Kangaroos in Switzerland

On September 18, the United Nations Human Rights Council will begin meeting in Geneva to consider taking action against Israel for her conduct during the recent war, once again turning the victim into the victimizer.

This may be slightly suggestive of an older international tribunal. We can only hope that the outcome will be the same.

According to Sanhedrin 91A, Egyptians appealed to Alexander the Great for a monetary claim against the Jews. The demanded the return of the valuables that the Israelites either asked for or borrowed (the meaning of the verse is debatable) from the Egyptians before they left captivity. The Egyptians wanted it all back. Things didn’t look so good until an enterprising Jew responded with a counter-claim: back wages for 600,000 men illegally enslaved for 430 years. The Egyptians fled the proceedings.

For next weeks’ kangaroo court, the Simon Wiesenthal Center (DISCLOSURE: I work there) is sending top brass to Geneva to make the counter-claim: that Hezbollah should be investigated for war crimes for the 4000 rockets it directed at civilians in Israel’s north. Coming along to testify are two people who have a bit of expertise in the damage done – the Mayor of Maalot, and a senior official of the Nahariya Hospital. We can only hope that some of the ardor with which the world’s largest collection of Jew-haters tries to smear Israel will be dampened when compelled to focus upon the actions of those who brought destruction upon themselves.

And for those whose memories are stirred by all of this, you are correct. It was only three years ago that a group of Egyptian attorneys announced that they were bringing suit against world Jewry for the Egyptian booty that the Israelites made off with. They calculated it at 300 tons of gold. Plus interest.

Then, too, the action was brought in Switzerland.