Israel presents it lawfare case to the world on Iran

Guardian:

Israel is launching a campaign to isolate Iran economically and to soften up world opinion for the option of a military strike aimed at crippling or delaying Tehran's uranium enrichment programme.

Pressure will be applied to major US pension funds to stop investment in about 70 companies that trade directly with Iran, and to international banks that trade with its oil sector, cutting off the country's access to hard currency. The aim is to isolate Tehran from the world markets in a campaign similar to that against South Africa at the height of apartheid.

Meanwhile, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is to be pursued in international courts for calling the Holocaust a myth, and saying Israel should be wiped off the map. The case will be launched under the 1948 UN convention on the prevention and punishment of the crime of genocide, which outlaws "direct and public incitement to genocide".

Before flying to London to spearhead the mission to sell the sanctions, the Likud party leader, Binyamin Netanyahu, said: "A campaign to divest commercial investment from Iran, beginning with the large pension funds in the west ... either stops Iran's nuclear programme or it will pave the way for tougher actions. So it's no-lose for us."

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Israeli defence sources claim that Iran is close to the point of no return in its uranium enrichment programme using gas centrifuges.

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It is an interesting approach and it puts the anti war left in a bit of a box. It will force them to make a determination of whether they are really against war or against the west side in a war. The lawfare track is fraught with delays that may make meaningful action come too late to help the Israelis avoid an attack by Iran. Still it is an interesting approach that this time does not depend on the Iranians, but responsible companies in the west.