All The Other Rogue States Are Doing It!

As Israel continues to make itself a shame unto the nations, Democracy Now! reported briefly on the Palestinian Authority's protest against a new wave of Israeli settlements in the West Bank.  At least five European countries have "summoned their Israeli ambassadors."  The Obama administration has responded with the speed and force of a closing steel trap, calling the new settlements "counterproductive."  Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman mounted a revealing defense:

Now I want to remind you that building (settlements) in Jerusalem is with accordance to Israeli law. If anyone wants to investigate further, they can go to the Bush letter and see all those settlements blocks and the changes in the territory which the U.S. president spoke of.

In very much the same way, the mistreatment of German Jewry in the 1930s was "with accordance to" German law.  Slavery and the destruction of the American Indian peoples were "with accordance to" American law.  Lots of terrible state crimes have conformed fully to the laws of their respective nations, because by an amazing coincidence, those nations wrote their laws to enable them to do what they wanted to do.  And citing George W. Bush as authority for your actions is unlikely to persuade anybody.