By DPA,
Jerusalem : Israel will not allow its leaders or soldiers to stand trial in the International Criminal Court in The Hague for war crimes, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday.
Addressing parliament at the opening of its winter session, Netanyahu slammed a recently-released report which accused the Israeli military of possibly committing war crimes during the offensive in the Gaza Strip at the turn of the year.
The report, issued by a commission headed by South African Judge Richard Goldstone, undermined Israel’s right to self-defence and encouraged terrorism, Netanyahu charged.
If Israel could not defend itself, it would take no risks for peace, he said, adding that “we will never return to a situation where he cannot defend ourselves or our state”.
The Israeli leader, in office since the end of March, called on the Palestinians to renew peace talks, saying his government was working together with the US administration to bring about a prompt resumption of the negotiations, which were suspended last year as Israel entered its election period.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas refuses to renew the talks unless Israel halts completely all construction in its West Bank settlements. Netanyahu has refused this demand, and the US is trying to broker a compromise which will get the talks going again.
Appealing to the Palestinian leadership, Netanyahu called on them to agree to recognise Israel as a Jewish state, saying this was, and remains, the key to peace.
Saying that such recognition “is a step which requires courage”, he said the Palestinian leadership “should tell its people the truth
– that without this recognition, there can be no peace”.
Netanyahu has raised the demand for Palestinian acceptance of Israel as Jewish state before. For him, it is a way of ensuring recognition of Israel’s right to exist – as opposed to merely recognising Israel – which he and many other Israelis see as the real core of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Turning to the subject of Iran and its nuclear ambitions, he called on all responsible states in the world to ensure that Tehran did not get atomic weapons.