Israel

Israel should launch its own Gaza war inquiry to avoid the possibility, raised in a UN report it rejects, of war crimes charges against its leaders, Israel's deputy prime minis ter was quoted on Oct. 21 as saying. "A country that investigates itself puts up a roadblock to coming under (legal) assault," Dan Meridor was quoted as saying in an interview in the Haaretz newspaper. "A commission of inquiry or examination, which I hope will be named, must examine the claims of the Goldstone report." The UN Human Rights Council singled out Israel for censure in a resolution on last week while endorsing a report by South African jurist Richard Goldstone that condemned both Israeli and Hamas actions in the war last December and January. (Reuters)