Ehud Barak”s office announced tonight that he had cancelled a planned trip to France, where he was to take part in the dedication of the Israeli pavillion at the Eurosatory International Defense Week there and have consultations with the French foreign and defense ministers. The purported reason for the cancellation as relayed by his spokesperson, was that he had to remain in Israel to help assemble the panel of experts to investigate the Gaza flotilla massacre.

A confidential Israeli source informs me (and AP confirms) that the real reason was that Palestinian activists in France had filed legal complaints against him over his involvement in the flotilla affair. He was afraid he might be arrested.

I understand as well that his advance security detail discovered an inordinate number of pudgy dark-skinned tennis players in dark glasses running around the hotel where he planned to stay. For those lacking a sense of satire, that was a joke.

I have written a number of times here about the international campaign demanding accountability for Israel”s behavior. The more outrageous the acts that country engages in the more its leaders will be constrained from exercising their right to travel abroad to defend those acts. Both BDS and the use of international law have contributed to an ostracism of Israel on the world stage. If Israel continues along the path it has chosen this will only get worse.

That is why the Israeli government and its right wing apologists like Alan Dershowitz, Elie Wiesel, Gerald Steinberg and Im Tirtzu have so savagely attacked the Goldstone Report, Judge Goldstone and the Israeli human rights NGO community.