I hope you have all recovered from a week of dietary torture otherwise known as Pesach, for those of you who observe the festival.
I almost choked on my long-awaited breakfast toast when I read this article in the Jerusalem Post.
An Israeli team from the Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya, recently beat out 44 universities to take first place in the 2010 edition of the Jean-Pictet Competition on international humanitarian law.
The week-long international competition, held between March 20-27 in Quebec, Canada, matched up teams from universities around the world to test their knowledge in the field of international humanitarian law (IHL) – commonly referred to as the laws of war.
Kol HaKavod!
In a nutshell, said [coach] Rosenzweig, IHL might be summarized as, “Do the most damage to the enemy [while] minimizing harm to civilians.”
Hmm. ring any bells?
He explained the four core principles of IHL as follows: distinction of soldiers from civilians; military necessity as a rule in evaluating targets; proportionality; and humanity to the enemy.
These are exactly the issues which Israel confronted in Gaza where their every decision was guided by experts in IHL which, we now know, Israel knows better than any other country.
After winning, the IDC team received a five-minute standing ovation from the other teams, including those from Iran, Lebanon and Jordan.
I’m sure these major offenders against IHL now and in the past ran Israel a close second. Nice that the Iranians applauded. They’ll probably be lynched on their return in accordance with IHL (Iranian Humanitarian Law).
Why didn’t Hamas send a team? After all they could have been sponsored by George Galloway and Tony Benn and I’m sure Gerald Kaufman would have donated one of his rugs which he bought at the British taxpayers’ expense.