'There are a lot of double standards in the international level,' says professor who is to probe Israel's Gaza campaign.

Professor William Schabas did not deny Wednesday, in an interview with Israel's Channel 2, that the international community has a double standard regarding Israel's conduct of war.

Channel 2's anchor, Danny Kushmaro, asked Schabas if there is not a double standard involved when that thousands of innocent civilians were killed in Chechnya by the Russians, and by NATO forces in Libya, yet there was “not one international investigation,” whereas Israel acted in self defense in Gaza and two investigations have been launched in the course of six years.

“There are a lot of double standards in the international level,” answered Schabas. “This is explained by the relative strength of the powers,” he added, and noted that some claim there is a double standard in Israel's favor in the UN Security Council, where anti-Israel resolutions are vetoed.

Schabas calimed that there has been “a great exaggeration of some of the statements” he made in the past regarding Israel. When he suggested that he would like to see Binyamin Netanyahu in the dock at the International Criminal Court, he was just “echoing what was in the Goldstone report, which is that the International Criminal Court should deal with the conclusions of the Goldstone Report concerning the possibility that war crimes were committed in Operation Cast Lead,” he argued.

When Kushmaro asked him about a second statement in which he said that President Shimon Peres should stand trial in front of the ICC, he defended himself by saying: “I expressed opinions about political leaders in the past. Is there a human being in Israel who has not expressed opinions about political leaders in Israel?”

Schabas's clear anti-Israel slant can be clearly seen in his statements at the Russel Tribunal on Palestine in New York last year: