guys and the PC-ones wouldn't want to miss the opportunity
    Silke
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00qf5p7

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