The Security Cabinet decided this morning that the UN \"fact-finding\" committee will not be welcome in Israel at this stage. The official statement released by the government following the meeting read, \"Israel has raised essential issues before the UN for a fair examination. As long as these terms have not been met, it will not be possible for the clarification process to begin.\" Israel opposes creating a situation, in which soldiers who fought in the Jenin battle would be forced to testify in front of the UN fact-finding committee.
Many experts, both in and out of Israel, have warned that allowing the committee to investigate the Jenin battles would endanger Israeli interests almost beyond repair. Former Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said earlier this week that the idea was \"total insanity.\" Netanyahu added, \"For over 50 years - for four of which I was Israel\'s Ambassador to the UN - we rebuffed these types of plans that were designed to put us into [difficult positions]. The UN is not a body that can evaluate these issues in a responsible manner, and certainly not after it has proven its lack of sincerity by not offering to investigate even one of the terrible terrorist massacres that we have suffered at the hands of the Palestinians - and we therefore should not cooperate with this body.\"
The cabinet heard reports from the IDF Chief of Staff, intelligence officers and others before making its decision. The vote was nearly unanimous, with only one minister, Rabbi Yitzchak Levy of the National Religious Party, voting against. He explained to Arutz-7 today that he felt that the decision did not go far enough:
\"This was the perfect opportunity to simply withdraw our consent to this committee altogether. It was a mistake to agree in the first place to a committee put together by Kofi Annan, with the help of Terje Larsen, both of whose opinions about us and the IDF we know quite well...\"
\"It is unfortunate that we did not simply say that since the UN did not meet our conditions, our consent to the committee is no longer in effect... My concern is that our soldiers should not have to feel afraid to wage war on behalf of their country because of a fear of being investigated by some international body... I felt that it would be better to clash with the UN now rather than later. I fear very much that because we still have this thing hanging over our heads, our talented Foreign Minister will soon come to some sort of agreement with the UN, and we\'ll soon see this committee here in Israel taking testimony from our soldiers.\"
Peres himself spoke out strongly today against the idea of having IDF soldiers give testimony to the UN committee: \"We told the UN that we have six reservations [about the committee],\" he said today. \"One of them concerns the witnesses, that we must be able to determine who will give testimony and who will not. I spoke about this with Secretary Powell and told him, Look, we are in the middle of a war, our army is still fighting, and our soldiers are endangering their lives. What do you want, that we should put them on trial? Each one of them should come with his lawyer? What kind of a thing is this?!\"
Many experts, both in and out of Israel, have warned that allowing the committee to investigate the Jenin battles would endanger Israeli interests almost beyond repair. Former Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said earlier this week that the idea was \"total insanity.\" Netanyahu added, \"For over 50 years - for four of which I was Israel\'s Ambassador to the UN - we rebuffed these types of plans that were designed to put us into [difficult positions]. The UN is not a body that can evaluate these issues in a responsible manner, and certainly not after it has proven its lack of sincerity by not offering to investigate even one of the terrible terrorist massacres that we have suffered at the hands of the Palestinians - and we therefore should not cooperate with this body.\"
The cabinet heard reports from the IDF Chief of Staff, intelligence officers and others before making its decision. The vote was nearly unanimous, with only one minister, Rabbi Yitzchak Levy of the National Religious Party, voting against. He explained to Arutz-7 today that he felt that the decision did not go far enough:
\"This was the perfect opportunity to simply withdraw our consent to this committee altogether. It was a mistake to agree in the first place to a committee put together by Kofi Annan, with the help of Terje Larsen, both of whose opinions about us and the IDF we know quite well...\"
\"It is unfortunate that we did not simply say that since the UN did not meet our conditions, our consent to the committee is no longer in effect... My concern is that our soldiers should not have to feel afraid to wage war on behalf of their country because of a fear of being investigated by some international body... I felt that it would be better to clash with the UN now rather than later. I fear very much that because we still have this thing hanging over our heads, our talented Foreign Minister will soon come to some sort of agreement with the UN, and we\'ll soon see this committee here in Israel taking testimony from our soldiers.\"
Peres himself spoke out strongly today against the idea of having IDF soldiers give testimony to the UN committee: \"We told the UN that we have six reservations [about the committee],\" he said today. \"One of them concerns the witnesses, that we must be able to determine who will give testimony and who will not. I spoke about this with Secretary Powell and told him, Look, we are in the middle of a war, our army is still fighting, and our soldiers are endangering their lives. What do you want, that we should put them on trial? Each one of them should come with his lawyer? What kind of a thing is this?!\"