About the Geneva Conventions:

The "Geneva Conventions" are the bedrock of the laws of war, and one of the world's most ratified treaties. Happy Birthday-for they turned 60 in March, but one government is not celebrating: In fact, Israel had already launched a campaign to undermine these essential rules for protecting civilians caught in war: Shortly after a UN fact-finding mission led by former South African Justice Richard Goldstone issued a report lambasting Israel (and Hamas) for war crimes, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "instructed" his government to "examine the facilitating of an international initiative to change the laws of war in keeping with the spread of terrorism throughout the world".
Israeli officials claimed that the laws of war tied the hands of "democratic governments". At the time of the adoption of the Geneva Conventions in 1949, the militant Zionist group "Irgun" found the "Geneva Conventions" useful for their purpose in depriving the Palestinians of their land. Now, no longer need these "outmoded" conventions, and they chose to ignore them when they decided to use such weapons as heavy artillery, flechettes, and white phosphorus (which cause horrible burns, especially in the densely populated areas of Gaza. (I was careful to use WP only as an artillery marker round, when I had to resort to artillery to keep my advisory team safe from enemy fire in the Iron Triangle, near Trung Lap.) No other Western military doctrine today permits such deliberate flouting of the rules of war - but then there is "Israel".