Nick Kaufman is a former official at the International Criminal Court and until recently a senior lawyer in the Jerusalem prosecutor’s office.
He tells Haaretz that Israel has little to fear from the Goldstone report over Gaza:
– Nick Kaufman, do you think you will represent an Israeli official, who has been charged with committing war crimes following the Goldstone report, at the international court?
Kaufman: “I don’t believe so. I think the Goldstone report will receive a poor man’s burial.”
– You sound decisive.
” I don’t understand how the United Nations Security Council has made a decision to transfer the case to the international criminal court at The Hague, because I think in any event, the United States will veto the decision.”
“The UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon said he was satisfied with the investigation Israel has conducted, but the Arab League and other unidentified countries have insisted that a new investigation be conducted in the next 5 months. I don’t see it going beyond this.”
“On the other hand, I don’t believe the senior prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, will yield to the Palestinians request and order an investigation against Israel: For him to accept the Palestinian request to recognize their court authority to try and judge the violations committed on their land, he would first have to recognize the Palestinian Authority as an independent country, and I cant see him making such an extreme decision. I just don’t see it happening.”
…
Did you hear him express any affinity to Israel or Judaism [ed: it’s sad that a journalist needs to try and find out if Goldstone is sufficiently in love with Israel] ?
“I remember when Noam Shalit brought him Gilad’s childhood book “when the shark and the fish first met,” during their meeting last year, he didn’t know how to read the book and opened it on the wring side. I remember thinking to myself, how come a Jew who prays every year at Yom Kippur doesn’t know how to hold a book in Hebrew.”