Mideast lies

As Israel once again battles for its very survival, the world's anti-Semites are yet again crawling out from under their rocks to spread lies and disinformation.

You can hear it on the Toronto airwaves right now as the Jew haters race to the hotline shows to rant - ad nauseam - that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is under investigation in Belgium for war crimes in connection with the 1982 massacres at the Sabra and Shatila Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon.

This isolated "factoid" - usually unchallenged by radio hosts who clearly have no idea of the background - is being repeated like a mantra by the propagandists, who never point out other facts any fair-minded person would see as relevant.

For example, that the entire case against Sharon is in huge trouble, as is the Belgian law itself, given a recent ruling by the International Court of Justice in The Hague.

Following an ICJ ruling on Feb. 14 that questioned the legitimacy of the Belgian law and concluded, in a case unrelated to Sharon's, that serving ministers are immune from prosecution anyway, Jan Devadder, legal adviser to the Belgian foreign ministry, said the ICJ's decision would likely prompt Belgium to drop the case against Sharon. Government ministers predicted the law will be amended and proceedings against Sharon and 40 other world leaders dropped.

Last month, in light of the ICJ decision, a Belgian court postponed ruling on whether to put Sharon on trial for war crimes at the request of the plaintiffs - 23 survivors of the massacres - to give their lawyers time to argue the IJC ruling does not affect the Sharon case.

The second point - one anti-Semites also never mention - is that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is also being investigated for alleged genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity under the same Belgian law in a case brought forward in November by victims of Palestinian terrorism. Also being probed under this law, are, among others, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and Iran's former president, Ali Akbar Rafsanjani.

All these cases have been filed under the same controversial law passed by Belgium in 1993 which permits its courts to try cases alleging war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity, regardless of where they took place or the nationality or residence of the victims or the accused.

The law has prompted a wave of complaints, many, critics argue, politically motivated. Anti-Israel propagandists have been making hay with it by constantly citing the Sharon case while carefully avoiding any mention of similar complaints lodged against Arafat and other Arab and Mideast leaders.

The anti-Israeli, liberal-left media, of course, focus almost entirely on the Sharon case.

Israel haters have repeatedly implied the war crime allegations against Sharon stem from the fact he arranged, while Israel's defence minister, for the massacre of hundreds of Palestinian refugees in the Sabra and Shatila camps in 1982. This, too, is false.

First, the attack was carried out by Lebanese Christian militiamen. An Israeli inquiry launched immediately after the massacre concluded Sharon should have foreseen it and was thus indirectly responsible. Sharon was forced to resign as defence minister as a result but he later sued Time for claiming he knew in advance the massacre would occur. In 1985, a New York jury found Time's reporting defamatory, false, negligent and careless, but threw out Sharon's suit on the grounds he hadn't proven Time published the story knowing it was false, as U.S libel law requires.

The hypocrisy of those who always cite the 1982 massacres and the allegations against Sharon in connection with the Belgian law is revealed by the fact that not only do they never mention the similar allegations made against Arafat under this law, but also never point out the difference in Israel's response compared to the Arab world.

Eleven years before there even was a Belgian law, Israel itself ordered an inquiry into Sharon's actions at Shatila and Sabra and punished him for them. As Israeli spokesman Ran Ichay has noted: "Israel didn't wait 20 years for a Belgian court. The case was investigated in Israel right after the massacre was committed."

So when can we expect a similar investigation by the Palestinian Authority, or, for that matter the Arab states, into the countless crimes against Israel of which Arafat has been accused over the years? We all know the answer. Don't we?

Had Sharon sued in a British or Canadian court against the same article in a British or Canadian newspaper, he would have won.

The common law is stricter on defamation than the gloss put on it by US courts. If an article is defamatory, it is only necessary to prove that it was false and that the puplisher either knew it to be false or was negligent as to checking its veracity. (i.e. a "due diligence" standard rather than the "malice" standard applying in US courts)

I wonder where Goldstein was on the issue of supposed Serb war criminals brought to the Hague on bogus contrived charges? Or does she only have a problem with Jews being charged for the same supposed crimes?

First, Goldstein is male.

He is the managing editor of the Toronto Sun, the flagship papet of Sun Media, a chain of newspapers with a mainly conservative outlook (which is really needed in Canada).

Second, the Sun's editorial position was against the whole Kosovo adventure.

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