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Israel prepares for an international legal assault

Israel prepares to face the UN Commission and the private complaints that might be submitted against it in the aftermath of the Gaza incursion, compiling a "defense dossier" with the footage it gathered through the operation days and even testimonies of foreign journalists who covered Gaza.
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) and Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon attend a cabinet meeting in Tel Aviv July 31, 2014. Netanyahu, facing international alarm over a rising civilian death toll in Gaza, said on Thursday he would not accept any ceasefire that stopped Israel completing the destruction of militants' infiltration tunnels. Gaza officials say at least 1,372 Palestinians, most of them civilians, have been killed in the battered territory and nearly 7,000 wounded. Fifty-six Israeli soldi
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The establishment of the Goldstone Commission, aka the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict, which investigated the operations of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) during Operation Cast Lead in 2008-09 and published a scathing report, is etched in the memory of Israelis as a particularly traumatic event. Later on, Judge Richard Goldstone expressed remorse over the devastating report he penned against Israel, yet the damage could not be undone. 

The past few years have seen quite a few international incidents whereby senior Israeli officials had to skip over “problematic” airports, such as London’s Heathrow, lest they be arrested following private lawsuits filed against them. Tzipi Livni, once Israel’s foreign minister and today its justice minister, is a case in point.

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