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Israel threatens to quit peace talks over UN war crimes vote
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Israel has threatened to pull out of Middle East peace talks if Britain and other European nations fail to back the country in a key vote at the United Nations.
A furious Israel said it would not continue with the peace plan if the UN Human Rights Council endorses a controversial report condemning the Jewish state for war crimes during the Gaza offensive in January.
Britain is planning to abstain in the vote, the Times reports, prompting a heated telephone call between Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, and Gordon Brown on Wednesday night.
Mr Netanyahu reportedly urged the Prime Minister to oppose the resolution, saying that it could derail the peace process.
During what officials described as a "robust exchange", Mr Brown said Israel could avoid censure if it held its own inquiry into the Gaza offensive Today's vote in Geneva could prove a major headache for President Obama, who has made Middle East peace a pillar of his foreign policy.
The resolution that chastises Israel for failing to cooperate with a UN-ordered fact-finding mission into the December-January war in Gaza.
In the report circulated last month, the investigators led by South African jurist Richard Goldstone accused both Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas of war crimes in Gaza, but were overall more critical of Israel than Hamas.
Israel has rejected the charges in the report and says the Human Rights Council resolution - drafted by the Palestinians with Egypt, Nigeria, Pakistan and Tunisia, on behalf of non-aligned, African, Islamic and Arab nations - threatens peace efforts.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would not be able to take "risks for peace" if it could not defend itself from attacks on its citizens.
"It's important for the principle countries, outside of this automatic majority of the United Nations, to say we are not taking part in this.
We know we should act otherwise," he said.
US officials said last night that as the resolution stood, they would vote against it. With no state in the 47- member council holding veto power and the majority lined up behind the Palestinians, the resolution looked set to sail through.
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