LONDON MAYOR BASHES ISRAEL

London mayor blasts Israel, again By HERB KEINON AND JPOST STAFF (Hat tip: Uncle Sticky)

London Mayor Ken Livingstone lashed out against Israeli policies on Tuesday, saying that they were actions that border with crimes against humanity.

Asked by a reporter at a London press conference how he compared terrorism in the Middle East to the London bombings, Linvingstone replied that he believed the media was applying a double standard, adding that both Israelis and Palestinians had "done terrible things to each other", but there was still a tendency to view the Palestinian side as the one that does all the harm.

"Given that the Palestinians don't have jet fighters, they only have their bodies to use as weapons. In that unfair balance, that's what people use. When talking about the imbalance of forces, I will gladly welcome leading members of the Israeli government if they come here even though they have done horrendous things which border on crimes against humanity in a way they have indiscriminately slaughtered men, women and children in the West Bank and Gaza for decades," he said.

Livingstone, who has a record of diatribes against Israel, also compared Likud to Hamas, saying, "I think the Israeli hardliners around Likud and Hamas are two sides of the same coin, they need each other to drum up support."

According to Livingstone, "They point to the excesses of the other to recruit and support and I don't make any distinction because I believe the taking of human life is wrong, in particular when you think of the illegal invasion of Lebanon, the illegal invasion of Egypt and Jordan in the Six Day War, all these exercises of going into Palestinian refugee camps and indiscriminately destroying homes simply because a bomber came from that area."

Several months ago, Livingstone wrote a piece in The Guardian in which he accused Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of being "a war criminal who should be in prison, not in office." Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev responded to Livingstone's comments, saying "It is a pity he made no differentiation between murderous terrorists and between those trying to protect innocent civilians against the terrorists." Except for Regev's remark and a statement from the embassy in London, Israel adopted a pointedly low-profile position to Livingstone's comments, not wanting to give the mayor more importance than officials in Jerusalem said he deserved. "There is no need to start a debate with him," one official said, reflecting this attitude. "Everyone knows the man is an extremist, with problematic positions and problematic attitudes toward Jews."