The complete idiot’s guide to Mideast peace – part 269

Israel likely committed war crimes in Gaza, group charges | The Times of Israel  ‘Human Rights Watch says Israel fired indiscriminately in two cases and used disproportionate firepower in a third’

IDF opens criminal probe into 5 cases in wake of Gaza op | The Times of Israel   ‘Army investigating shelling of UNRWA school and attack that killed 4 children on a beach, among others incidents; no indication of war crimes, senior officer says’

While it may be good PR to hold such an investigation and valuable lessons can be learned, delivering an objective verdict on what went wrong and who might be to blame is most likely well beyond the normal bounds of everyday expectation.

Self-examination can sometimes provide a robust and valid enough exercise where the individual is concerned but the same is rarely noted in institutions such as armed forces because of their natural tendency to band together in self defence. And an IDF investigation of itself here would seem to qualify as being within this latter category.

And this is also true in the much wider field of apportioning blame and responsibility for the conflict in general. Which side is more in the right? What party can be regarded as having greater legitimacy? And who has had the worst record in the longer term and what have they done to improve the situation over time? Naturally, each one will lay claim to the moral high ground in such cases but a dispassionate eye will see many faults in whatever interpretations and opinions are held by either of them.

But where today is an eye of so dispassionate a nature to be found? In a world that appears much too polarised and wearied in its views on the subject, can any means of such impartial judgement still be sourced?

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