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No, Netanyahu is not a war criminal. But the great similarity between his worldview and that of Milosevic with regard to everything involving the conflict in the territories invites us to draw conclusions from the Kosovo conflict. To do this, you don't have to be an Israel defeatist. Twelve years ago, National Security Council chairman Yaakov Amidror (then commander of the National Security College ), wrote in the army periodical, Maarakhot, that small countries like Israel have to learn the lessons of that war.

"This war marks a clear path in which new approaches are being established, relating to the relations between 'the world' and those countries perceived as offending international morals," Amidror wrote. Added the general, a member of the national-religious camp: "The significance of the events in Kosovo is clear: Whoever violates the international consensus, even within his own sovereign territories, has to take into account international intervention, especially if one steps on the U.S. administration's sensitive toes."

One could add how much more so this holds true outside one's sovereign territory. So even though he prefaced this comparison with "despite all the difference," the man who Netanyahu appointed to head his national security staff suggested that Israel take into account international public opinion: "Although what Israel does is important, one cannot ignore what the nations of the world say and do," he wrote.

Before the debate on approving outposts and before the next verbal attack on Europe, it might be worthwhile for this senior adviser to put copies of his article on the cabinet table.

Read this article in Hebrew.